Chase Elliott gets out with one?

NASCAR's free pass rules are pretty clear. Or we thought

According to the rules of NASCAR, the first driver to get a ride retrieves it when a warning is issued. These are the only two caveats in the NASCAR rule book.

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Pretty simple, no? If NASCAR considers that you are involved in the warning that allows you to get a free pass, you do not get it.

It's not so easy. At lap 214 of the race on Sunday in Bristol, caution was needed when Matt Tifft left Chase Elliott's bumper. According to the NASCAR scores during and after the race, the reason for the warning is indicated as an incident involving Elliott and Tifft.

This is where it gets complicated. Elliott was the first car to take a ride when the incident occurred. And he always had the free pass.

Yahoo Sports has contacted NASCAR for explanations during the race and has not yet received an explanation at the time of publication. While it is true that Elliott did not turn his head to cause the warning, he was tried by NASCAR, which is why he was mentioned as part of the incident that led to The warning.

According to this justification, NASCAR had very little room for maneuver to say that he could have the free pass despite his participation in the warning. It's hard to see how Elliott deserved to recover his knees.

Yet he did it. And he finished 11th. While receiving the free pass comes back to Elliott, he would win a lot if he won the race or was in the top five, but that remains an important example of NASCAR's apparent ambiguity in the rules. It takes an extremely generous interpretation of the NASCAR rule book to justify the fact that a car classified as being involved in a warning deserves the free pass because it has not been.

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To pit or not to pester?

Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski placed first and second. Together with teammate Ryan Blaney, they chose to stand, while six cars, including future winner Kyle Busch, remained out of bounds.

With the benefit of hindsight being 20 to 20, coring has turned out to be the wrong call.

"I think so," said Logano to the question whether the decision not to play start or not to start was a hopeless situation. "The last thing you want is a warning of 15 to 20 people in Bristol and you are the leader, because you know that everyone will make their decision based on what you do. If you stay outside, you must expect half of the land to be filled, maybe more. If you enter, five or six have stayed, so that's part of the game. "

Logano finished third while Keselowski ranked 18th after being made to beat the black flag for a scoring snafu. Keselowski was frustrated after the race by NASCAR scores but said he understood the sanctioning entity's position after a meeting.

NASCAR said it repeatedly warned Keselowski's team that it was in a bad position before the race went green. Keselowski was lined up outside the track (the favorite groove) and should have been inside the fourth row.

Daniel Suarez lost a round because of a tight decision

Daniel Suarez had a fast car all along the race on Sunday. But he lost a lap because of a very tight call on the pits.

A member of the team was pulling a piece of duct tape from the grille of Suarez's car as he was leaving his booth. Suarez's car was just above the pit lane as the crewman pulled out the tape. Because of this, Suarez has been seen imposing a one-lap penalty for making bites outside his booth.

That was the good call of NASCAR. It was a flagrant violation of the rule. But the consequences that follow are too punitive. A lap penalty for this when a speeding penalty under yellow only sends a driver to the rear of the field during a restart?

The story continues