Tony Stewart blasts NASCAR for debris caution during Michigan Cup Series race

A late caution for debris during Sunday’s race drew Tony Stewart’s ire after multiple drivers crashed on restarts following the controversial yellow flag.

Several drivers were upset with a controversial debris caution during the waning laps of Sunday’s Cup Series race, but retired driver and current team owner Tony Stewart had the most pointed criticism for NASCAR following the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

Stewart blasted NASCAR about an hour after the race concluded, posting on Twitter:

The co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, who retired last season following a stellar career that included three Cup championships, was upset with NASCAR calling for a caution with 19 laps remaining because of a piece of debris believed to be on the track. When the race restarted, two accidents occurred, both of which involved SHR drivers.

First, Clint Bowyer got loose and pancaked the Turn 1 wall, severely damaging the No. 14 car Stewart previously drove, negating a strong effort that had Bowyer running inside the top 10. On the ensuing restart, a multi-car accident broke out on the backstretch, which included SHR drivers Kevin Harvick and Danica Patrick. Harvick was able to continue with minor damage, but Patrick had considerable contact with the inside wall. (She was evaluated and released from the infield care center.)

Besides Stewart, several others questioned the debris caution. Among those was Dale Earnhardt Jr., who vented on his post-race Periscope session that the introduction of stage-format racing was supposed to decrease the number of debris cautions.

“I don’t know why they’ve got to throw so many damn debris yellows,” Earnhardt said. “The purpose of having stages was really because the [television] networks want more cautions, more restarts, because people tune in when we have a caution. They tune in for a restart. That’s the whole reason why we have the stages to try to create a little more drama, so I don’t know why we keep throwing the damn debris yellows and stuff.”

Curiously, earlier in the race NASCAR did not display the caution flag for a cowboy hat that was quite obviously stationed in the racing groove. Earnhardt and rookie Ty Dillon both tweeted afterward that they were intentionally trying to drive over the hat.

“Tried to run next to it, possibly discard it off the racing surface cause I figured it was gonna result in a debris caution,” Earnhardt tweeted. “Wouldn't budge.”