NASCAR Faces Insider Backlash Over Dangerous Caution Failure at Kansas

Carson Kvapil flip at Kansas, NASCAR ©Carson Kvapil flip at Kansas, NASCAR

The races in NASCAR have seen tragedies in the past. So whenever a driver has a hairy moment, a car into the wall, a car airborne, everyone holds their breath and prays for the best. Carson Kvapil had one such moment at Kansas during the O’Reilly race as his #1 Chevy flipped and went airborne early in the race. Fortunately, the driver escaped unharmed, but the aftermath of his flip saw some fingers pointed at the governing body with one question: Could the flip have been prevented? This is what insiders Freddie Kraft and Tommy Baldwin feel, as they recently addressed the issue.

Insiders wonder if Carson Kvapil’s flip could’ve been prevented

During the latest episode of the Door Bumper Clear podcast, co-hosts Baldwin and Kraft shared their takes on NASCAR’s role in the Kvapil flip. Baldwin claimed that ‘a lot of stuff’ happened in Turn 1, which mainly included Justin Allgaier’s spin, which didn’t bring out a caution. Mere seconds after that, Kvapil was in the air after making contact with William Byron, hitting the wall, and getting hit from an oncoming Parker Retzlaff.

“I know we’ve been harping on throwing cautions and stuff. There was guys up in the wall. If they did throw that caution, none of that would have happened,” Baldwin said.

Freddie Kraft revealed that he was caught off guard by Kvapil’s flip because he was hoping NASCAR would throw a caution for the Allgaier spin. “I’ve got one eye on Dean, one eye kind of peeking down at the yellow lights waiting for them to change, and I’m like nothing’s happening. And I look up, and there is a f**king car flipping down the back straight away. To your (Baldwin’s) point, it should have been thrown,” he mentioned.

Kraft clarified that the flip was not directly the result of NASCAR not throwing the yellow. But had a yellow been thrown, the situation with Kvapil could very well have been prevented.

Baldwin later summed up their takes on the subject as he said, “I think that was not a good call.”

This callout from the insiders could potentially lead to NASCAR being more mindful or potentially being overly mindful about pressing the caution button. This was what Denny Hamlin suggested last season after the lack of caution towards the end of the Daytona 500.