NASCAR just can’t seem to get out of its own way. The 2025 season has barely begun, and already, controversy is dominating headlines. After two weeks of scrutiny over inconsistent cautions at Daytona and Atlanta, NASCAR faced another storm of criticism at the Circuit of The Americas (COTA). This time, the issue revolved around track limits, or rather, the lack of them.
Kyle Busch was among the first to voice his frustration. As he battled Shane van Gisbergen early in the race, something seemed off. SVG was consistently cutting Turn 6, but no penalties were handed out. Busch, confused and annoyed, asked his team over the radio, “What is the rule here in Turn 6?” The response he got only fueled his anger. NASCAR wasn’t enforcing track limits there, despite previously stating that it would.
But he wasn’t the only one questioning the sport’s decision-making. Fans and NASCAR experts were quick to point out the issue. NASCAR insiders Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi have also raised their voices. They called out NASCAR’s hypocrisy and lack of clarification over rules, and brought up a damning observation as to why NASCAR wasn’t policing Turn 6.
Did NASCAR drop the ball on officiating?
After four rounds of NASCAR races at the Formula 1-friendly COTA track, the sporting body decided to make some changes to the track. For the 2025 race, NASCAR debuted a shortened 2.4-mile layout instead of the traditional 3.4-mile Formula One course. The change worked in many ways—it kept the field closer, increased passing opportunities, and gave fans more action. However, one Turn grabbed the spotlight for the entire race.
NASCAR initially planned to install 400-pound barriers in the esses to prevent corner-cutting. But after drivers raised safety concerns, officials removed them. Instead, they relied on cameras to enforce track limits. However, they failed to cover all the areas, especially Turn 6, and this was not conveyed to all the teams. The inconsistency sparked debate, and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic even went as far as saying, “It sounds like conspiracy,” he told Gluck.
NASCAR Insider Jeff Gluck broke it down on The Teardown Podcast. He explained how this wasn’t just a minor oversight, revealing that NASCAR didn’t have an initial plan to impose track limits. However, a last-minute change forced them to do so. “That [400lb barriers] was going to be the policing of the track limits… Then they went back to using the cameras, but apparently, the cameras were never in Turn 6 or something because SVG knew about it in Stage 1… It was pretty confusing because if the drivers and crew chiefs didn’t seem to know this until early in the race… how did this slip through?” he said.
Kyle Busch was one of the biggest victims of the chaos. He followed the rules, only to find out later that they weren’t being enforced equally. Meanwhile, Van Gisbergen and others gained an advantage. After taking the lead on Lap 27, Busch failed to hold onto SVG, who passed him to take the lead. After the race, Busch expressed his frustration and called out NASCAR’s officiating process.
“NASCAR ain’t got a clue about what they’re doing officiating-wise,” he said. However, his frustration was not just about the track limit issues. It was also about failing to win another race. Notably, his last race win came at Gateway in 2023. However, Rowdy did lead a race-high 42 laps on Sunday and can take away some positives from this race. But the major storyline, once again, is NASCAR officiating. Despite a great race overall, this seems to be a recurring theme this season. It started with the Duels at Daytona, and it has not stopped since.
Caution or no caution?
This is the game it seemed like NASCAR was playing in the first two weeks of the season. With superspeedway racing known for its massive wrecks and last lap shenanigans, cautions were inevitable, but the consistency of calling them? All over the place. It started with the very first Duel at Daytona, where Legacy Motor Club’s Erik Jones crossed the finish line first but was then stripped of his win as a caution was called a few seconds before he took the lead from Team Penske’s Austin Cindric. This sent fans into a frenzy, but it was just the first Duel, so maybe this consistency would continue to the main event? Wrong!
At the Daytona 500, William Byron was in 6th place heading into the Turn 3 of the last lap in overtime. Austin Cindric and Denny Hamlin jostled for the lead at the top, only to get spun out by Cole Custer from behind, causing spinning cars and debris everywhere. Surely that’s a caution, right? Nope! NASCAR kept it green and let an initially 6th place Byron, at the time of the crash, jump to first and take home his second consecutive Daytona 500. Notably, this came after a caution was called on the last lap, ending the race in the Truck and Xfinity Series and receiving backlash, so NASCAR didn’t want to repeat that for the Daytona 500 despite it being more necessary there.
Finally, we got to Atlanta. Three wide in the final lap, Christopher Bell fighting to break JGR’s winless streak, Carson Hocevar fighting for his first Cup Series win, Kyle Larson fighting for a rare superspeedway win. Absolute cinema until NASCAR called for caution because of an incident that happened behind the leaders. The opposite of Daytona, and this awarded Bell a win in what could have been a photo finish, like 2024 in Atlanta, where Daniel Suarez, Kyle Busch, and Ryan Blaney all finished within 0.007 seconds of each other.
Well, NASCAR clearly has some thinking to do when it comes to enforcing rules and being consistent with them. Be it the track limits at COTA or last lap cautions, the sport needs to follow a pattern of officiating that is repeatable, and not on a race-by-race basis. Hopefully, things will change for the better as we move to Phoenix next week. Do you think NASCAR officiating will grab the spotlight in Phoenix next week? Let us know in the comments!
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