Should the Trash and the Debris cautions take up so much racing time?

Question

While some debris obviously requires a caution, that certainly doesn’t mean that a caution needs to last six, eight, or ten laps. At many tracks, the crews can drive their little pickup trucks to the spot in question and pick the stuff up and get off the track in no time at all. And for heavens sake, follow that effort with the camera. Under no circumstances should a frivolous caution be thrown because someone has managed to have a really great day to the point that they have a one half to three quarters of a lap over their closest competitor. Everyone will just have to race and bit harder and pray luck falls his way.

Answer 1

When it's only a little debris,such as roll bar padding they should just have a 1 lap caution instead all of this 4 or 5 lap stuff for no reason.Although I didn't mind the one at Talledega,GO # 24 !!!!!

Answer 2

Tony Stewart would be complaining loudly if he were leading a race under green, ran over something and cut a tire.

His complaint would be, "Why is NASCAR endangering our lives by not waving the yellow flag for 'suspected' debris"?

Sometimes debris cannot be located during a caution because it is no longer in the groove. It has been kicked up and booted off the track by racecars. Something as small as a sheetmetal screw is all it takes. How many laps does it take to locate a screw on a 1.5 mile track, talk to the teams to dertermine who if anybody heard of felt, not necessarily saw, anything strike their car?

Drivers are always on the radio about debris and if NASCAR believes from the radio transmissions that debris is, or was, in the groove, they will check it out.

If 2 drivers who are safely on the lead lap make comments like, "It 'felt' like I ran over something" quickly followed by another driver saying, "something just hit my car", what should NASCAR do?

All sorts of things lay in wait up in the marbles, it can be moved into the groove at any time, especially late in a race when drivers are using all the racing lines available.

As a fan of over 48 years, I would rather NASCAR err on the side of safety. If the leader, even if he is my driver, loses a big lead, so what! What's more important, a life or a lead.

Please tell us all, why didn't you avoid that screw in the highway that punctured your tire?

Answer 3

As long as they start showing what caused the caution Im ok with it. Sometimes they do seem to take way too long to clean the track. Since Tony complained about the fake debris cautions Fox has done better in trying to find it so we can see there really was something on the track. I always hated have a debris caution and then nobody actually knew where it was at.

Answer 4

Not knowing what the debris is then it is a saftey factor to throw a caution for this debris or what ever.The timing is where there is a question.
Why if a winshield tear-away is blowing on the track no caution is thrown,but if an"unknown" piece of insulation/padding is on the apron then leaders start complaining and the caution is thrown.
So in the thought as to caution bring throw for debris/trash NASCAR picks which is dangerous to the cars/drivers/fans.This sometimes changes the outlook of a race and it changes the finish.The officials need to look at location of debris and if they can judge if it is a hazzard before they rush into a caution.

Answer 5

Fox does a good job of trying to show where the debris is, and like DW said, sometimes they just cant find the debris even when looking where Nascar officials said it was. If there is debris a caution should last until officials at the track are sure it is cleaned up. Some cautions sure are convenient I can tell you that.

Answer 6

debris cautions suck, but nascar has several spotters around the track and its their job to look for debris. Most of the time it is nothing but a wrapper or piece of rubber, but its better safe than sorry when you have cars racing at 185 mph. Caution debris will always be there. I don't think nascar "fixes" races. thats the most ridiculous thing I've heard and If I thought that, I wouldn't watch it. If you don't like it, watch something else.

Answer 7

No the debris cautions are taking up the time we get to see green flag racing and also it has to do with the people in the stands throwing things onto the track

Answer 8

The new unified Car of the Future platform has a front end part that is more prone to breakage, as I have understood it. It cannot be easily replaced, and actually the rules now make repairs a harder thing and you cannot indiviually modify the cars as in the past. The only real difference may be the body.

The COF was designed with the utmost in safety in mind. In conjunction with that, clearing the track is now much more importart to keep the cars from breaking...not to mention these cars are very expensive and the guinea pigs for the entire series' existance. They must be protected while they are breaking them in and studying their performance.

Equate this with the original NFL replay. It will get better with experience, It's a whole new world in NASCAR.

Answer 9

no they shouldnt a debri caution should only be for no more than 3 laps on mile or so oval 2 ;aps at a superspeedway..5 laps on a short track it should nt take that long to pck up robbies trash

Answer 10

I seriously think they do that toward the end of the race to make it a more exciting finish. Its wrong! If someones almost a lap ahead of everyone else, He deserves to WIN!!! Half the time when they throw a caution in there, everyone catches up then someone else wins, who doesn't deserve it!!!