The return of oval racing to the Brickyard 400 was all but controversial. Although Kyle Larson added another crown jewel win to his list, all the attention and drama that unfolded after the race about NASCAR’s decision-making process. Well, they’ve got a knack for defending their stance behind a “bang-bag” call, but that certainly makes up for their messup.

While other major sports take time to deliver their verdict or reasoning behind a controversial call, NASCAR isn’t a fan of a prolonged process. NASCAR Senior Vice President of Racing, Elton Sawyer, initially came out to share their version of the story. Stating that they made the right judgment call on not dropping the yellow after Ryan Precee spun during the last two laps.

But Denny Hamlin was having none of it. “Wrong! That’s not true. He (Ryan Preece) was not moving when they were coming off Turn 4. He had resigned to sitting there.” It seems like after hearing Hamlin’s views, NASCAR dug deep and tried to justify their decision by sharing the example of a similar decision they took last year at Pocono. And guess who won that race? It was none other than Denny Hamlin.

NASCAR doubles down on their stance of being right with the controversial late-race call

To make such a huge call, NASCAR officials and race directors rely on the precedent set by previous rulings. Call it a coincidence or NASCAR’s rebuttal to Denny Hamlin, they granted him a win last year at Pocono Raceway in a similar fashion. Even during that race, it was the #41 of Ryan Preece that spun across the racetrack and stalled, unable to get going despite multiple attempts.

“Every event is to finish under green, that’s what our goal is going into the weekend, but the circumstances that happened on the last lap at Indy … As we came off turn 4 coming to the start-finish line for the white, you still have, its a two-and-a-half mile race track so you still have a lot of racing that can happen as the cars start to get off in turn 1, you’re starting to get closer to having to make a decision and that’s our process, our mindset.” Elton Sawyer explained via SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Drawing parallels to last year’s Pocono race, Sawyer further went on to add, “The same as it was last year at Pocono, I believe the 41 is spun in the tunnel turn, and again, you give them every opportunity to get going … I’d say racing, you can’t let them race through where you got a car stopped on the racetrack. I might add that now we have an opportunity for 24 hours, 48 hours, to kind of to kinda digest and that’s still good. I think our race director did a really good job the way he managed that.”

If it was a one-off incident from the entire race, it might not have caused the backlash, but there was more than just one decision call that was fishy on NASCAR’s part.

Some felt they were taken out of contention at the Brickyard 400

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The No. 9 Chevy was among the frontrunners who set the tone to contend for the win last Sunday. However, with Hamlin deciding to pit and split the stage, he decided to follow suit. But while making an exit, he flaunted the blend lines leading to the racetrack. Brad Keselowski also followed a similar path. As a result, they were both reprimanded by the officials and had to serve a pass-through penalty. Both drivers claimed that the email they received from NASCAR didn’t specify the lines, and it led to a case of confusion that hampered their runs on the day.

Another big talking point was Kyle Larson being promoted to the front row on the crucial overtime restart. With Keselowski being low on fuel, he decided to enter the pit road just about when the race was going to go green. Ryan Blaney, until that point, had managed to fend off Larson, but with him taking the front row, he just wasn’t able to match his run on the restart. With things unfolding quickly, NASCAR didn’t intervene, and thus it opened the stage for debate and discussions over the ruling.

It’s about time NASCAR starts following the rules set by them and does not call the races by hunch or bang-bang calls.