NASCAR Cup Series managing director Brad Moran addressed both the confusion about how the Sanctioning Body policed Turn 6 over the weekend at Circuit of the Americas and if there will be a penalty to Austin Cindric over a right rear hook in the opening laps.
First, NASCAR did not call any sort of course cutting penalty in Turn 6 this year after doing so last year when it raced on the longer Grand Prix configuration. But this year, the shorter National Course was utilized and Turn 6 transitioned into 6A and NASCAR decided to give drivers leeway in how they attacked the corner leading into the ess.
However, despite not calling penalties all weekend, including in the Xfinity Series race, there was confusion on some team radios about the matter. Several drivers were warned by their spotters and crew chiefs to be conservative through Turn 6 just in case NASCAR decided to call it.
There were even bulky 400-plus pound TecPro Barriers through the ess just to discourage drivers from driving through it. But collaboration between NASCAR and drivers after a track walk led to those barriers being removed everywhere but 6A.
But ultimately, Moran said it is on NASCAR to better communicate those policing decisions before the race and will be clearer moving forward.
“There was a lot of energy and effort put into this one for the past six months, as you can imagine,” Moran said on Tuesday during the weekly official segment on SiriusXM NASCAR Morning Drive. “A lot of different teams, a lot of different folks, a lot of driver input on how we were going to manage it.
“There was discussion about putting the TecPro which were all prepared and in place when we arrived Thursday afternoon. They weighed about 450 pounds and were quite heavy but could more easier than we anticipated. We did a little bit of testing and got more driver feedback and we kind of changed course on what we were going to do with these TecPro plastic walls.
“They were placed in Turns 3, 4 and 5, and with the new configuration and 6 turning into 6A, we weren’t really concerned with Turn 6 so we officiated the entire day on Saturday in Xfinity only policing Turns 3, 4 and 5.”
Moran said 43 laps were disallowed in practice just to make sure teams knew what NASCAR cameras had picked up as baseline. Overall, nine drivers were included in discussions about how things would be handled after the track walk on Friday.
“No one came to the hauler so we thought we were pretty clear,” Moran said. “We redid the (driver meeting) video on Friday night because we looked at another big change once we got there. We didn’t really like the drive through penalty for short cutting COTA. It seemed like too big of a penalty for the offense. We looked at options.
“We did have in our videos that we would (order) a long lap down at Turn 13 and 14 and that wasn’t going to be enough so it was going to be a stop and go, just prior to 13 and then there was going to be a long lap to re-enter the track at 14, which everyone saw. We though we were in good shape.
“We did a lot of work communicating and felt we were in a pretty good place and then going into the Cup race on Sunday, in the first stage, we caught on a team’s scanner they weren’t sure about (short-cutting) Turn 6. Obviously, we watched it take place from the beginning of the race, and we didn’t have an issue with it.
“At that point, we have a communication system from the tower that can go to one team or all the teams on pit road penalties or any other messages. … We did fire out just to confirm we are not policing Turn 6. And then from that point on, it played out well.”
Again, Moran said that they will not ‘make the error’ of leaving even a single team confused and intend to clear up their messaging as a result.
Cindric penalty?
Cindric appeared to retaliate on Dillon on Lap 4 on the frontstretch in response to an incident that just happened between them in the corners prior.
Dillon was on the inside of Cindric and pushed the Team Penske No. 2 wide in Turn 20. Cindric ended up in the grass off a run-off area.
Cindric caught up to Dillon on the frontstretch and appeared to turn left into his right rear and into the wall. It forced several other drivers to scatter around it.
NASCAR has begun penalizing drivers for right rear hooks and a new policy for 2025 would leave Cindric with no playoff points at the start of the playoffs should NASCAR suspend him for the offense.
Moran says they’re looking at the video, telemetry and scanner data.
“Yeah, unfortunately that happened early on in the race, so there was not a caution at that point for it,” Moran said. “But, we are going to go back, and that’s on our list today, so we’ll have a look at that and see if there was something there that we do not like, and if there is we’ll have to deal with it.”
