Why no victory lap?

[KC]

I am curious to now if anyone has heard why Sterling Marlin was not allowed to make a victory lap with a flag brought out to him by his crew? I saw a NASCAR official sternly warning Marlin about it as he sat on the side of the track when the team rushed the car with the flag. Unless the officials thought Marlin could somehow affect his car so that a rules infraciton would not be evident in post race inspection, I would not see any harm in a victory lap and some object patriotism. I'm sure there is some logical reason behind it.

[Joe Fan]

My guess was that they were pushing the time envelope and NASCAR felt that they needed to do NBC a favor and have him pull into the pits for the post-race driver interview.

[Emfa]

The official line was

NASCAR said it stopped Marlin from taking the lap because his crew had run out to the finish line to bring him the flag and the amount of people out there made it unsafe.

I don't buy that I'm afraid - Sterling's going to run into his crew? I don't think so! Joe's theory seems more plausible. It just seems odd that they would let Earnhardt Jr do it a few weeks ago, but not Marlin.