NASCAR officials don‘t meddle in teams‘ strategic decisions, but they will judge the merits if a questionable tactical call affects the outcome of a race.
That was the case Sunday at Kansas Speedway, where a late caution sent the race into overtime after Denny Hamlin had been barely a lap away from victory.
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Hamlin lost the lead on the final restart and then noted the yellow flag had flown for a spin by Cody Ware, who was multiple laps down and stretching a set of tires to the max when he lost control.
On the latest episode of the “Hauler Talk” podcast, NASCAR vice president of race communications Mike Forde explained how teams outside of contention are warned about impacting the fortunes of front-running cars. NASCAR uses a blue flag to make slower cars aware when lead-lap cars are approaching, and officials also use a Microsoft Teams chat system to communicate with teams during the race.
“In so many words, it‘s ‘Don’t be part of this outcome, be aware that there are leaders battling for the win here, so don‘t be part of the story,‘” Forde said. “If they do become part of the story, nothing will happen to them. We’re not going to lay down any penalties unless they do something intentional, in our opinion. But as far as what Cody did, it’s kind of a racing deal, as they say.”
But Forde said NASCAR will meet with teams when a race‘s dynamics are affected by a team outside contention.
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“There are times where we have called people to the hauler — spotters, crew chiefs, drivers — if they’ve done something that we consider unintelligent,” Forde said. “There’s been examples of guys who have stayed out on a crazy amount of tires and are in the lead, and then the restart is a disaster area. Sometimes we’d call them into the hauler and say, ‘Hey, next time, let’s be a little bit smarter here.‘ You’re just not going to win a race with that strategy that you just tried to employ. All you’re going to do is really piss off everyone else in the garage. And that’s just not something you want to do if you want to have any success in the sport.”
NASCAR senior director of racing communications Amanda Ellis explained how the virtual chat system is used to communicate with team members during a race.
“It was used a couple of times this past weekend at Kansas just to send a note,” Ellis said. “Friendly reminders that we‘re watching and what the expectation is.”
Forde noted that race director Tim Bermann sometimes relays the message via NASCAR‘s public radio channel.
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“That’s Tim using his 40 years of race directing experience and having a gut feeling that something bad may happen, so let me just say something so something bad doesn’t happen,” Forde said. “If it’s pretty tight and there’s a lot of lapped traffic, he’ll just remind everyone to mind their P’s and Q’s.”
Other topics covered by Forde and Ellis during the 50th episode of “Hauler Talk,” which explores competition issues in NASCAR:
— The possibility of racing Crossover Utility Vehicles, which won‘t be coming to any NASCAR national series in the near future.
— Why no driver was penalized for the incident in the pits between Ryan Blaney and AJ Allmendinger.
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— The review of Carson Kvapil‘s airborne crash and flip in the O‘Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Kansas Speedway.
— NASCAR‘s evaluation of the racing on 1.5-mile speedways this season.
— A report on Day 1 of tire testing at Chicagoland Speedway, which drew a crowd of about 1,000 fans to the track in Joliet, Illinois.
Nate Ryan has written about NASCAR since 1996 while working at the San Bernardino Sun, Richmond Times-Dispatch, USA TODAY and for the past 10 years at NBC Sports Digital. He is a contributor to the “Hauler Talk” show on the NASCAR Podcast Network. He has also covered various other motorsports, including the IndyCar and IMSA series.
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