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NASCAR threatened nearly the entire field during the opening stage of Sunday’s Cup Series race at Talladega with a black flag if drivers failed to increase their speed and meet minimum requirements. Driven by fuel-saving strategies, nearly every car except for the three RFK Racing entries began driving slowly around the 2.66-mile superspeedway, prompting automatic notifications to race control.
Addressing Minimum Speed Violations
According to Motorsport.com – All – Stories, NASCAR vice president of racing communications Mike Forde explained on the Hauler Talk podcast—which he hosts alongside Amanda Ellis and Nate Ryan—that race control intervened to correct the issue. He noted that officials can message individual teams or the entire pit road.
“We can IM individual teams or the entirety of pit road,” Forde said. “And so, we IM’d all of pit road and said, ‘Hey, there are X amount of cars that have not reached minimum speed. If you guys don’t pick it up, then we’re going to have to step in.’ And soon after, they picked it up. So that message was delivered, and that’s why we did not black flag anybody.”
At Talladega, the minimum speed is set within 12.5 percent of the pole time. Forde stated that timing a black flag falls under NASCAR’s discretion, though drivers typically receive a warning of one or two laps. The teams responded immediately by picking up the pace.
“We’re not looking to put cars out of the race,” Forde said. “There are sponsors paying good money to be part of our sport. And there are fans that come to the race and want to see – even if their driver’s not in contention and might not win – they’d like to see them at least on the race track. So we’re not in the business of putting cars out. We’re going to keep them out there on the race track for the fans.”
Reviewing Kyle Larson’s Winning Pass
Race control spent time reviewing the finish to determine that Kyle Larson stayed within bounds while completing his final lap pass on Todd Gilliland to secure the victory. Forde explained that a tire must go completely below the yellow line to trigger a penalty, and even a half-inch remaining on the line prevents a penalty.
“There was a little bit of time,” said Forde. “We were reviewing it. The tire has to go fully below the yellow line. So if there is even a half an inch that remains on that yellow line, we’re not going to call a penalty. So in our judgment, we felt that was pretty clear. So that’s kind of where the conversation ends as far as NASCAR goes. It’s, do we feel there were tires below the yellow line? No. Okay. That’s it.”
Forde outlined NASCAR’s flowchart philosophy for deciding penalties regarding the double yellow line on superspeedways. To issue a penalty, a driver must be below the yellow line, improve their position, and not have been forced down. Since none of those criteria resulted in a penalty in this instance, officials moved forward.
Following the comments, Denny Hamlin criticized the officials on social media, writing that it represents horrible officiating or communication.
Examining Last-Lap Allegations
Fan concerns arose that Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and William Byron intentionally slowed on the frontstretch to help Chevrolet teammate Larson collect stage points and contend for the championship. However, Forde noted that veteran official Scott Miller monitored the race from remote race control in Concord, North Carolina, and spotted nothing suspicious.
Forde added that no teams raised concerns with NASCAR, noting that teams possess SMT data to verify any unusual behavior. While some teams questioned Larson’s tires and the double yellow line rule, none reported any off-throttle shenanigans designed to benefit Hendrick Motorsports.
