It was just a little over two years ago when two-time series champion Tony Stewart accused NASCAR officials of “playing God” by manipulating races through phantom debris cautions.
Upset because a series of caution flags contributed to him losing a race at Phoenix, Stewart likened the sport to professional wrestling in complaining that the bogus debris calls changed the outcome of races.
The issue has come roaring back behind Kasey Kahne’s accusation that NASCAR threw a bogus caution Sunday to bunch up the field and avoid a boring runaway win by Jimmie Johnson at Auto Club Speedway.
Kahne was likely headed to a top-10 finish when he was wrecked on a restart with 12 laps to go. Kurt Busch started the accident when he bounced off the wall and into Kahne. The contact sent Kahne into Greg Biffle, and both cars spun through the grass with enough damage to ruin their race.
“We worked hard all day, got ourselves in a good position and I think it was going to be a good points day,” Kahne said. “Then NASCAR threw a debris caution for no debris, which caused Kurt Busch to hit the wall, which caused me to go to the grass and Greg Biffle. ...
There’s one small problem with Kahne’s contention.
ESPN’s cameras showed a decent sized black wad of something laying on the backstretch when the caution was displayed with 16 laps remaining. A safety vehicle was also shown pulling off the grass and onto the track to presumably recover the item.
“There was debris on the track, it was talked about on the (NASCAR) radio, it was identified as something being there and the caution was thrown,” NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said Monday.
“NASCAR is always going to put the safety of the competitors first, and when it comes to identifying something on the track, we’re always going to err on the side of caution,” Poston said.
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