Sprint Cup managing director Richard Buck on issues that were addressed
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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — NASCAR officials did a bit of fine-tuning of their own Thursday, issuing a bulletin that involves, among other items, qualifying procedures and unapproved adjustments just one day before NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams will take to the track for the first time this season.
In some instances, it’s more a matter of having something that’s already understood by teams simply spelled out in the rule book.
“Based on … feedback for qualifying, as an example, we just defined the expectations, what’s expected of the drivers,” said Richard Buck, managing director for the Sprint Cup Series.
“The rules for each track are specific for the blend line, pit road speed, the commitment line and then (we) defined joining the pack again, getting up to speed. You’ve got to do it in an appropriate manner.”
Any perceived attempts to gain an advantage or slow another car’s or cars’ progress would not be treated lightly.
“It’s a judgmental (penalty),” Buck said. “If we see it, and it’s egregious then we may take the time away, and we may park the car for the qualifying session. We are mainly looking to make sure that it’s done in the fashion that we all know it should be and that it’s a safe ingress and egress from the pack.”
The sanctioning body also re-visited the issue of teams altering or manipulating vertical rocker panel extensions, commonly known as side skirts. It was announced earlier this season that the practice, which became commonplace last season, would no longer be allowed. However, the specifics of penalties involving any such alterations were clearly spelled out.
The bulletin addresses all unapproved body modifications.
RELATED: Bulletin addresses qualifying, skirt penalties
“We added another bracket to the left-hand side (of) the body to help stabilize the bodywork in front of the rear wheel,” Buck said. But if we find any manipulation of the body, whether it’s the side skirts or front fenders or the roof pushed down, whatever it is … if we can identify that there’s been modifications to the car during the event, we’ll bring that car down (pit road).”
If such a modification occurs while the race is under caution, the driver will be required to return to pit road and the team must repair the area in question to the satisfaction of race officials.
“(The driver) will rejoin the field at the tail with the other penalty cars that must take the green on the track and then come down and do a green-flag pass through unimpeded by another yellow,” Buck said.
“On a green-flag situation, we will call the car down pit road under green. They’ve got to repair it and then they can go back out so that’s essentially the repair and the green-flag pass through.”
Sprint Cup Series teams make their first appearance on the race track Friday as practice for Saturday’s Sprint Unlimited at Daytona International Speedway get underway. The season’s first points race, the Daytona 500, is scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 22 on FOX.
“The most important thing for us,” Buck said, “is to make sure it’s a level playing field for everybody, so if somebody is manipulating the car in any way, we now have language in there that allows us to address it firmly and fairly for everybody.”