Last weekend saw NASCAR issue 40 penalties across its three national series races for drivers exceeding the track limits at the COTA road course. Shaken by the number of infringers and the high involvement of the race officials, Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s Vice President of Competition, said on Tuesday that they would take a deeper look into the matter.
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While most drivers and fans would welcome leniency in the track limit rules, Kevin Harvick is all for them being tighter than they are now. As things stand, NASCAR enforces track limits only at the esses at COTA and not the rest of the track. He expressed his views on the “Harvick Happy Hour” podcast and said that track limits need to be enforced throughout the other corners as well.
“I think COTA would actually race better if we had track limits [Throughout the course],” he said. “NASCAR’s point is, ‘Hey, we are not to the point of being able to officiate it yet.’ They need to hurry up. We need to officiate every corner on a road course. I think that track limits will make every road course a better race track.” Continuing, he used the example of the Sonoma Raceway to make his case.
Where NASCAR stands on the COTA road course track limit issue
Sawyer said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that the reason there weren’t limits on the other corners in COTA was because there wasn’t any lap time to be gained in those areas. He was also wary of how the spotlight being on his officials for most of the race wasn’t a favorable outcome. “COTA is very challenging,” he said. “I would rather go to Daytona, Talladega, and Atlanta every day of the week from an officiating standpoint.
Noting how the esses have a lot of asphalt, he added, “It puts a premium on the officiating and the lap time there. Although it’s a 3.41-mile course, there is a lot of lap time to be gained through the esses.” One of the key points that adds pressure on Sawyer and the promotion to dive deeper into the track limits is the penalty that Chase Elliott received on Sunday.
The Hendrick Motorsports star was penalized heavily for breaking the limit even though he did not mean to do so. Sawyer admitted that the punishment could’ve been a tad bit heavy. “We don’t want to over-officiate,” he concluded. “That’s not what we want to do. Again, we don’t need 20, or 30 penalties in a race. We don’t need that. So, all of those things will be taken into consideration.”
