The latest episode of the “Hauler Talk” podcast explored how Austin Cindric avoided a suspension for wrecking Ty Dillon at Circuit of The Americas.
Cindric was fined $50,000 and docked 50 points for spinning Dillon with right-rear contact after their cars collided in the March 2 race in Austin, Texas.
RELATED: Cup Series standings | Video of Cindric-Dillon incident
For similar right-rear hook maneuvers, NASCAR had suspended Bubba Wallace (for wrecking Kyle Larson in the Oct. 16, 2022 race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway) and Chase Elliott (who crashed Denny Hamlin in the May 29, 2023 race at Charlotte Motor Speedway). But those wrecks happened on ovals, which NASCAR managing director of racing communications Mike Forde said was an important distinction from Cindric’s penalty on a road course.
“The reason we landed on the points and fine is we take every situation and every violation as its own unique incident, and I know fans probably don’t love hearing that, but it’s said because it’s true,” Forde said. “Sure, we do look at past instances to help educate ourselves on how we should handle each subsequent one, but each incident is very different.
“In this case, we did feel that it was significantly different than the previous two. And the reasons are it is at a road course with lower speeds to begin with, and the results didn’t even draw a caution flag. So those were really the reasons why we chose to err on the side of letting (Cindric) race this weekend in Phoenix with a fine and a significant driver points penalty. … When I hit social media after this penalty is announced, my guess is that there is going to be several people who feel this is the wrong call. And it may not be the popular call, but when we look at penalties, we do not really care how popular we are. We try to do the right thing here.”
Cindric falls from 11th to 35th in the standings despite a promising start to the season. The Team Penske driver was wrecked after leading late in the Daytona 500 and at Atlanta Motor Speedway before retaliating against Dillon at COTA.
Forde said the recent wrecks of Cindric were raised during the penalty discussion but didn’t necessarily influence the penalty.
“His frustration was at a boiling point,” Forde said. “Why he did it doesn’t make it right and didn’t come into our thought process of where we should land here. It was strictly because of the speeds and the venue. We didn’t view this the same as Bubba Wallace and Chase Elliott incidents at mile-and-a-half tracks. So that’s really what the thinking was. But it was helpful to tell the story of what led into this whether that was brought up as food for thought or ‘Hey, if you’re wondering why someone who seems like a pretty level-headed dude in Austin Cindric would do something like that, this is probably why.’ ” …
The latest “Hauler Talk” guest was Goodyear senior technical project manager Mark Keto, who discussed the option tire that will be used at Phoenix Raceway in Sunday’s Cup race with an eye toward using it in the championship finale.
Keto confirmed the tire will be the same as the option tires used last year for the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway and the Aug. 11 race at Richmond Raceway, which drew positive reviews from drivers lobbying to use it at last year’s title race in Phoenix.
“There was some discussion leading into the (2024) championship about running an option tire, but everybody kind of talked, and we decided we don’t want to throw that into the championship weekend,” Keto said. “So then we decided to bring it for the spring race to try to something different. There’s no better test than put it in right in the competition.
“Long term, we don’t plan on utilizing option tires and having two tire choices in most race weekends. We’re going to see what we learn here.”
Goodyear also will hold a tire test Monday at Phoenix with Chevrolet’s Austin Dillon, Ford’s Josh Berry and Toyota’s Tyler Reddick.
Other topics covered during the fourth episode of “Hauler Talk,” which explores competition issues in NASCAR:
— The confusion over why track limits never were called in the Turn 6 section of the COTA race weekend and why the TecPro Barriers (which originally were intended to serve as “natural” track limits) were removed after concerns from NASCAR and drivers.
— The penalty received by Kyle Larson’s team for a loose wheel during the race.
— The decision to approve Katherine Legge to make her Cup debut at Phoenix.
Click on the embed above to listen or search for “Hauler Talk” wherever you download podcasts to hear it on your phone, tablet or mobile device.
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 new “Hauler Talk” show on the NASCAR Podcast Network. He also has covered various other motorsports, including the IndyCar and IMSA series.