NASCAR’s problem is perception, not officiating

The outcry over a missed call during the race at Texas points to an issue NASCAR has to find a way to correct, but it’s not the one you might think.

Among the many wild things that took place at the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 last Sunday, it was something that didn’t officially happen that has captured the lion’s share of attention since Kyle Busch took the checkered flag. On Monday, NASCAR admitted it missed a call that should have led to a penalty for Kevin Harvick for an uncontrolled tire.

It is kind of mystifying that the call didn’t come down. Other teams got penalized for the same violation during the race, and one poor team even was disciplined for having too many men over the wall on a pit stop when a guy reached too far for a tire and fell into the pit stall.

This Twitter thread comparing Harvick’s situation to a penalty that was called on Ryan Blaney makes it seem pretty cut and dried:

As inexplicable as this call was, officiating mistakes happen in every sport. There are human beings in charge of enforcing the rules, and humans goof. If you think that NASCAR is somehow different or worse in that regard, please spend some time Googling every other major sport in the U.S, and you’ll quickly find gaffes that not only were just as bad or worse, they actually changed the outcome of the event in question.

The difference is that other sports leagues have ways to handle these types of blunders. The NFL simply acts above it all, saying its officials goofed and then moving on, not really offering more explanation. MLB is slightly more apologetic, generally speaking, but its attitude is still mostly, “Yep, we messed up, but it’s over and we’re moving on.”

(You can protest baseball games, but when was the last time you remember that actually working?)

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NASCAR? Well, it does things a little differently. First, it makes ham-handed explanations of its reasoning. Sometimes it doubles down by having an executive spar with fans on Twitter.

It’s absolutely inane to think that NASCAR is somehow in the bag for Harvick. If it was, there’s no way that it would have taken a win away from Harvick’s team, in all the ways that matter, earlier this season for what was definitely a violation of the rules but was pretty dubious from a “this helped the driver have an unfair advantage” standpoint.

Still, the fact that there are people out there so ready to believe that there’s favoritism involved is proof that NASCAR has a problem when it comes to public perception. Fans don’t think the governing body is trustworthy, so they’re more quick to believe conspiracy theories. The inconsistent application of the rules and tone deaf reaction after the fact just exacerbate the situation.

Next: Why moving the NASCAR championship race to Texas would work

The PR fixes should be pretty obvious, and all NASCAR has to do is cast a glance in the direction of any of its sports league brethren for some ideas. As for the rules, that solution is also very simple: Calls like the uncontrolled tire penalty shouldn’t be judgement calls. Post-race inspection violations sure aren’t, so in-race violations should be just as cut and dried. If there’s a tire out of the pit box and no one is touching it, it’s “uncontrolled” and the team should be sanctioned.

There’s no reason NASCAR shouldn’t be able to correct its public perception deficit. It just needs to act quickly and decisively to do so, or else there’s bound to be another officiating-related debacle on the way sooner rather than later.