Happy Hour: Looking at the caution differences from 2015

It's time for Happy Hour. As always, tweet us your thoughts or shoot us an email at happyhourmailbag@yahoo.com if you want to participate.

There have been 34 cautions through the first six races of 2016. That's a decrease of 22 from the 56 cautions that happened during the first six races of 2015.

A significant factor in the decrease in cautions are the races at Atlanta and Martinsville. The two races combined for 11 cautions in 2016 while there were 26 (10 at Atlanta, 16 at Martinsvlle) in 2015. That's where 15 of the 22 come from, leaving just a seven-caution difference over the other four races.

Another factor is a decrease in debris cautions through the first six races of this season. 2016 has seen six debris cautions vs. 18 at this point a season ago. We asked NASCAR about the discrepancy and a spokesperson said yes, it's simply a coincidence and nothing has changed when it comes to the officiating of debris cautions.

And besides, six races in a 36-race season isn't much of a sample size anyway. Cautions tend to vary from year-to-year (and from race-to-race at a given track) so drawing conclusions is a bit premature. But even though we can't draw any conclusions other than noticing variance, it's still fun to look at the numbers for each race and wonder if there will be a continued trend.

Daytona
2015: 7 cautions, 1 for debris, 2 for fluid
2016: 6 cautions, 1 for debris

Atlanta
2015: 10 cautions, 1 competition, 4 for debris, 1 for fluid
2016: 3 cautions, 1 for debris

Las Vegas
2015: 6 cautions, 1 competition, 2 for debris
2016: 6 cautions, 1 competition, 2 for debris

Phoenix
2015: 10 cautions, 3 for debris
2016: 5 cautions, 1 for debris

Auto Club
2015: 7 cautions, 5 for debris
2016: 6 cautions, 1 for debris

Martinsville
2015: 16 cautions, 3 for debris
2016: 8 cautions

And since we're talking about cautions, expect 6 or 7 cautions during Saturday night's race at Texas. That seems to be the norm.

Before we forget, the March Madness Final Four is an interesting one. It's Jamie McMurray, Carl Edwards, Joey Logano and Matt Kenseth. It'd be funny if Kenseth won our meaningless competition given the start to the season he's had.

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I couldn't believe my eyes when NASCAR refused to black flag Jamie McMurray late in the race with the obvious tire rub. If they love contrived restarts soooo much let them go with the caution clock like they have started in the Camping World Truck Series. - Don

Don's referring to the final caution of Sunday's race which was thrown when Jamie McMurray spun following a flat tire. The tire going flat was very predictable as McMurray drove for a while with a tire rub. We noted after Sunday's race that NASCAR waited for McMurray's car to drive a half lap slowly before spinning to throw the caution while being quick on the caution trigger earlier in the race.

It's not NASCAR protocol to throw a caution because a driver has a tire rub. Sometimes those issues work themselves out without a flat tire. While it was evident McMurray was likely going to have a problem, it's neither his nor NASCAR's fault for not pitting there. The team was hoping he'd make it to the finish without the tire going flat.

This is what we get for making fun of the ridiculous reaction to Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s sponsor plug tweet on Tuesday of his banana and mayonnaise sandwich. As we told you Tuesday, we first talked about Junior's love of the sandwich in 2014, but the content world apparently has a very short memory and was fascinated by the novelty of his tastes this week.

Today, a fundraising quest came of the tweet. Hopefully some kids can not be hungry thanks to the fascination.

Ernie Els had a disastrous start to his Masters on Thursday. He carded a 10 after 7-putting from (six from two feet!) on the first hole. Yes, really.

We've been thinking about this for a while. Since it came on the first hole it's not a "choke," but rather a horrible mishap at the beginning of a race that knocks your whole day out of sorts. So we're going to go with the 2002 fall Talladega race when Mark Martin and Jimmie Johnson collided before the race began.

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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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