NASCAR's Elton Sawyer explains controversial caution car decision, cites safety and team frustrations

Apart from producing NASCAR's third photo finish of the year, the YellaWood 500 race at Talladega was also hit by a controversial caution car decision. Elton Sawyer, NASCAR's senior Vice President explained the caution car decision in a post-race interview with senior journalist Bob Pockrass.

With just five laps to go for the third and final stage of the race, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was fighting for the lead on the outside of Austin Cindric. However, a nudge from Brad Keselowski got Cindric loose on the rear end, eventually leading to a spin. The #2 driver's spin in a closely packed field led to one of the biggest wrecks in NASCAR's history (28 cars were involved in the collision).

Ideally, a red flag should have been waved in the situation, followed by a yellow and the caution car, after much of the critical debris is cleared from the track. However, NASCAR officials delayed the caution car's deployment, allowing some teams to work on their vehicles for a little longer than usual.

After the race ended, Elton Sawyer cleared the air regarding the controversial decision with FOX Sports' Bob Pockrass.

"We had all intentions to roll the caution vehicle as soon as we pulled the red and displayed the yellow. The race director noticed some things that were still going on down in Turn 3 where he couldn’t do that restart. Cars were still moving, we still had safety equipment that was still moving around there. So just for the safety of all, held the caution vehicle for a little longer," Sawyer said.

"Totally understand the competitors. They had some cars on pit road that got the opportunity to do a little bit more work before those other cars could get there. Totally understand that, but that’s the reason we made that decision that we did," he added.

Here's a look at the video of the interaction shared on X by Pockrass:

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"Good job NASCAR" - Kenny Wallace praises NASCAR's recent aero adjustment for Talladega

A few days before the YellaWood 500 race, NASCAR issued a list of aero adjustments for all cars. These changes played a big role in allowing cars to stay planted to the track, despite a high-speed multi-car wreck on lap 185.

Former NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace praised the sanctioning body on 'The Kenny Wallace Show' for making those changes for 'Dega, one of the most notorious tracks on NASCAR's calendar.

"I do want to say this, nobody flipped. So I believe those adjustments, they made a little adjustment up there on the aero flap. They made a difference, right in front of the right rear tire. That helped. Nobody flipped. So good job NASCAR," Wallace commented (8:20 onwards).

Here's a look at the entire podcast from YouTube:

As for the Playoffs result, the wreck at 'Dega has re-arranged the order quite a bit. It has pushed Joey Logano, Daniel Saurez, Austin Cindric, and Chase Briscoe into the elimination bubble.

Meanwhile, William Byron, Kyle Larson, Alex Bowman, and Denny Hamlin got pushed to the front with a comfortable margin to the cutoff mark.