Mandatory Caution UPDATE NASCAR and Drivers Meet: NASCAR planned to give teams some help in Sunday’s Pocono 500, but instead its plan to put out a competition caution on Lap 25 raised the ire of several crew chiefs and drivers. Typically, NASCAR announces the use of a competition caution – a planned caution – at the mandatory driver and crew chief meeting the morning of the race. Sunday at Pocono Raceway, NASCAR officials made the decision to have a caution after evaluating what the enormous amount of rainfall Saturday evening had done to the 2.5-mile triangular track. But they made the decision after the driver’s meeting, and relayed the information to officials on pit road, who were, in turn, to inform crew chiefs. Communications broke down along pit road and some teams found out over their radios, while some didn’t get the information at all.(That’s Racin’)(6-17-2001) UPDATE: Several drivers, owners and NASCAR officials met after Sunday’s Pocono 500 to discuss the competition yellow on lap 25. The result was an unlikely admission from president Mike Helton: “There was some comments by crew chiefs that they didn’t get the word in time and made their decisions to go ahead and pit,” Helton said. “Now, we have to give them the benefit of the doubt and figure that our guys didn’t get the message delivered quick enough. This was a situation that we decided after the drivers’ meeting was over with and it could have been a situation where the message wasn’t completely conveyed up and down pit road correctly from our side, so we’ll take this one.”(CNN/SI)(6-19-2001)
