“There’s gotta be a caution here”: Ryan Preece reveals his mindset seconds before race-ending caution handed Kyle Larson the Brickyard 400 win 

After hitting the wall during the final lap, Ryan Preece expected a caution flag at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday. Speaking on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, the Stewart-Haas Racing driver revealed that he attempted to rejoin the track, hoping that the move would prevent him from losing a lap after the caution was thrown by NASCAR. However, that did not happen.

In the second overtime of the Brickyard 400, there was a moment when NASCAR could have deployed the yellow flag as Preece spun in Turn 2. He tried to continue down the back straightaway but had run out of fuel and was unable to move.

Before NASCAR confirmed that Ryan Preece was immobile, Kyle Larson had already taken the white flag as the leader. Subsequently, the yellow flag was issued, marking the race's end. Larson then captured the checkered flag under yellow.

Not just NASCAR insiders, but Denny Hamlin and Ryan Preece believed that officials should have waved the yellow caution flag during the final lap after the #41 car spun out. Ryan Preece shared his in-the-moment thoughts, saying:

"In the car in the moment, you don't know if there's gonna be a caution or not. At that point in time, you could... Set, you know, 15, 20, 25%, whatever reason. It was a weird Chase Briscoe ran out of fuel earlier this year in Nashville and something that he said was that with a wide-open throttle, the motor would fall out of space and die."

"But at, you know, 20, 30%, you could get it running. Well, that was what happened is when we... You know, split into the inside wall and all the tires were flat all I was thinking is there's gotta be a caution here and I'm gonna try and get going to get to pit road that way when we restart. You don't want to lose a lap," he added.

Elton Sawyer provided an explanation amid the controversy, saying (via On3):

"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."

However, Denny Hamlin disagreed with Sawyer's rationale on his podcast Actions Detrimental, expressing frustration and saying:

"I was like... This is going to be a caution. There's a caution. Because he stopped."

Hamlin pointed out that since Ryan Preece was immobile coming off turn 4, NASCAR officials had about eight seconds to make a decision but they didn't act.

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NASCAR Insider explores no-caution controversy amid Ryan Preece's spin

On a recent episode of The Teardown podcast, Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi dissected Kyle Larson's victory under caution in the racing capital of the world. Gluck suggested that NASCAR might have delayed the caution flag following Ryan Preece's wreck to ensure the leaders crossed the finish line. He said:

"So according to NASCAR, this was a situation where [Ryan] Preece spun, they had a camera on him, hits the wall and at least partly showed on TV it looks like he's moving, looks like he's trying to move, looks like he's making an attempt to move. [...] It felt like they (NASCAR) were holding it to get the white flag...All we know is what we were told of what they were thinking."

As NASCAR pauses for a two-week break for the 2024 Paris Olympics, Kyle Larson leads the driver standings with 749 points, narrowly edging out his HMS teammate Chase Elliott by 10 points.