Sunday’s Daytona 500 delivered an exhilarating final lap that featured multiple drivers in contention for the race win.
Carson Hocevar led the field to the white flag before he and Erik Jones made contact, igniting a multi-car crash going into Turn 1. Instead of NASCAR opting to throw the caution flag, the race remained green.
From there, Tyler Reddick survived another incident coming to the checkered flag to claim the first Daytona 500 for himself and team co-owners Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin.
It was a fitting end to a race that featured a Daytona 500-record 25 different leaders, but it was also an unusual officiating decision by NASCAR to let the race finish under green when you consider the circumstances.
NASCAR’s last-lap officiating should be appreciated
In superspeedway racing, it is not uncommon for a multi-car crash to occur on the final lap and force NASCAR to throw the caution. After all, as close as drivers are in the pack, it is almost expected that a last-lap crash will take place at some point.
A last-lap crash also took place in the 2025 Daytona 500 — one that saw William Byron repeat as champion — but it happened on the backstretch. That gave the drivers a chance to race back to the checkered flag and get slowed down before returning to the site of the crash as safety personnel arrived at the scene.
In this case, with the crash occurring at the exit of the tri-oval, it would not have been uncharacteristic for NASCAR to end the race under caution. Even with the sport’s most popular driver, Chase Elliott, inheriting the lead after the Turn 1 incident and half the field wrecking behind him, NASCAR put the sport’s most prestigious race in the hands of its drivers.
Sure, the thrilling race back to the finish was not without some beef between Brad Keselowski and Riley Herbst, who finished fifth and eighth, respectively, but the disagreement and edge-of-your-seat racing is something fans would not have witnessed if the caution was thrown.
As drivers and teams head to EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta) for Sunday’s Autotrader 400 (3 p.m. ET, Fox, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) — a track that is one mile shorter than Daytona — don’t be surprised if NASCAR throws the caution if a similar situation takes place. In fact, you should probably expect it, given the track’s shorter length.
However, that was not the case on Sunday as the sport’s best were given the opportunity to race back to the line and deliver a spectacular finish for those watching. That decision-making has not always been the same, but it should be appreciated by the fan base, especially on the sport’s biggest stage.