One NASCAR Cup Series rule book update on Wednesday will likely leave Kyle Busch and the Richard Childress Racing No. 8 team feeling a little justified in how indignant the two-time champion felt in the aftermath of his elimination in the Daytona 500.
Recall that Busch was deemed eliminated from the race when after getting caught up in a crash with 15 laps to go, left the designated repair area and returned to the track but then came back to the work area all before the race resumed, with NASCAR telling them they were eliminated as a result.
Busch accused NASCAR of not understanding its own new damaged vehicle policy in an infield care center rant. NASCAR senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer then said Busch and crew chief Randall Burnett did not understand the rule based on how it was verbally explained to the teams beyond what was in writing.
“The one thing that we added this year is, at the scene of the incident, if you can’t drive away, we would hook the vehicle and we would tow it to the garage. Once you go to the garage, you’re going to get one opportunity to leave the garage and go on the racetrack. And this is not a new rule either — you get one opportunity at three consecutive green laps to meet minimum speed. Once you do that, you reset and you’re kind of back in the game.
“In Kyle’s case, he went out, left the garage, came back in and once you do that, then you’re going to be eliminated from the event.”
But that’s not exactly how the rule read.
Now, NASCAR has updated the language of its rule book to reflect that a driver can only leave the designated work area once before attempting to make minimum speed, which was not the language of the rule book at the time of the Daytona 500.
Additionally and previously, if a car was on pit road getting repairs and the time limit expired, a danged car would be forced to the garage to complete repairs. Now, repairs can continue on pit road but will result in a stop-and-go penalty.
And the team will also still need to meet minimum speed, no matter where repairs were completed.
Qualifying rules update
NASCAR has also made changes to what happens when a team is not ready to qualify at their designated time.
NASCAR will allow a driver to fall back one in line but may not be allowed to qualify if they are still not ready to do so.
Officials will handle safety matters on a case-by-case basis.
Front bumper regulation
NASCAR added a rule concerning cooling ducts on the front bumper.
“All air flow connections between the rocker box cooling ducts and exhaust cover panels must take the most direct route.”
Engineer and media member Bozi Tatarevic suggested this may be NASCAR closing a competitive loophole teams may have found.
Xfinity, Trucks body approval
NASCAR has revised the language in its body approval process for the Xfinity and Truck Series.
