NASCAR fans got a sense of deja vu in Kansas on the first lap as Josh Berry had to be towed into the pits, prematurely ending his race. He had four flat tires after getting spun around in a multi-car wreck off of turn 2. NASCAR deemed his car too damaged to be repaired on pit road under the DVP which spelled the end. However, the truth is that the #4 might have been able to continue. It was exactly like what happened with Ryan Blaney at Watkins Glen.
Advertisement
In an interview with SiriusXM Radio, NASCAR official Brad Moran explained why the decision was taken to discontinue Berry’s race. The DVP rule states that cars involved in wrecks that cannot drive back to the pits will not be allowed to compete again.
However, if a car has four flats and is not involved in a wreck, it will be helped back to the pit road for a tire change so that it can keep going. This rule, however, doesn’t account for cars that might not be able to drive back into the pits but require minimal repair work after which they can compete.
“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,” Moran said.
Berry did not make too much of a fuss about the decision and it did not affect those in the playoffs. However, playoff driver and reigning Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney fell victim to the same rule in the Watkins Glen race and he did not hold back his thoughts about those officiating the race.
What happened to Blaney at Watkins Glen?
Much like Berry, the Team Penske star had been involved in a wreck at the start of the race. The #12 Team Penske car suffered a broken steering column which did not allow Blaney to drive it to the pits. Apart from that, everything was fine. They perhaps could have fixed the issue and gone racing from the back again but NASCAR did not allow that as the car was unable to get to pit road under its own power.
“They didn’t give us a chance to fix it. How are they going to dictate if we are done or not? They have no idea of the damage. They said we were done because I couldn’t drive it back to the pit box, but if you have four flats, you get towed back to the pit box. You can’t drive that back. I don’t know what is going on or why they won’t give us a shot to work on it,” Blaney had said back then.
One has to understand that the officials do not have it easy either. It’s very easy to criticize them from a distance. Everything in this sport is a learning curve and everyone deserves some amount of leeway. It will be interesting to see what changes to the DVP, if any, are brought forth over the off-season.
