“Screwed the end of my day”: Nick Sanchez blames NASCAR’s “miscommunication” for costing him valuable championship points 

Nick Sanchez blamed NASCAR's miscommunication for robbing him of precious championship points after he was called to pit on the final restart. The Rev Racing driver led 10 laps at Talladega and could've posted a top-10 finish, but he couldn't because of the officials.

Sanchez entered Love's RV Stop 225 at Talladega safely above the playoff cutline but a poor qualifying run reduced his odds of posting a promising finish. He started 11th and fell further to a 32nd-place finish in Stage 1.

Though he led the Stage 2 restart and fought door-to-door against Grant Enfinger for the lead, his #2 Chevy got collected in a crash with Connor Zilisch on Lap 37, further slimming the odds to settle with a satisfactory result. Thus, the Rev Racing driver scored a 26th-place finish in the second stage.

However, the big blow came in the final stage. As Nick Sanchez inched closer to a top-10 finish, his involvement in multiple crashes prompted the officials to ask him to pit for an equipment check, with just nine laps remaining. But as he was already given clearance, NASCAR's "miscommunication" led to another pit visit that proved detrimental to the Miami native's championship bid.

"I got fixed up, I got everything settled after that last spin and NASCAR made me come down again after the one to go to check the spoiler. So, there was some miscommunication between the officials on pit road and the officials up top," Sanchez said, blaming NASCAR via Frontstretch (0:25).

"It kind of screwed the end of my day. If I would've been able to race on that last restart, I probably would've gained 10-15 spots, but I'm just really unhappy about whatever they have going on here, costed my valuable points for my championship," he added (0:48).

Nick Sanchez is currently P7 in the Truck Series standings and will enter the next race at Homestead-Miami Speedway below the cutline.

A look into Connor Zilisch's wreck with Nick Sanchez that robbed the latter of valuable stage points

While running in the second stage, Connor Zilisch was drafted behind Sanchez, who was second at that time, behind race leader Grant Enfinger. However, a slight nudge from Zilisch's #7 Chevy cascaded into Sanchez bouncing off Enfinger's truck and getting spun out at the superspeedway.

Sanchez's truck made a half spin and Zilisch's truck rammed into the former's #2 Chevy, on the driver's side, screeching the former's truck for several seconds before the two detangled and resumed their run. As a result, the Spire Motorsports driver fell from a P4 finish in Stage 1 to a 21st-place finish in the second stage, while Sanchez settled in a worse spot-P26.

Had Zilisch not made contact with Nick Sanchez's #2 Chevy truck, the domino effect wouldn't have occurred, and the Rev Racing driver could've netted valuable stage points, which, after NASCAR's miscommunication, could've saved him from the detrimental result.