“It’s a really tough call to make”: Kyle Larson’s Brickyard 400 win enabling controversial caution justified by NASCAR insider

Kyle Larson won his career's first Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, but the win was controversial, more so because Larson took the checkered flag under caution. According to NASCAR insider and renowned journalist Jordan Bianchi, NASCAR could have thrown the yellow right after Ryan Preece spun coming off of turn 2, rather than waiting for Larson to take the white flag before doing so.

Preece's drive came to a standstill without any fuel to continue the race. However, before NASCAR decided to throw the caution, Kyle Larson had already taken the white flag as the race leader. As per NASCAR's rules, the field was frozen right then, and Larson won the race.

In a recent episode of "The Teardown", journalists Bianchi and Jeff Gluck of "The Athletic" discussed how NASCAR could have handled the situation differently. Bianchi said that he would have liked to see NASCAR throw the yellow right when Preece turned and before Larson took the white flag.

"I would have liked to have seen that caution called," Bianchi said. "It felt like he (Ryan Preece) was struggling to get going after a while. Like, you could tell; he wasn't going quickly going away, and he was kind of a herky-jerky thing there."

"I would have liked to see it there, but it's a really tough call to make because NASCAR's gotten much better about this (from) where there was a time where it felt like they were very quick to hit the button," he added.

Nevertheless, the victory pushed Kyle Larson to the top of the NASCAR Cup Series point standings. Moments after winning the 400-miler, Larson even promised to return for the Indy-Charlotte "Double Duty" in 2025, which he failed to carry out this year due to several unfavorable circumstances.

NASCAR addressed the controversial yellow flag that gave away the win to Kyle Larson

After the crown jewel event was over, NASCAR's senior vice president of competition, Elton Sawyer spoke to a reporter about the last-lap decision and explained why he felt it was the right decision. According to Sawyer, NASCAR always wants to have the drivers run as many green flag laps as they can and thus end the race naturally.

Sawyer explained that Kyle Larson had already taken the white flag when Preece turned, and, therefore, NASCAR could have made the call only after the white flag was out.

"Obviously we’d like for it to play out naturally. We want our teams to race to the checkered flag. Did everything we possibly could," Sawyer said. "We kept an eye on the 41 (Ryan Preece). He got turned around. He was really giving a solid effort and once he came to a stop and we could tell that he had, I think, a flat left-rear tire he wasn’t going to move. We’d already taken the white, we just couldn’t run by there again. So it was unfortunate, but it was the right call."

With that said, NASCAR will now take a two-week break from its schedule to accommodate the Summer Olympics. The drivers will take to the track on August 11 at Richmond Raceway.