A NASCAR official said that series officials planned to retrieve the errant tire during Sunday‘s Cup race at Kansas Speedway, but “we let the strategy unfold” before doing so.

Elton Sawyer, NASCAR vice president of officiating and technical inspection, explained Monday on “The Morning Drive” on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, why there was a delay in the caution.

“As the tire became uncontrolled, our first decision was ‘Do we have a safety issue?‘

“We felt it was far enough away from the racing surface and it also was off pit road. We were in the middle of a green-flag pit stop there, and we want to make sure the teams and their strategies that they have worked up throughout the event, that they‘re able to unfold as they played out. We don‘t want to get in the middle of that as the league.

“Now, if it‘s a bona fide safety issue, then we‘ll have to act on that. As I said earlier, the tire was in a position that we didn‘t feel like we had a safety issue. We let the strategy unfold, and once everyone had played out their cards there, we knew we had to go get it, it‘s just when you do that. We made the decision and felt like (we) had no real issues after that. That was the right decision for both safety and the competition side.”

NBC Sports

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