Last weekend at the Darlington Raceway, Denny Hamlin notched up a second consecutive NASCAR Cup win. However, the race was littered with a handful of frequent cautions. Now we’ve been down the road where NASCAR’s officiating process for throwing caution came under fire. Remember, Erik Jones was snatched off his Daytona Duel win due to caution light controversy. And when the last lap chaos ensued during the main event, NASCAR let the race be green allowing William Byron to snag his first win of the season.

Well, the big talking point after the Goodyear 400 race at Darlington has been about Hamlin’s pit crew and Blaney’s near-miss win. But, in reality, this race was also altered by a sketchy caution call, which just might have snatched a win from Byron, who swept both the stages and led 243 laps. This happened during the stage 2 run when Brad Keselowski lost a lug nut, and he had to head down to pit road to get a new set of tire. Luckily, the tire on the No. 6 Ford didn’t come off, but NASCAR brought out the yellow which changed the strategy for the teams.

Freddie Kraft was particularly livid because his driver, Bubba Wallace, looked strong in the early stages. Unfortunately, he ultimately ended the race in 21st place. He argued that the debris caution didn’t make sense as the lug nut wasn’t on the racing surface, rather placed on the Cookout logo near the inside wall.

Kraft ranted on Door Bumper Clear, “The piece of debris I saw them pick up was on the Cookout sign, against the inside wall in the restart zone. Against the inside wall. Nobody’s run the f—— inside wall at Darlington. When was that place built? That many years. Nobody was ever going to get to it. They could have left it there all day long if they wanted to. Why didn’t they? They threw the yellow for that wheel nut that was nowhere near the racing surface. This is my point, we don’t know what’s a caution anymore. That changed the entire race for no f—— reason whatsoever.”

As per his observation, the debris was well off the race track. In other words, they were well out of the way of the cars and there was no chance of anyone running them over and getting damage. According to Kraft, even if the debris was left as it was for the entire race, there would have been no issues. The bottom line was that the caution flag for debris was highly unneeded and disrupted the race.

Freddie Kraft was mad that his driver, Bubba Wallace, got the short end of the stick because of the caution period. For much of the race, Wallace had been fighting at the front along with his teammate Tyler Reddick. The unexpected caution and subsequent pit stop phase witnessed the #23 driver tumble down the order and that was his challenge over.

Erik Jones was also furious about the caution situation in NASCAR

During the race, the #43 driver ranted, “WHAT THE F—, NASCAR, ARE WE F——- DOING?…a car wrecked and we don’t throw it…limping around and now there’s nothing out here.” Truthfully, he had every right to be mad because he was battling in the Top 10 at the time when the yellow flag waved. He was angry about the caution that occurred during Stage 2, right in the middle of green flag pit stops.

His misery was compounded by the events of the previous race at Martinsville. His #43 car failed post-race scrutiny, and as per NASCAR protocol, he was disqualified. Naturally, Jones was disappointed, and the team were not going to appeal the result, so he needed a strong finish at Darlington. Sadly, the unexpected caution threw everything into jeopardy.

The caution was likely triggered when Brad Keselowski’s wheel nut popped out. Owing to that, the #6 driver was sent into a half-spin and somehow kept his tire attached and pitted without much drama. Meanwhile, the errant wheel nut rolled away and settled in the infield. Conventional wisdom suggests that it would be a simple task to just retrieve it without disrupting the race. However, NASCAR did not see it that way and threw the caution flag anyway.

Clearly, there’s no consistency in how NASCAR makes these decision calls. While this lug nut incident pretty much went unnoticed, the officials might not be lucky next time such a muck up happens.