NASCAR has no plans to change its rule regarding vehicles being towed to the garage before the end of the season, but admitted it will be reviewed during the offseason.
Stewart-Haas Racing’s Josh Berry was the latest driver to be frustrated by the rule after he was ruled out of Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway. Berry was involved in the lap one crash on the backstretch and felt all he needed was a tow to pit road for fresh tires. However, NASCAR mandates that if a car cannot be driven back after being involved in a crash, it is out of the race.
“The hit was hard enough on the [No.] 4 to lift the car off the ground and slam it down on the ground,” NASCAR Cup Series managing director Brad Moran told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “Basically, once you’re involved in a DVP accident (ED: Damaged Vehicle Policy) – and by the way, the IDR recorder did go off, so it was a significant incident the No.4 was in – if he couldn’t drive that car, it was out due to DVP. We don’t inspect it, obviously, on the side of the track, we don’t have that ability, but the indicator is, you drive it back, you’re good.
“If, however, he just spun and had four flat tires, he would have been towed to pit road under the flat tire recovery program. But it’s really clear on our recovery program and DVP that if you were involved in an incident, you have to be able to get your vehicle back to pit road.”
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It’s the same rule that was enforced two weeks ago with Ryan Blaney at Watkins Glen. Blaney was involved in a lap one incident that resulted in a mechanical failure, which left him unable to drive to the garage. Blaney was upset afterward about being ruled out of the race without the team having a chance to diagnose the car. However, upon learning the rule, he admitted the following week that NASCAR did its job.
If the driver has a single-car incident that results in four flat tires, NASCAR will tow the car to pit road. That’s been a necessary measure due to issues with the Next Gen vehicle becoming stuck on the track. NASCAR does allow teams to have a lifter system on the car to help when a flat tire occurs, but Berry’s team did not have it on their Ford at Kansas.
The incident at Kansas involved Berry, Harrison Burton, Jimmie Johnson, and Ty Dillon. Berry was hit in the right rear and spun off Turn 2 when Burton and Dillon came together.
“That was an experience like none other,” Berry said Sunday. “Obviously we got clipped and spun and we had four flat tires. I assumed they were going to tow the car to the pits, which is what I was asking for, and then they dropped my window net and told me to get out. Rodney (Childers) was telling me to stay in because all we needed was tires. They were telling me to get out. Then they towed me into the campground, so I was just out there chilling with the fans.
“At that point they said they had to get a rollback and they finally made me get out. Rodney was trying to talk to somebody and couldn’t get anybody on the phone. I don’t know what I am missing. I have seen plenty of cars get towed to the pits and get tires put on, so I don’t know if I am missing something or if there was something different than normal, but that was an experience, for sure.”
Childers, Berry’s crew chief, took to social media almost immediately to voice his frustration. Moran said he and Childers will speak about the incident on Tuesday.
Among the concerns are that the rule could potentially affect the championship race at Phoenix Raceway next month. Moran admitted it would be a “real bad situation” because NASCAR isn’t going to change the rule before then.
“When the incident recorder goes off, that’s a pretty big hit and the driver needs to go to the care center. All these other items have to happen for safety,” he said. “We certainly wouldn’t want that to happen, but the rule hasn’t changed (since 2017). It’s just on that particular incident (with Berry), it didn’t feel right or look right but it was done correctly.
“It’s something we’re going to review over the winter and it may change.”