NASCAR officials once again faced the community’s scrutiny for their questionable calls on throwing cautions during the USA Today 301 race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. With the threat of severe rainstorms looming, NASCAR decided to call the race after it had run more than half its length and tried to keep the race green for as long as possible, but the incident between Joey Logano and Chase Elliott riled up fans.

Elliott restarted 11th and Logano 12th on the 194th of a scheduled 301 laps, when Logano’s No. 22 Team Penske Ford struggled to turn in the first corner, making contact with Elliott’s No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Both cars sustained damage but continued further back in the running order.

Although the crash warranted caution, the field could’ve quickly gone green again. Instead, NASCAR chose to run caution laps. Rain has spoiled several NASCAR races this season, and the forecast didn’t look promising before today’s race. That’s why the schedule was tweaked to complete the race. Thanks to NASCAR’s new rule that allows teams to define what will happen in case of bad weather, particularly focusing on procedures for race completion, This rule gives you the flexibility to adjust the race schedule and format based on weather conditions.

NASCAR wouldn’t race in the rain, but without it causing an obstruction, they had the option to get as many green laps in as possible before the weather forced them to halt the race. Instead, the officials decided to eat up more time with unnecessary caution laps, adding to the fans’ frustration.

Chase Elliott started from the pole, while Joey Logano took the green flag from sixth in Sunday’s USA Today 301. Before Logano’s contact with Elliott’s No. 9, he told his No. 22 team over the radio that he felt something had broken in the right front and that the car wouldn’t turn.

Elliott, who came into the event as the Cup Series points leader, finished 18th at New Hampshire, which puts him in a tie for the points lead with his Hendrick teammate Kyle Larson. Logano, who was 15th in the standings before the race and 6 points below the provisional playoff cut-off, now moves to 13 points above the elimination line after a 32nd-place finish.

NASCAR fans are unable to understand the logic behind multiple caution lap runs

The rain can be tackled with the use of wet weather tires, and maybe the race can be completed later in the day. However, there’s also a thunderstorm warning, and with every lightning strike within a radius of 8 miles, a 30-minute stopwatch comes into play. Thus pushing the race to its inevitable end, like it did at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Therefore, seeing caution laps prioritized over racing led to some sarcastic comments, “Rain coming Nascar: MORE YELLOW FLAG LAPS.”

Not only does the racing stop under a yellow flag, but it also eats up the original length of the race. While it would’ve made sense if there was debris on the racing surface that needed to be cleared out, this wasn’t the case. One or two cars tangled and spun across the racetrack. Unable to process the delay and angry over NASCAR’s call to keep ticking caution laps, a user on Reddit replied, “We should have been green 4 laps ago wtf.”

In case the rain did stop the race when the caution came out when Logano and Elliott crashed, Tyler Reddick, who was in the lead, would emerge as the winner. Reading between the lines and predicting an unfortunate end to the USA Today 301 race, another user added, “Can we not run 15 laps under caution for 2 cars back on track? Or is the NASCAR team full of Reddick fans?”

It certainly will be a gloomy sight to see yet another NASCAR race ended on a bitter note because of the treacherous weather. Looking at the lengthy caution laps, many fans believed that NASCAR was doing this on purpose. So they would be able to call the race official once the bad weather eventually stopped the race. “Dude I swear! It’s like they’re trying to hold out till the rain comes. It’s so annoying.”

This wreck, by no means, was a big one or a multiple-car accident that warranted a lengthy stoppage. There’s just nothing fruitful about running the race as NASCAR is doing today, and this move has only led to fans losing their patience. “We’re taking forever to get back going after a 2 car spin, with weather on the way. They just never f***ing learn, let’s GO.”

It remains to be seen that with its new rule in place, Christopher Bell called all “Black and White,” how NASCAR will approach the situation once the rain comes into play. And if the race gets shortened due to unfavorable racing conditions, fans will bring this point up, highlighting NASCAR’s inefficiencies.