For second time in two weeks, a JGR driver is critical over timing of caution
WATCH: Hamlin upset over delayed caution
Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR’s executive vice president and chief racing development officer, said the sanctioning body plans to reach out to Joe Gibbs Racing and driver Denny Hamlin to discuss safety and the timing of a caution period at last weekend’s race at Kansas Speedway.
Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota crashed with 60 laps left in Saturday night’s SpongeBob SquarePants 400, scraping along the frontstretch wall before sliding to a stop in the racing groove at the entrance to Turn 1. After emerging in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series garage, Hamlin was critical of the timing of the yellow flag in a televised interview.
The incident marked the second straight week that a Joe Gibbs Racing driver has criticized the timing of a late-race yellow, on the heels of Carl Edwards‘ pointed remarks the week before at Talladega Superspeedway. O’Donnell said Monday morning during NASCAR officials’ weekly debrief with NASCAR.com that he planned to keep the lines of communication open.
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“First and foremost, we always talk to our competitors,” O’Donnell said. “A lot of times, they’ll come up to the hauler after a race with a concern. We didn’t see Denny or anyone from the team post-race, so we’ll certainly reach out during the week to talk to them, but talking to the folks that were in race control Saturday night, David Hoots, as soon as he was alerted to the incident, looked down and saw Denny’s car and threw the caution immediately.”
O’Donnell also touched on the topic of safety equipment on pit road in the wake of a pair of recent incidents involving Richard Childress Racing, which is exploring additional protective clothing for its over-the-wall personnel. Two RCR crew members for driver Brendan Gaughan and a member of another team’s crew were injured during an XFINITY Series blaze at Richmond, and a smaller fire broke out involving the Sprint Cup team for driver Ryan Newman the following week at Talladega.
“We’ve had a number of internal conversations about what’s worn on pit road,” O’Donnell said. “We’ve talked to a lot of the teams, taken an inventory of what equipment they have and then what equipment is available for immediate purchase. We have all that now, and you’ll see us continue to work with the race teams to become more and more safe in terms of what they’re wearing on pit road. I think they understand we learned a lot from the last incident, and they understand where we are going forward and are already taking steps to comply with that.”
RELATED: RCR teams adopt enhanced fire safety measures
Among the other topics O’Donnell discussed:
— Kevin Harvick‘s recent call for changes to the Sprint Cup schedule: “We certainly listen to the drivers, but they’re one of many stakeholders. We’ve got to talk to the tracks, we’ve got to see what the fans thought, our broadcast partners as well. So certainly from a West Coast swing perspective, we believed it was a success. The tracks were very happy with what they saw, something they can build upon, but we’re still in the early stages of that dialogue and talking with our track partners about some opportunities for ’16 and beyond. One of the things, though, to keep in mind is that tracks really need as much stability as possible in terms of their dates, so fans can get used to it, can plan ahead and make their schedules for ’16 and know where they can go from a race date standpoint. So, a lot of those conversations going on and as soon as we can lock the dates in, we want to get out ahead of it and announce those dates for the fans.”
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— On the possible expansion of the Sprint Cup schedule to include Iowa Speedway, site of Sunday’s 3M 250 (2 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN Radio, Sirius XM) for the XFINITY Series: “Well, I think when you look at our Cup schedule now, our calendar is full, so I would never say never. Iowa is a terrific race track. We’ve got three events this year — XFINITY racing this Sunday that we’re really looking forward to, and then another XFINITY race and then a Truck (Series) race as well. The fans always come out in droves, the race drivers always love going there and always put on a good race, so we’re really looking forward to a terrific weekend all the way around with the trucks and the All-Star Race in Charlotte, and then a number of us will hop on a plane and head out to Iowa and watch kind of a tripleheader as we go see the XFINITY Series in Iowa.”
— On the progress for determining a Sprint Cup rules package for the 2016 season: “Again, I’d say still ongoing discussions, still early in the process. We stated at the beginning of the year that we really targeted August 1st to be out with the rules package, so we’re looking at everything from the current package that we have all the way through with a number of different options and certainly working with Goodyear. We don’t want to change just for change’s sake. We want to make sure that we have the right package and continue to improve upon the racing each and every race, so those discussions with continue this weekend with a number of the competitors, and we’ve got to match it all, as I said, with Goodyear.”