NASCAR has basically sent a warning to teams to not drive off the track, onto the dirt, during cool down laps after a race in an apparent effort to increase weight prior to post-race technical inspection.
Ross Chastain and Shane Van Gisbergen were recognized for that tactic but Joey Logano was revealed to have done it following the race on Sunday at World Wide Technology Raceway.
NASCAR Cup Series managing director Brad Moran said teams would receive a memo discouraging it this week and managing director of communications Mike Forde echoed that sentiment on Wednesday in his ‘Hauler Talk’ podcast.
“We did not care for it, not one bit,” Forde said. “We’re going to just remind teams this is something where we actually have a rule. I think we’re going to give (Trackhouse) a little bit of a warning. But there is a rule that says what they did — you could argue — broke a rule, and there could have been repercussions for it. But I think we’re going to allow the teams sort of a gimme here and say moving forward be aware that we are going to be looking at this.”
The rule referenced by Forde would be 6421.b, where cars are considered to be under impound conditions as soon as they take the checkered flag and must not be altered or adjusted in any manner during the cool down lap or on pit road before reaching the inspection area.
The most logical explanation, because there is a tremendous amount of historical precedence for it, is that drivers run into the grass in the attempt to gain additional weight so they meet the minimum tolerance.
“That is something that we’ll frown upon in a significant way,” Forde said. “Whether that is going to be an in-race penalty or a DQ, that is going to be determined after the event. It depends on how blatant the violation was. I don’t think we’re going to outline exactly what the repercussions would be because we’re going to take it on a case-by-case basis.”
Chastain and Van Gisbergen finished 24th and 25th respectively but were required to undergo inspection since both are playoff drivers. They left the second race of the first round 19 points above and 15 points below the cutline respectively.
Note that Alex Bowman was disqualified last year after the race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway for failing to make minimum weight, a reflection of how close teams are cutting it. That disqualification resulted in his elimination from the playoffs and the reinstatement of Joey Logano into the Round of 8.
“These teams are pushing it so close to the line on weight,” Forde said. “They know exactly how to math it out where we give them a 17-pound tolerance after the race. In Darlington, we measured every single playoff car, and there were a couple of cars that were within a pound of almost failing and being DQd.”
