NASCAR kicked off 2025 with a lot of fireworks. The season-opening Daytona 500 recorded the highest number of crashes since 2019, with 35 cars involved in wrecks. Those included Team Penske’s cars which dominated 125 of 201 laps. Instead of hauling home a Harley J. Earl trophy, reigning Cup Series champion Joey Logano and his teammates went home with bent fenders after a lap 186 crash.

The rising intensity and frequency of these crashes highlighted some crucial executive calls. Waving a caution flag right before the end of a race can lead to controversial finishes. William Byron’s shocking victory also drew immense debate. After a week of discussion, NASCAR finally broke its silence on this issue.

Time is of the essence for NASCAR

Remember Parker Kligerman’s heartbreak last year? He missed out on a much-needed Xfinity win at the Charlotte Roval as officials called the caution a second before he crossed the finish line. Although the 2025 Daytona 500 did not witness such controversies, the sheer number of crashes was overwhelming. 13 cars were involved in crashes during qualifying, which added up to 48 wrecked cars in total. When William Byron was on the final lap, he was running 7th. It was only because Denny Hamlin got turned to set off a huge crash that Byron catapulted to the front.

This last-lap drama raised eyebrows among fans about the legitimacy of the victory and also NASCAR’s caution calls. Then, the caution flag just before the finish of the second Duel race was also a point of controversy. After a week of debate, NASCAR race director Jusan Hamilton admitted to regret. “So hindsight is always 20/20, and that’s one when you look back, I would say we could do it differently.” Yet he also added how time is a factor during the actual race, compared to when they can review it later in the week. “I would say that we could let them get to the start/finish line, but that’s looking back now on a Tuesday, going through all of our reviews and having the luxury of time to review the full situation.”

Daytona International Speedway has two primary ‘cutouts’ in Turns 1 and 2 that allow fire trucks and ambulances to respond to crashes. Jusan Hamilton explained how officials try to match the response time with the green-flag conditions. “As soon as the wreck happens, because all vehicles have passed by that Turn 2 cutout, we’re able to respond, sending the fire trucks, the ambulances, the AMR chase vehicles to respond to that incident before the leaders even made it to the checkered, even though there’s no caution.”

Hamilton added the approach to be followed, “Moving forward and always, our goal is to get to a green-flag finish. We do not want to be the ones determining the race by how fast we push the caution button or the decisions that we make in race control in general. We want that to be decided by the competitors on the ground. So any opportunity that we have to do that, we’re going to take advantage.”

Top Comment by Ram

Will not watch NASCAR anymore…..it is a shell of what it used to be. I’ll take Indy Car any day…I...more

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Debate

Despite NASCAR’s efforts to appease the public, drivers are not very happy. The wreck-fest that this Daytona 500 represented concerns them.

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Stretching out the limits

It has been 24 years since the last Daytona 500 fatality – when Dale Earnhardt Sr. passed away in February 2001. Since then, NASCAR has consciously worked on its safety protocols. However, with every passing year, the sport seems to be stretching those protocols to their limits. Ryan Preece‘s car flipped over ten times during August 2023. In February 2025, his car flipped over again, and Preece felt this time it felt worse and experienced an ‘Austin Dillon Deja Vu’. He said, “I think we know there’s a problem at superspeedways. I don’t want to be the example of when it finally gets somebody. I don’t want it to be me. I’ve got a 2-year-old daughter.”

The introduction of restrictor-plate racing has prevented cars from pulling away from each other and created pack racing. That has led to more wrecks at racetracks like Daytona or Talladega. Denny Hamlin, a four-time Daytona 500 winner, could have fetched his fifth if not for the last-lap melee last weekend. He mounted his displeasure at NASCAR: “It’s such a f—— crapshoot now…I hate that what is supposed to be our most prestigious race, a showcase of heroes, is luck. It is luck. I don’t care how else you want to say it.”

Evidently, the public response to the wreck-infested Daytona 500 is not too good. Unless NASCAR gets on a war footing to change things, the displeasure seems bound to continue.