Lap one. That’s all it took. Corey Day’s Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet ran straight into a manhole cover that had no business being loose on a NASCAR track. It tore through his radiator at Turn 6 of the temporary street course NASCAR built through Naval Base Coronado. His crew chief got on the radio and said exactly what you’d expect: “We have a manhole cover sitting in our radiator.” Then things got interesting.

NASCAR let Hendrick swap the radiator. Mid-race. Under a red flag. Then sent Day out to run four laps alone under caution to catch up, with the same tire wear. None of that is supposed to happen. Fans noticed, and a lot of them were not happy about it. NASCAR’s Brad Moran didn’t dodge the question.

“We had a lot of heavy equipment out there and all this stuff. This whole facility gets built in a matter of a week, so it’s nonstop work out there. Unfortunately, with some of the heavy equipment, it appears that something got cracked at some point prior to the race. And unfortunately, the manhole cover did come up and hit the 17 car. So it’s not what anybody wanted, for sure. But again, these things happen. There are so many moving parts and so many chances for a problem like this—or others—to take place.

“We have exemptions in our rule book, EI, RI, in rare instances…We have the capability of changing that rule when needed, and this was definitely one of those cases.”

Here’s the backstory. Crews had welded down more than 100 manhole covers before the race because the cars create enough suction underneath to rip one loose. This one’s welds gave way anyway. Day’s team hadn’t done anything to cause it, so NASCAR made a call. It recognised what happened with Hendrick Motorsports as a track failure, not a racing one.

Compare that to 2004. Jeff Gordon was leading at Martinsville when a chunk of broken concrete flew into his nose. NASCAR didn’t budge an inch. He dropped to 21st, clawed back to sixth, and that was that. Even Athletic’s Jeff Gluck recalled the incident, writing:

“It was only my third race and I got up the nerve to ask a question in the postrace press conference regarding whether Gordon should get his spot back. I was told by a driver that was a stupid question. Here we are all these years later and Corey Day is magically getting his four laps back after his car was damaged by the track. I know I’m an old fart and there’s no such thing as precedent from 22 years ago, but this is breaking my brain. Maybe it wasn’t a stupid question after all.”

So what’s different now? Martinsville is a permanent track. Coronado is what NASCAR threw together on a Navy base in a week. Apparently, when their own build fails, that changes the math.

This Isn’t NASCAR Going Soft; Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson Shows You That

If you’re thinking NASCAR’s just protecting Hendrick, look at what has happened to Kyle Larson’s team this season.

The No. 5 car has failed inspection twice at three different races, Pocono among them. NASCAR didn’t blink. Car chief Jesse Saunders got tossed from the grounds, his third ejection this year. Hendrick lost the right to pick their own pit stall and got stuck with the scraps. Larson himself wasn’t touched, but his team paid for it elsewhere.

Still, at Pocono, stripped of his car chief and starting from a bad pit box, Larson ran the fastest practice lap, qualified front row, and finished fifth. A few days later at that same chaotic San Diego street course, yeah, the manhole one, he muscled through traffic to grab third.

Two finishes like that moved him two spots up the standings. He’s sitting fourth now, 536 points, and he hasn’t won a single race all year. One of the highest-ranked guys in the field without a win. So no, this isn’t favoritism. NASCAR bent the rules for Day because their own track let him down.