CONCORD, N.C. — Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

That’s the situation NTT IndyCar Series officials found themselves in during the Aug. 23 Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. With five laps to go in the greatest of all races (the Indy 500 in general, I mean), Spencer Pigot’s crash set up a howling debate on whether or not a red flag should have been waved so the race could have ended under the green flag, rather than the yellow.

Now, for those of you who have read my stuff over the years, you know I am a traditionalist of the first water when it comes to the Indy 500. That’s part of what makes it the greatest of all races: from “Back Home Again” to the milk in victory lane, it’s an event that cries out for pomp, circumstances and everything else.

Pigot, as you know, tank-slapped his machine off the turn-four wall and slid all the way across the track into the attenuator at the end of the pit wall. Not only did he damage it, he obliterated it, scattering debris over half the west side of the city (I kid, but you get the point) and making it very difficult indeed to finish the race in the allotted time and number of laps.

With respect to many who felt it unseemly that a red flag was not displayed to preserve the finish, I say this: better safe than sorry.

Sure, IndyCar could have stopped the cars and begun an estimated 90-minute repair of the attenuator. That’s how long it would have taken, according to sources, and it would have pushed the end of the race far past the end of NBC’s broadcast window.

That’s the first point.

The second point, no less important than the first, is that it takes time to get the cars back on track and formed up. Plus, you’ve put a cycle on the tires, the cars have sat for more than an hour, possibly two, and Indy cars are not like stock cars as they’re a bit more finicky when it comes to start-stop scenarios.

The third — and most important — point has to do with driver safety.

There’s no telling what would have happened in the remaining two or three laps. When you are battling open wheel to open wheel at insane speeds, stuff happens.

Quickly.

I’ve been to a lot of Indy 500s and I’ve seen last-lap carnage before. Alessandro Zampedri flew into the catch fence off turn four heading for the checkered flag in 1996. That was as ugly as it gets. The race was effectively over at that point anyway, but still, the red flag waved right away along with the checkered flag.

I get you: Yellow-flag finishes, in the words of runner-up Scott Dixon, “Suck.” NASCAR’s green-white-checkered rule produces some exciting finishes. Still, you’re talking about a late-race restart after two hours or more of the cars sitting idle on pit road.

In the overall scheme of things, IndyCar made the proper choice in allowing the race to continue under caution. That gave Sato the victory over Dixon and deprived the TV audience of a classic finish, but it was the right thing to do given the circumstances.

Nobody is perfect. Judgment calls are judgment calls, and the judgment was it would take too long to return the track to racing conditions. You don’t want low-slung, single-seat Indy cars racing at today’s speeds without an attenuator at the end of the blade-like pit wall. Ask Dennis Firestone. Ask Kevin Cogan.

Tradition is one thing. Making the right call in spite of it is another.

IndyCar made the right call.