The spirit of the Atlanta Motor Speedway’s Ambetter Health 400 drove towards controversy rather than celebration. As NASCAR officials waved the caution flag on the final lap, a heated debate ignited among the drivers, team owners and fans. In between the storm of opinions came the authoritative voice of Richard Petty. The statement coming from a veteran questioned the NASCAR’s consistency in officiating.

We saw the likes of Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick side with NASCAR. Stating that caution flag on the last lap chaos handing over the win to Christopher Bell avoided unwanted carnage. Remember, Corey LaJoie flipping at Talladega last year, where his car made it to the start-finish on two tires but none touching the racetrack? There’s a safety element attached to these split-second decisions and right now NASCAR’s flip-flopping with their calls almost every weekend.

But when Richard Petty was asked to share his opinion on the ongoing saga, he chose to sit on the fence. Simply not sold on weighing in on how NASCAR should be officiating last-lap thrillers.

King’s gratitude for detachment

Caution flags have evolved significantly since Petty’s racing days, but their application remains frustratingly inconsistent. At this time we speak about this, the NASCAR officials have technology, multiple camera angles and instant communication. Yet the debate rages on about when those yellow flags should fly.

One such controversy erupted during the final lap of Ambetter Health 400 when the officials waved the caution flag after a backstretch crash. A fierce three-wide competition emerged between Bell Larson and Hocevar for the lead when the yellow signal flashed. The field froze instantly, awarding Bell the victory as he was a few inches ahead at that moment. Fans felt robbed of what promised to be a spectacular photo finish, especially given NASCAR’s contradictory decisions in recent weeks.

Commenting on this, Petty revealed his insight to Dale Inman, “One race they throw the flag, next race they don’t throw the caution.” Then he expressed his gratefulness in a detached tone: “I’m glad I don’t have to make that decision.” These powerful words from NASCAR’s most legendary figure reflected his complaints about current officiating methods. In short, he didn’t want to add to an  already chaotic and frantic storyline that just might flip again with the race at COTA.

“If you’re in the middle of the crowd and have a wreck, I can see them throwing a caution. But if it’s at the back end of the race that’s running, I can’t see them throwing a caution,” Petty added. The King feels that in an event where a crash happens between the lead cars or the mid-pack NASCAR is likely to throw a caution. This did happen with last Sunday’s race at Atlanta, but the Daytona 500 was a different story.

Apart from the Atlanta incident, Just weeks earlier, another debacle at the Daytona 500 highlighted a similar shortcoming. The NASCAR officials refused to pause the racing even after Ryan Preece’s dramatic airborne crash until the leader had taken the checkered flag. These contradictions left fans and drivers alike questioning what truly constitutes a caution-worthy situation.

This contradictory nature of race control to call races makes you wonder, why the Daytona and Atlanta races were treated differently. Fortunately, we had NASCAR insiders on the Halluer Talk podcast who broke down why the two race incidents similar in nature had different outcomes.

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Every NASCAR track is not the same

The Daytona International Speedway is spread across 2.5 miles, whereas Atlanta is more like a hybrid a mix of intermediate oval along with a superspeedway package. But the big difference here is size as the track is a mile-and-a-half in length. But what does the size of the racetrack have to do with the officiating procedure? Well, going by Amanda Ellis’s explanation, the different nature and safety resources at their disposal play a huge role in making late-race calls.

“Let’s take Daytona, let’s take Atlanta. Daytona has a total of nine cutouts that we have access to. Safety vehicles, also areas where cars can get off the track. So if you have an incident and a car needs to get to safety, again there are nine cutouts at Daytona. Going to Atlanta there are four. So that is a big difference, nine in Daytona, four in Atlanta and that alone calling those two races in my opinion very challenging.” She explained.

Nate Ryan also chipped in stating why NASCAR can’t set a precedent on how to end the race on the last lap chaos. “I don’t understand how NASCAR can be consistent if it’s going to vary track to track. If Atlanta is different from Daytona in terms of dispatching safety vehicles, in terms of the length of the track, it’s you know, people want consistency, but you can give them consistency on these kinds of calls if every track is different. And by definition, every track in NASCAR is different.”

Giving NASCAR the benefit of the doubt here they certainly have their work cut out. But what fans and drivers would like to see a pattern that they can rely on, especially when they are wrecking on the final lap.