NASCAR racing and the Olympic track and field events share something in common: thrilling photo finishes. This was on full display during the men’s 100-meter race at the Paris 2024 Games. Initially, it seemed like Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson had clinched the gold, but the suspenseful, NASCAR-like finish left everyone in the arena holding their breath for the official call.

After a tense wait filled with nervous energy, the announcement finally came: America’s Noah Lyles had won the race by an astonishing margin of just five thousandths of a second.

The narrow victory left Thompson, who had been hopeful, visibly dejected. Meanwhile, Lyles was overjoyed, celebrating his electrifying win. The excitement and drama of this race were truly unforgettable, mirroring the heart-pounding finishes fans love in both NASCAR and track and field.

As soon as the race results were declared, the visuals of the sprinters crossing the finish line at the same time started flooding online on social media. In response to this, NASCAR took the opportunity to attract eyeballs to its photo finish. Truth be told, this was indeed a master stroke on NASCAR’s part in trying to promote its racing product to the whole world.

“Same energy. #ParisOlympics,” the caption of the post read. But the NASCAR fans had a rather different view of the situation. And they took the moment to express their frustration about racing being put to a halt due to the Paris Games 2024.

Photo finishes are nothing new for NASCAR fans

It was Trackhouse Racing star Daniel Suarez who bagged the iconic win at Atlanta Motor Speedway in a three-wide photo finish. While this Olympic race finish was a nail-biter, the guys at Trackhouse weren’t sold on the buzz created after this event, and made it very clear as the comment came from the official Trackhouse Racing account wrote, “We like ours better 😏.”

This was the second straight week where fans were void of blockbuster NASCAR action. All three national series races had to be put on hold to aid the Olympic coverage, and this has seemed to irk a majority of race fans calling racing superior, “Olympics suck! Let’s Go Racing instead!”

In a rebuttal to this Olympic race finish, this race fan was quick to highlight the three-wide finish for yesterday’s ARCA Series race at Elko Speedway where William Sawalich snagged the victory by a mere 0.1 seconds. “Meh! Did you see that arca finish at elko!”

Meanwhile, some of them were having a good laugh about how the officials determine the winner in such close finishes. “So it’s not the feet crossing the line but your head? I see 2 runners feet way across the line. Confusing. If they had a splitter I would know who won. Lol.”

Not everyone was mad about NASCAR trying to get clicks online. Some took notice of these efforts and appreciated them for being able to stay relevant despite being on a break. “this is a good one @NASCAR social team.”

Hopefully, we get to see more of such finishes for NASCAR races after they go back to green on August 11 at Richmond Raceway.