To tow or not to tow is the question NASCAR needs to answer amid the chaos

A few weeks ago at Watkins Glen, when Ryan Blaney was knocked out of the race without the opportunity for his team to check his car, it seemed that NASCAR’s damaged vehicle policy had a flaw.

In a world of three-race rounds in the playoffs, a team should get to see if it can fix a car in the seven minutes permitted by the rules.

That rule is good. As much as many people loved the mystique of mechanics thrashing on cars so they could get back in a race 10-15 minutes later and potentially getting a point if others wrecked, it seemed to be a lot of work with dangerous implications. The car could still lose parts and pieces on the track. It subjected crew members to minor burns and cuts from working on and underneath the car.

Of all the things teams complain about, the seven minutes to fix the car is not one of them. It kept cars that were potentially compromised from a safety aspect off the track, firesuits from being ruined and the costs of bringing additional parts and pieces to the track.

The teams just want the seven minutes to try to do something. Under NASCAR’s previous interpretation of its policy, it wouldn’t tow a car that had damage from a wreck to the pit box so a team could see if it could fix the car. The driver’s race was over.

It seemed so wrong at the time when it came to Blaney.

Blaney was mad about it at Watkins Glen (albeit his car likely was damaged beyond repair). Then Josh Berry was mad about it at Kansas (where his car wasn’t damaged beyond repair). Berry’s ouster would have generated more buzz and outrage if he was in the playoffs.

And then came Talladega. And it was a doozy.

A 28-car pileup resulted in NASCAR towing cars — including playoff cars — to pit road with damage. 

The move certainly raised eyebrows. Everything that was understood about the interpretation of the rule was thrown out the window. It went from an unfair rule that was understandable to confusion. Who was getting towed? What determined who would be towed?

NASCAR Senior VP Elton Sawyer said the rule isn’t designed to keep good race cars out of the race and in the instance of Berry at Kansas, they “probably could have made a different call there.”

The change in that view was never communicated to teams until by NASCAR’s actions with four laps to go at Talladega. That was a better interpretation of the rule, but that shouldn’t have been a surprise.

And as Kevin Harvick pointed out on his “Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour” podcast this week, it does need to be a coordinated effort with an idea of how cars would be scored after being towed if they can’t get the car fixed or meet minimum speed.

The most important thing moving forward is communication on how this will be managed over the final five races of the season. Sure it would be nice to let things evolve in a “we’ll know it when we see it” fashion, but there is no time for that. In three-race rounds to determine a champion, there has to be a more defined process.

The playoffs are designed to create chaos and all the competitors know that, even if they don’t like it. But from an integrity and fairness lens, that chaos can’t bleed into confusion on whether a wrecked car or driver can continue or is knocked out of a race. 

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.

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