NASCAR Vice President of Racing Communications Mike Forde has explained an unusual situation which unfolded during last Sunday's Coca-Cola 600.
A caution was thrown late in the race for lightning in the area, with the expectation – including from drivers and teams – that the race would be red flagged for at least 30 minutes, as is customary.
That didn't happen. Instead, the lightning hold was reversed and the race resumed after a round of pit stops under caution. Those stops ended up being crucial for the direction of the race, with Daniel Suarez leaping to the front of the field by taking just two tires.
Suarez successfully defended that position at two subsequent restarts before the race was called early due to rain, handing him a first race win in over two years.
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NASCAR chief explains lightning decision
Forde has now opened up on the decision to reverse the lightning hold, explaining that while the lightning did strike within the area for NASCAR to typically pause the race, they spoke to on-hand meteorological experts and determined that, with the lightning moving away from the track rather than toward it, there was no danger to fans, teams or officials.
Speaking on the Hauler Talk podcast this week, he explained: "More often than not, the lightning is either coming toward us or kind of hovering in that eight miles. But there are times, and typically it kind of happens in the background even before it gets to eight miles, we’re on the phone with our weather partners.
"And if our meteorologist partners say, ‘Hey, look, the lightning did hit within eight miles, however, it is moving away from the race track. There is no danger to any of the fans in the stands, the officials on the ground, the crew members, the television partners', then we can continue racing.”
The yellow was thrown while that conversation was being held, with Forde adding: “Better safe than sorry. After a pretty quick conversation, our partners at the weather company said, ‘No, this is moving northwest, away from the race track. You’re not going to have to worry about this lightning strike'.
"We were able to get back to green-flag racing. So, certainly a unique situation, but not a rule change for the Coca-Cola 600. It has happened before, maybe not to this extent where there was a caution, and then we immediately have gone back to green, but it has happened in the background.”
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