In a Tuesday morning appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NASCAR official Brad Moran addressed a Lap 1 incident at Kansas Speedway that sent Josh Berry to the garage on Sunday.
Berry was collected in an incident exiting Turn 2 that sent his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford into a slide, ultimately flattening all four of his tires as he spun down the backstretch. The crash began with contact between Ty Dillon and Harrison Burton, tipping Burton directly into Berry’s right-rear wheel and turning around the No. 4 car.
Though the damage was likely repairable, Berry was unable to drive his car back to pit road. As NASCAR Cup Series Managing Director Brad Moran explained on “The Morning Drive” Tuesday morning, because Berry was involved in an incident, the No. 4 car was deemed out of the race and ineligible to be towed to pit road for fresh tires.
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That ruling is consistent with NASCAR’s flat tire recovery program, which was issued to teams ahead of the 2024 Daytona 500.
“The rule hasn’t changed, but it certainly can give a different view when it happens and it’s unfortunate,” Moran told SiriusXM. “But the 4, the 16, 21, and 84 were all involved in a wreck on the backstretch. The hit was hard enough on the 4 to lift the car off the ground, slam it down on the ground. And by the way, the IDR (incident) recorder did go off. So it was a significant incident that the 4 was in. If he couldn’t drive that car back, it was out due to DVP (Damaged Vehicle Policy). We don’t inspect it, obviously, on the site of the track. We haven’t got that ability. But the indicator is, you drive it back, you’re good.
“If, however, he just spun and had four flat tires, he would have been towed to pit road under the flat tire recovery program. But it’s really clear on our recovery program and our DVP that if you’re involved in an incident, you have to be able to get your vehicle back to pit road. If it’s just sitting there (with) flat tires, you spun out — we’ll even give you (if you had) a light scuff — that would be one thing. That vehicle would have been towed in.”
“[…] From the reports I had, the car really wasn’t damaged and probably could have participated. And we never want to take vehicles out of the race, and that is our rule. It’s similar to what you know happened to the 12 [at Watkins Glen], but he did have a mechanical issue. But unfortunately, you just don’t have the ability to inspect that. It’s more if they can drive it back or not.”
Moran added that a lift system was also given to teams as an optional device to install on their cars ahead of and since the Aug. 18 race at Michigan International Speedway, allowing safety teams to use air to lift the back of the shock dampeners and all the vehicle on flat tires. The No. 4 opted not to utilize the lift system at Kansas.
While Berry is not competing in this year’s NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, Ryan Blaney and his No. 12 Team Penske group are. As Moran alluded to, Blaney’s No. 12 Ford was involved in a Lap 1 incident at Watkins Glen International and towed to the garage despite no visible damage to the body, the team frustrated the car was not towed toward pit road. But damage revealed Blaney’s mechanical issues likely would have ousted him from competition regardless.
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The rule has been long-standing but officials may consider changes over the offseason.
“On that particular incident, it didn’t feel right or look right, but it was done correctly,” Moran said of Sunday’s ruling. “And it’s, again, something we’re going to review over the winter and it may change.”
The Damaged Vehicle Policy was instituted in the fall of 2017 and allots Cup teams seven minutes to repair damage incurred and meet minimum speed following the conclusion of those repairs. Those protocols were put in place while the steel-bodied Gen 6 cars were still in use before the Next Gen vehicle was introduced in 2022.
“We’re learning, every time it goes out there, different ways this car reacts,” Moran said. “It certainly reacts a little different in incidents and crashes. And there’s certain parts on the car that are a little weaker, but there’s definitely many parts that seem to hold in a lot better, obviously, being the body for one, which changes the game.
“We’re going to go back. We looked at it last offseason. We’re going to take a much harder look. Unfortunately, we had a couple samples that we don’t really like, and we’re going to go back and take a hard look at it and get with the industry and see if there’s a modification that we can do where everybody feels is fair and equitable, and as well that we can perform during a race day without affecting the race and running multiple caution laps and just the show itself. So there’s a lot of items that need to be discussed.”