NASCAR met with Cup Series crew chiefs and key team personnel on Thursday to clarify how the intersection of the Damaged Vehicle Policy and Flat Tire Recovery Program will work moving forward after an inconsistent application over the weekend at Talladega.
The meeting was detailed by Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 crew chief Chris Gabehart during his weekly SiriusXM NASCAR Radio call as soon as he jumped off that call.
“NASCAR called to try to clean up some of what happened in an admittedly unprecedented situation at Talladega this past weekend and how it exposed some vulnerabilities in the current DVP process. Now, I am a proponent of vulnerability or not, in the moment, the rule is the rule and in black and white.
“It’s stated that if you’re deemed in an incident and you can’t drive back to your pit box, you’re out of the race. It doesn’t matter how good or bad that rule is, just like it was at Kansas with Josh Berry, that was the rule and everybody can stomach it and understand it.
NASCAR spoke with crew chiefs this week about what its DVP/tow policy will be for the rest of the season:
– If a car has repairable damage and flat tires (e.g. the 9 and 14 at ‘Dega), will be towed back and put on DVP policy
– If a car has significant damage (oil or water spewing, broken radiator, etc.) will be towed to the garage and out of the race
– If a car has inflated tires but cannot drive back to pit road from an incident (e.g., Ryan Blaney at Watkins Glen), it will be declared out of the race.
