Tony Stewart blasts NASCAR for debris caution during Michigan Cup Series race

Several drivers were upset with a controversial debris caution during the waning laps of Sunday’s Cup Series race, but retired driver and current team owner Tony Stewart had the most pointed criticism for NASCAR following the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

Stewart blasted NASCAR about an hour after the race concluded, posting on Twitter:

The co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, who retired last season following a stellar career that included three Cup championships, was upset with NASCAR calling for a caution with 19 laps remaining because of a piece of debris believed to be on the track. When the race restarted, two accidents occurred, both of which involved SHR drivers.

First, Clint Bowyer got loose and pancaked the Turn 1 wall, severely damaging the No. 14 car Stewart previously drove, negating a strong effort that had Bowyer running inside the top 10. On the ensuing restart, a multi-car accident broke out on the backstretch, which included SHR drivers Kevin Harvick and Danica Patrick. Harvick was able to continue with minor damage, but Patrick had considerable contact with the inside wall. (She was evaluated and released from the infield care center.)

Besides Stewart, several others questioned the debris caution. Among those was Dale Earnhardt Jr., who vented on his post-race Periscope session that the introduction of stage-format racing was supposed to decrease the number of debris cautions.

“I don’t know why they’ve got to throw so many damn debris yellows,” Earnhardt said. “The purpose of having stages was really because the [television] networks want more cautions, more restarts, because people tune in when we have a caution. They tune in for a restart. That’s the whole reason why we have the stages to try to create a little more drama, so I don’t know why we keep throwing the damn debris yellows and stuff.”

Scott Miller, NASCAR senior vice president of competition, defended the sanctioning body’s use of the yellow flag during a Monday morning interview on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

“We use all the resources that we have to try to identity what it is that is out there,” Miller said. “That being cameras, turn spotters and the communication that we’ve got around the racetrack to different people who may be able to see it.

“If we are actually able to identify what it is and feel like it’s something that is OK to leave out there, then we’ll do so. But, if we can’t identify what it is exactly and if it could pose something dangerous, then we’ll usually, or almost always, error on the side of caution and safety and put the caution out in those circumstances. Sometimes it’s untimely and a little bit unfortunate, but we do have to do our job and make sure that everybody is safe.’’

Curiously, earlier in Sunday’s race NASCAR did not display the caution flag for a cowboy hat that was quite obviously stationed in the racing groove. Earnhardt and rookie Ty Dillon both tweeted afterward that they were intentionally trying to drive over the hat.

“Tried to run next to it, possibly discard it off the racing surface cause I figured it was gonna result in a debris caution,” Earnhardt tweeted. “Wouldn’t budge.”

Miller explained on SiriusXM why NASCAR didn’t throw a caution for the cowboy hat, but did so for a garbage bag on Lap 8 of the 200-lap race.

“We saw the cowboy hat,” Miller said. “We knew it was straw and that it would disintegrate if somebody would hit it. Obviously, that was right in front of us. Clearly we could tell what it is and we opted to keep it green because we knew that it didn’t really pose any kind of a safety risk.”