This year’s Quaker State 400 was “Available at Walmart.” Jokes aside. That was the official name assigned to the Playoff opener in Atlanta. But what’s even more hilarious is how a rogue Walmart banner potentially altered the finish with just ten laps to go on Sunday.

While Ty Gibbs and Daniel Suarez fought at the front, with Kyle Busch in third, the race waved for its sixth yellow. The NASCAR world watched in confusion, as track officials spent at least 5 laps removing an advertisement sign that had accidentally dislodged itself from the billboard. When the race restarted, both Gibbs and Busch lost crucial track positions. Instead, Joey Logano, who ran in fourth place before the caution, swooped in to punch his Round of 12 ticket over Daniel Suarez. This rapid sequence of events, ‘brought to you by Walmart’, has everyone scrambling for answers. And the controversial spotter cast of the Door Bumper Clear podcast might just have spilled the beans on who to hold accountable.

When a Walmart sign shakes up the NASCAR Playoff Picture

NASCAR is no stranger to bizarre cautions. From a giant inflatable ‘Tropicana’ orange rolling down the track at Chicagoland Speedway to literal groundhogs and foxes scurrying across the pavement, some notorious non-racing culprits have graced our TVs to bring out the yellow-flag periods. Regardless, this Walmart sign flailing about the frontstretch of Atlanta Motor Speedway was something we’d never seen before. At least that’s what it would feel like for someone who does not remember the Round of 12 encounter at Charlotte’s ROVAL layout from a couple of years ago.

Jeff Gluck of The Athletic reminded the grandstands of that instance on ‘The Teardown’ podcast, “This is the second time in three years this has happened. 2022 at The Roval in an elimination race, there was a caution called for a sign on the track, and that changed the outcome of the playoffs for that year.” It is important to remember that both Charlotte and Atlanta are under the ownership of Speedway Motorsports LLC, or SMI for short, not the NASCAR-owned International Speedway Corporation (ISC). So, when the topic of NASCAR putting signage over the racing surface came up in the latest DBC episode on September 9th, some unfiltered opinions popped up in discussions.

Brett Griffin, who most recently replaced Austin Dillon’s spotter, Brandon Benesch for one race following those Richmond penalties, said, “Of course it said Walmart… It didn’t say Amazon Prime, it didn’t say Target. It said Walmart… I mean like I was just picturing motherf—ers sitting in the stands in their pajamas when I saw that sign… Then I was picturing people fighting over Christmas presents. I’m like, could this be any more Walmart?” However, as the conversations evolved, so did Griffin’s frustrations. “It f—ed a whole race up with 11 to go,” he stated. “Then it took five laps [for NASCAR] to pick the sign up and go back green…” Griffin reiterated himself better, “It can’t be that hard to secure a sign in 2024…”

The North Carolina native’s discontent seemed to have reached a boiling point as he let out one last tidbit of truth to ponder in the future. In his own words, “Just forgive me for saying this because this is where it gets weird. This is on SMI. SMI is in charge of that sign and that track. NASCAR is in charge of the event. NASCAR should fine the ever-living s— out of that track. But the problem is what’s NASCAR going to do if it’s their track? Fine themselves?…” He concluded with a firm, yet necessary address: “But something 100% should come down on somebody.”

But as for the nuances, former Senior VP of Competitions, Scott Miller had shed some light on NASCAR’s thought process before a caution call for debris, back in 2017, after a contentious finish in Michigan left Dale Earnhardt Jr and Tony Stewart cribbing about the yellows.

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After twelve of the last 20 laps ended under caution, in that year’s Firekeepers Casino 400, Miller had spoken for the sanctioning body to clarify the doubts surrounding their decision-making. “If we are actually able to identify what it (the debris) is and feel like it’s something that is OK to leave out there, then we’ll do so. But if we can’t identify what it is exactly, and it could pose something dangerous, then we’ll usually, or almost always, error on the side of caution and safety and put the caution out in those circumstances.”

Without a doubt, the Walmart sign in Atlanta this Sunday could’ve turned out to be “dangerous,” had NASCAR not taken its time to ensure the safety and integrity of the racing surface for all cars. But Griffin’s podcast partner, TJ Majors’ point of view, paints another commendable perspective about what happened. He explained, “These cars are going by at 190 mph in a pack and I mean you see how bad the air is behind a semi when you’re doing 70 on the highway. Imagine you know, the air on that fence right there (on the racetrack).”

“So, I think this stuff’s going to happen from time to time,” was Majors’ final opinion, although he appeared a little too unbothered about the issue. After all, that one sign held a lot of underlying implications for all 16 playoff contenders. Despite all that, NASCAR must ensure such things don’t happen in the future, especially at crucial times, like it did this past weekend.