Daytona 500 ends under yellow, and it probably shouldn't be that way | KEN WILLIS

DAYTONA BEACH — The folks well within the NASCAR orbit — competitors, media, the hardcore fans — just went about their business at the end of Sunday’s Daytona 500.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got the win. Over and done.

Turns out, replays showed he was ahead when the caution was triggered after the leaders crossed under the white flag. Once that was determined, it was on to Victory Lane — cue the fireworks, pop the champagne, load the haulers and start thinking about next weekend in California.

Again, over and done.

But it helps to remember, there are hundreds of thousands of onlookers — a couple million or more, actually, on color TV — who don’t understand. Won’t understand, either. Sure, they’ll understand your explanation of NASCAR’s overtime rule, but might not understand why it’s this way.

Is it sane? Well, saner than some other options, if you’re talking about safety and preservation of equipment and gas.

But is it the best way to give folks a winner?

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Nope, not really.

Not even close, some might say. “You gotta be kidding me,” others will surely scream.

Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt era made fans start hating yellow-flag NASCAR finishes

In the bad ol’ days, which was otherwise the good ol’ days, races occasionally finished under the yellow flag. It was just part of life.

That’s racin’, in other words.

But in the 1990s, as the Jeff Gordon-Dale Earnhardt era was launching NASCAR to new heights, fans grew tired of yellow-flag finishes. By 2002, it reached a head at Daytona, as thousands of free seat cushions were Frisbeed onto the track as leader Michael Waltrip concluded a Pepsi 400 under caution.

Eventually, NASCAR introduced rules to facilitate green-flag finishes, and it lasted a few years, and many hated that rule because it invited chaos and chaos again, followed by more chaos.

So they split the difference and returned to a rule that allows for a two-lap overtime, and demands the leader make it through one lap to make things official. If there’s a wreck before the first overtime lap is complete, as happened Sunday, they reload and do it again.

In fact, they’ll keep doing that for a month of Sundays if necessary.

The casual fan loves that.

However, it they wreck after crossing the white flag, even just after crossing the white flag, the race is over.

And whomever is deemed to be in the lead when the caution is triggered is the winner. That happened Saturday night at the end (or the dictated end) of the Xfinity Series race, with Austin Hill leading and therefore getting the trophy.

That’s not optimal, but still, that was Saturday night in front of a smallish cut of the onlookers for the Daytona By God 500.

But then it happened Sunday in the Big Show. We saw the replay, and sure enough Stenhouse was a nose or so in front of Joey Logano as a pair of violent crashes were uncorking behind them.

Would Ricky Stenhouse have won Daytona 500 under green? We'll never know

We’ll never know what would’ve happened if the remaining cars had been teed up yet again for another go at it.

But we could have.

The insiders will tell you it’s foolish and risky to continue the potential of mechanical carnage.

But every now and then, as in now, it wouldn’t hurt to realize that the outsiders don’t like to see fast cars end a race at interstate speeds. Right-hand lane, at that.

Maybe there’s a proper balance out there someone hasn’t stumbled upon. It seems to be either all-in or partially-all-in for getting a green-flag finish.

Most of the time, “partially” works out fine. But it didn’t this time, and you figure a lot of casual fans were left wondering, “what the hell?”

— Reach Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Daytona 500 shouldn't end under yellow at interstate speeds | KEN WILLIS