The 2025 Daytona 500 is not a race that Kyle Busch will recall fondly many years from now. With 15 laps left to reach the checkered flag, he was eliminated by NASCAR for breaking the new Damaged Vehicle Policy. He contended that the officials did not understand the rule they’d themselves implemented. The accusation was reverted at him.
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However, NASCAR has now gone out and changed the wording of the policy in its rule book. Following a crash in the final stage of the race, Busch reached the designated work area. His car was worked on and sent back to the track. He returned to make further changes. All this happened before the race resumed from caution.
He was eliminated under the purview of the fact that a car can leave the work area only once before attempting to reach minimum speed under green. Elton Sawyer, Senior VP of Competition, detailed, “You get one opportunity at three consecutive green laps to meet minimum speed. Once you do that, you reset, and you’re kind of back in the game.”
“In Kyle’s case, he went out, left the garage, came back in, and once you do that, then you’re going to be eliminated from the event.” But this is not what the rule book originally said. It has now been updated to sync with the words of Sawyer and clarifies that a driver can leave the designated work area only once before attempting to make minimum speed.
There is a time frame inside which cars need to be repaired on the pit road. If this frame is exceeded, the damaged car has to be taken to the garage.
However, the promotion has tweaked this mandate. Repairs can continue on the pit road. But a stop-and-go penalty will be issued to the driver. He will also need to reach the minimum speed regardless of where the work was done.
Kyle Busch, for one, is not going to be pleased with how the wording on the rule book has been updated now. Ranting to the press in Daytona, he said, “… And then was told that if we needed to work on it and repair it, you need to go back to that place (the designated work area), but if you go back to that place, they park you.”
He complained that he was given three attempts to reach minimum speed either. The two-time champion continued his outburst on social media and wrote that he got beat by NASCAR procedures. A fair contention considering that he was in place for a top finish had it not been for the confusion.
