NASCAR race control cruelly tormented Parker Kligerman during Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at the Charlotte Roval.
Kligerman was comfortably leading the race on the penultimate lap when Leland Honeyman had a tire failure and his car skidded into and underneath a tire barrier. There was no way for Honeyman to drive his car out from underneath the tires, so a caution was inevitable.
But NASCAR waited. And waited. And waited a few seconds more. And seemingly waited until Kligerman got the white flag at the finish line. After Kligerman crossed the line to start his final lap, cameras showed that the caution lights had been illuminated by NASCAR officials.
If a caution comes out on the final lap, the race is over. In this case, Kligerman would have won. But the caution didn’t come out on the final lap. The lights turned on as Kligerman’s car was just feet from crossing the finish line.
Since Kligerman hadn’t officially started the white-flag lap, the race was extended for a two-lap restart. Kligerman lost the lead to Sam Mayer in Turn 7 on the first lap after the restart and faded to sixth by the time the race was over.
The win ensured Mayer would advance to the next-to-last round of the playoffs and also meant that Kligerman would be eliminated from the playoffs.
It was immediately unclear why NASCAR waited so long to throw the caution for Honeyman’s car. There’s a millisecond delay from when NASCAR officials hit the caution button and when the lights around the track illuminate. But that doesn’t excuse why NASCAR officials waited roughly 15 seconds after fans watching at home saw Honeyman’s car on the TV broadcast.
The caution was not triggered by NASCAR officials in this conveniently-edited eight-second clip of Honeyman’s crashed car that NASCAR posted to social media.
The race should have restarted. Plain and simple. NASCAR holding the caution flag until after Kligerman took the white flag would have been a race-manipulating maneuver. But waiting so long — and until Kligerman was so close to the white flag — was unnecessarily cruel to a driver whose full-time career is ending after this season.
Kligerman, who has also worked as a broadcaster for NBC in recent years, is leaving the Xfinity Series at the end of the season. He’s made over 115 starts in his career and finished 10th in the standings a season ago with a pair of second-place finishes. It’s very possible that Saturday’s race at the Roval is the closest he’ll ever come to an Xfinity Series win. And even if we all know that Kligerman lost the race fair and square in overtime, it’s hard not to feel terrible for him given the way NASCAR waited so long to throw the caution.