A top NASCAR competition official conceded on Tuesday that the rule that eliminated Josh Berry from contention on the first lap on Sunday at Kansas may need to be reviewed, while also explaining why it was correctly enforced.
Berry was caught up in a Turn 2 incident that also involved Harrison Burton, Jimmie Johnson and Ty Dillon. The Stewart-Haas No. 4 driven by Berry did not seem to suffer significant damage but the spin did flatten all four tires, and as has been seen time-and-time again, this car cannot drive away when that happens.
Bran Moran, the NASCAR Cup Series managing director, addressed the incident during an appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
“The hit was hard enough on the [No.] 4 to lift the car off the ground and slam it down on the ground,” Moran said. “Basically, once you’re involved in (a Damaged Vehicle Policy incident) – 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.”
The 4 car was otherwise undamaged and crew chief Rodney Childers was livid that NASCAR officials wouldn’t even take his call in real time as the car was towed to the infield with Berry still in it.
“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 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.”
Moran says he plans to talk to Childers at some point on Tuesday.
He also says, should something similar befall a championship finalist in November at Phoenix Raceway, that the rule would continue to be applied as it is written because it’s a safety rule — and one he says the entire industry asked for.
“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,” Moran 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.”
Moran also conceded that the rule was written when the previous generation car was still in use and with the current platform being way more durable, that maybe it’s a cause for re-evaluation.
“We looked at it last off-season,” Moran said. “We’re going to take a much harder look. Unfortunately, we’ve got a couple samples that we don’t really like and we’re going to go back and take a hard look at it and get with the industry and see if there’s a modification that we can do where everybody feels is fair and equitable and that we can perform during a race without affecting the race and running multiple caution laps and negatively affecting the show.
“There’s a lot of items that need to be discussed.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.