Randy Cadenhead

NASCAR's Mike Forde shared today on Hauler Talk that officials "probably" would have had to make a call on Austin Hill passing Kyle Larson in the event he had gone on to win Talladega. Hill ended up finishing as the last car on the lead lap anyway (which would've been the same result as if he had been black flagged), so a call was not made. In NASCAR's judgment, Hill went below the yellow line before he was ever pushed down there by Kyle Larson. There was also considerable discussion of whether Todd Gilliland should've been called for forcing Ross Chastain and Carson Hocevar below the yellow line, though no call was made in the moment. On Hill: "The result would've been the same, he would've been the last car on the lead lap. We did not call that, essentially, for that reason. But that was one where there was discussion of if the 33 had won that race, would we have to take the win away. ... So that was probably a call we would've had to have made." on Gilliland: "In the moment, I think we said it was kind of inconclusive of whether he came down to block them, to keep them from passing the 34, so we made that a no call. I think that was the closest one. There was some discussion of 'man, maybe that's one where we should've potentially made a call there.' We chose not to in the moment, but there was more discussion around that one than any of the other ones that we made." In regards to further clarification on why there was no call on Kyle Larson and where things stand with the yellow line rule in general: "The tire has to go fully below the yellow line. So if there is even a half an inch that remains on that yellow line, we're not going to call a penalty. So in our judgment, we felt that was pretty clear. That's kind of where the conversation ends as far as NASCAR goes. It's 'do we feel that, were there tires below the yellow line? No? OK. That's it.'" ... "To get a penalty, almost three different things have to happen: You have to be below the yellow line, you have to improve your position, and then in our judgment did you get shoved down there."