Nascar’s All-Star Recap: A Controversy To Remember

As the checkered flag fell and the green lights came on over the latest NASCAR All-Start Race last night at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth Texas, we were left with feelings of excitement, a bit of confusion over controversy, and lastly, a satisfaction as deep and roaring as the engines revving on the straight.

The big winner of the $1M jackpot was obviously Ryan Blaney in his number 12 Ford kit, beating Joe Gibbs’ Toyota by just over 0.2 seconds in the end. Last year the North Carolinian won three races and 20 times over saw himself in the top 10s – so he’s been working his way to this for quite some time.

There are no points for the win but it’s still fun to see a hard worker get his due. But it didn’t come without a few moments of confusion.

Apparently, the NASCAR team waved the checkered flag over Blaney with the yellow caution light on. Under their own rules the green light has to be on in order for the race to be officially over. So technically Blaney, who put his safety net down, didn’t win ever though he really did win.

“It was about to be real bad for us, I thought the race was over,” Blaney said. “Everyone thought the race was over. I already had my window net down. I do want to thank NASCAR for letting me kind of fix it and not make us come down pit road. But yeah, that was really tough. Then having to do it all over again after trying to get that window net back up there.”

Ross Christian acquainting himself with physics. (Yahoo News)

And with that he had to do another two laps; nonetheless, it all sorted out in the end. What a gentleman for thanking NASCAR for their screw up, too!

On the other side of the trophy circle there was Denny Hemlin who threw some shade at NASCAR saying that they should have black flagged Blaney for throwing down the window net. But, given that Hemlin was in second place, he’s got some skin in that game.

The result is the result, in the end.

Other than the dramatic finish to the race there were some overall very exciting moments – after all, it’s NASCAR. There was Danny Suarez in his Chevy whose finishes lately made him a bit of the underdog coming in, but he managed a fifth-place finish in the end. Always exciting to see new blood get in there and stir some noise.

Then there were the things that all fans come to NASCAR to see – the crashes. Luckily no one was injured but some tire issues saw the Kyles, Busch and Larson, crash into walls. Again, no one was hurt, but Ross Christian got some air after making contact with Busch!

All-in-all a race well worth watching, and an ending not soon to be forgotten.

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