The Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway was chaotic and costly! The race, which was supposed to end at 300 laps, lasted for an additional 31. While this was an exciting event for NASCAR fans, it wasn’t so much for the drivers and the teams. The marathon of extra laps just heightened the pressure on drivers, as some ran out of gas. And pressure led to evident aggression on track.

The consequences included several expensive crashes by Austin Cindric and Ross Chastain with two laps to go, bringing in caution, as well as the constant struggle for teams to strategize fuel and drivers like Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin to stay in the race. While it was undoubtedly a fun race, with most having no clue who would take the cake at the end, it led to unforeseen results. Although most immediately put NASCAR under fire for bending the rules, analyst Kyle Petty took his time to share his perspective, and let’s just say he wasn’t impressed.

NASCAR’s overtime madness didn’t impress Kyle Petty!

NASCAR set a record at Nashville with five overtime restarts. Along with these restarts came 15 cautions, which shuffled the high-octane rides’ track positions. The fourth time around, the race took a dramatic turn when Austin Cindric and Noah Gragson crashed. But, by then, the fifth overtime was green-flagged, and the order was shuffled yet again. In the end, the Ford Mustang Dark Horse of Joey Logano took the coveted win, and it was a great day for him. Sadly, the same cannot be said about the other drivers.

The race was filled with caution flags as the drivers grappled with the challenge of keeping up with the restarts. This caution-ridden race didn’t please Kyle Petty. And he didn’t hesitate to share his thoughts on how he expected more from “the world’s greatest drivers.” On NASCAR’s YouTube channel, Petty said, “These guys are trying to get everything they can on the restart. I completely understand, but taking each other out? Knocking each other out?”

“These are the greatest drivers in the world and they can’t run three laps. What is up with that? They’ve got to be better about this, you can’t have that,” he added. Petty’s critique is a call to action for drivers to balance their aggression and strategic skills to enhance the overall racing experience. While the 64-year-old blamed every driver who contributed to the extended race, Dale Earnhardt Jr seemed to have placed all the blame on only one.

In an episode of Dale Jr Download, “If there’s anything that you didn’t like about the end of the race, you should blame Austin Cindric. Because Austin Cindric is running a 400-mile race and spun out on the back straightaway with 2 laps to go.” Comparing the situation to a delivery person breaking a package from the other side of the country on your doorstep, Junior added, “How do you do that? I wanna know how you do that. None of this happens if Austin can get off turn 2 like he did for 398 miles.” The #2 driver hit back at Dale Jr, though.

Replying to the snippet from the podcast on X, Cindric implied that his car sustained a right rear tire puncture while fighting Noah Gragson. Despite that, he ensured Junior knew he was blaming Cindric for no fault of his. As Petty criticized the drivers and Earnhardt targeted Cindric, NASCAR fans found a different outlet.

NASCAR faced a severe backlash from fans for their decision. They boasted about their record-breaking restarts on social media: “A new record has been added to the history books.” But the response by fans was something they didn’t anticipate. They gave the organization a reality check and brutally bashed the authorities for their decision.

One fan commented, “Can we stop this disaster of overtime already? Explain to me how this was fun to watch as fans of the drivers who actually had good cars the whole race. Logano and Cindric had no business getting 1st or 2nd. The race should be over at the designated mile of the race. SMH.”

This decision by NASCAR was called out by fans, experts like Kyle Petty, and even other insiders!

NASCAR insider calls out the “unlimited attempts,” which resulted in five overtimes

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Christopher Bell was dominating the race and looked set to take the win. Starting from P3, he had a great vantage point and led 131 laps, sweeping both the first and second stage wins. But at lap 228, he got loose and crashed out, turning the Music City race into absolute chaos!

Then came the showdown between Denny Hamlin and Ross Chastain for the lead. Just when things were heating up, Cindric spun out, causing a reset. Those extra 31 laps turned everything upside down. Drivers like Larson, Bowman, Briscoe, and Elliott, who were doing great despite all the madness, ran out of fuel and had to call it a day. Teams weren’t ready for the race to stretch from 300 to 331 laps! Plus, the race turned into a wreck-fest, making it a costly affair for everyone involved.

Bubba Wallace’s spotter, Freddie Kraft, voiced his displeasure with the wrecks and slammed NASCAR for not sticking to the rules. In an episode of the Door Bumper Clear podcast, he said, “Millions and millions of dollars of s**t got torn up because we can’t figure out how to restart without running into each other. If the race is 300 laps, that’s it. If you want maybe one attempt, a green white checkered. But this is what happens when you have unlimited attempts. we just have unlimited wrecks running each other over.” Kraft admitted that maybe it’s the traditionalist in him, but he prefers how things were before.

Currently, management has no limit on the number of restarts that can happen. But given the wreck-fest of the Nashville race, it remains to be seen if any changes come.