There wasn’t a lot for NASCAR vice president of competition Elton Sawyer to have to explain on Tuesday during his weekly segment on SiriusXM Radio this week so instead he offered his compliments to all three divisions for a solid weekend of racing at Las Vegas.
That includes the beleaguered Truck Series, which delivered the race of the weekend, without much carnage or controversy alongside it.
“I was just talking to Seth Kramlich, the managing series director for the Truck Series, and I told him the same thing,” Sawyer said on The Morning Drive. “I told him he needed to send a note to all the drivers and commend them because they did a great job.
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“They’ve been under the spotlight for a lot of the wrong reasons, backing up here in Phoenix last year and at Daytona, but I thought they did a great job at Atlanta and backed it up again at Vegas.
“So I think those guys are on a positive path. They put on some of our best racing at the national series level and there’s a big delta between experience levels but I think even our young (drivers) are starting to figure it out.”
Why NASCAR displays illegal parts
It used to be commonplace but after a decade long hiatus, NASCAR resumed the practice of displaying illegal parts or components a week after a decision is finalized so that the entire industry could receive a degree of transparency.
Most recently, over the weekend at Las Vegas, NASCAR’s Brad Moran displayed both the much-ballyhooed glove that Joey Logano wore in qualifying at Atlanta in addition to the roof air deflectors brought to the track by two Stewart Haas Racing teams that were deemed non-compliant.
Sawyer said he wasn’t sure why NASCAR got out of the habit of displaying the parts but also agreed that the transparency has been a welcome element over the past three seasons.
“We appreciate our fans weighing in on that and giving us positive feedback because we don’t always get that,” Sawyer said. “In this case, it’s something we used to do back in the day, takes parts they found and display them outside of the hauler so teams could come by and look at them, know what they can’t do.
“There was a period of time that we got away from that. I’m not a hundred percent sure why, but we did and now we revisited that and we feel it’s the right thing to do, being transparent with the garage area, fans and media so everyone knows why the deterrent needs to be what it is.”
Sawyer said NASCAR doesn’t want to be in that position but agrees that being open about everything has been a positive element.
Penalizing Owen Larson?
Kyle Larson was joined by nine year old son Owen on the frontstretch, and eventually joined by daughter Audrey too, but it created a degree of controversy when the oldest son pulled on both the air deflector rail and the rear spoiler during the celebration.
That’s an area NASCAR has monitored and penalized in the past but Sawyer says they are cognizant of both Owen’s age and wanting to protect the moment.
“If you look at our sport, it’s a family sport, and to see Kyle win the race and Owen come running across the infield there, I just thought that was a great moment,” Sawyer said. “We’ve seen that before.
“We’ve seen Kevin Harvick and Keelan at Michigan a couple years ago. We do want to preserve the vehicle and make sure it gets through the inspection process.
But in this case, there was no issues there. If we see issues going forward, then we will, you know, we’ll get with the teams and the drivers and say, ‘Hey, we probably need to look at it from this angle.’ But I will say that was a special moment and to see that was great.”
Sawyer said everyone has a job to do in NASCAR but he also recognizes this is an entertainment sport and he wants drivers to be able to celebrate with their loved ones.
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.