NASCAR decided not to throw the yellow on Lap 222 of this past Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Iowa Speedway as Matt DiBenedetto was leaking oil on the racetrack. It wasn’t until the following lap, when Brandon Jones spun out after driving through the oil in Turn 2, that NASCAR threw the yellow.
Freddie Kraft, spotting for Dean Thompson, said on Monday’s “Door Bumper Clear” podcast that he was told from the pit box there was oil on the racetrack. He criticized NASCAR for not throwing the caution immediately, saying it “affected the race greatly.”
“Yes, they absolutely missed it, and it affected the race greatly,” Kraft said. “They missed it to the point to where the 99 [DiBenedetto]– I don’t know what happened — he ran into the back of someone into [Turn] 1, like knocked the nose off the car. If was bad enough to where my crew chief is yelling at me, ‘There’s oil all over Turn 1, be careful.’ Well, if my f*cking crew chief knows this, then the people in the tower should know this — it was on TV. The problem for me is I don’t understand why everyone but NASCAR seemed to know there was fluid over there.
“Jesse Love lost the lead because of this. The 20 car spun out because of this, ruined his race. This is the stuff we talked about — you go back to Chicago and we’re talking about corner workers. Where’s that guy in Turn 2 that says, ‘Hey, there’s shit all over the racetrack. You’ve got to throw the f*cking yellow here.’ We can’t all go piling into Turn 1 with oil all over the racetrack. … I know this is not an easy job from the tower, I get it. But, like, if my crew chief knows there’s shit all over the racetrack, the tower needs to know there’s shit all over the racetrack.”
Jesse Love lost the lead at Iowa because of oil on the racetrack
Before the caution came out, Sam Mayer passed Jesse Love for the lead. Love said after the race that a slip in oil is what cost him at Iowa. He didn’t fault NASCAR for not throwing the caution.
“Yeah, but it’s not NASCAR’s fault,” Love told Frontstretch. “I couldn’t see it. The repave is dark enough to where you can’t see when oil is put down. I got in there and thought I blew a left front and then kind of gripped out of the oil. At that point, the caution came out just a tick too late. Lost the lead because of it and made it really hard for me to win it after that.”
Mayer won the race, while Love finished runner-up. He said he was unaware there was oil on the track.
“That is really what turned our race around and gave us the opportunity,” Mayer said. “I’d rather be lucky than good sometimes, but we were a little bit of both today.”
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