No inner liners on the tires, no dollies; yet, a rear diffuser, a lower ride height, and a larger brake package. Sounds cool on paper, but when your car gets beached on all flats with nowhere to move, it turns into an entirely different story. Well, that is exactly how NASCAR commissions their Next-Gen machines. And Tony Stewart’s soon-to-depart race team felt the detriment of those sanctions in Kansas.

After a multi-car wreck on Lap 1, Josh Berry’s #4 car found itself on four flat tires, trying to avoid the carnage triggered by Harrison Burton & Ty Dillon. Unable to get started, NASCAR forced him to end his race early, although his car suffered no particular damage. This bewildered many. However, the controversial spotter cast of the Door Bumper Clear podcast has been posing some interesting questions to those accountable.

Four flat tires ended a perfectly good race with no damage

On the October 1st episode of their podcast, Brett Griffin, Freddie Kraft, and TJ Majors sat down to dissect the highlights and lowlights of the Kansas weekend. Ross Chastain’s disruptor win might be the talk of the town heading to Talladega next Sunday. But the spotters also laid their eyes on Josh Berry’s issue. At least half a dozen vehicles were involved in the incident. But NASCAR only held back the #4 car, and it couldn’t register even a single lap after the tow truck took it back to the campgrounds instead of the pit stall. Brett Griffin asserted, “This has to stop happening…”

He explained that “these guys spend three days of their life. Left their families at home with a hurricane coming. And they spent a gazillion dollars to build this car… to qualify, practice, race it.” And in Berry’s case particularly, for whatever reason, NASCAR did not let his car rejoin the race just because it had 4 flat tires. “Are you f—ing s—ting me, right now?” – remarked Griffin, his disbelief emphasized beyond the profanity. His podcast partner Freddie Kraft, also the spotter of Bubba Wallace’s #23 car, followed up on Griffin’s sentiments and asked, “How are we 3 years into this car? And we (still) don’t know how to get it around the track without flat (tires).” He reminisced about the dollies present throughout the race weekend at Iowa Speedway. “I know the dollies. But like I don’t know what happened, they must have lost them somewhere”

What happened to the dollies was NASCAR did away with them since they deemed the process time-consuming. Ross Chastain was the first to try it out this season after his #1 car stalled on track during practice. Since then, the sanctioning body has devised a unique lifter system that teams may/may not implement based on their preferences. Essentially, an air valve replaces the lower-end shaft of the rear damper. When a compression hose blows air into the shock absorbers through the valve, it pushes the car up by at least a couple of inches. When done properly, the lift is enough to help drivers take their cars back to the pits for servicing.

Maybe the #4 team did not have this system installed in Kansas. And if they did, maybe NASCAR would’ve been better off just taking their car back to the pits instead of the infield. But as Griffin explains the print in the rulebook, with his expert interpretation, “If you don’t hit the wall they bring you to Pit Road… If you do hit the wall they take you to the garage and you’re done with four flat tires.” Regardless, Rodney Childers did not wish to see eye to eye with that notion. And the #4 crew chief took his grievances to Twitter in a scathing statement where he called the move “the most screwed up thing I’ve ever seen or been involved with.” He confirmed their car needed air in the tires and nothing else, questioning the times when NASCAR towed cars “to the pit stall to put tires on them” in similar situations. “Why today?!?” – he demanded to know. 

No one could answer his inquiry, although Freddie Kraft supported his Cup Series colleague’s outburst, noting, “Rodney is usually one of the more even-keeled guys in our sport. So when he tweets out, ‘That this is the worst thing he’s ever seen in 25 years in NASCAR.’ That should say something.” Indeed, it should. As a former championship-winning crew chief who has seen it all at Tony Stewart’s organization since the beginning, Rodney Childers has earned his say in NASCAR. 

Next year, he will take over pit boss duties for Justin Haley at Spire Motorsports, who will undoubtedly benefit from the association. But as for his misfortunes last Sunday at Kansas, it is now in the past. There isn’t much anyone could do to alter it. But on the flip side of that thought, Freddie Kraft is eager to speak with some key people to seek justice for the #4 team.

Did a tow truck decide Josh Berry’s fate in Kansas?

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In the foreground of Josh Berry’s unique circumstance, Kraft wants to know “Who’s making that decision back there?” He asked if it was “somebody in the booth because they see a replay where he (Berry) touched the wall. Because it’s not like Brad Moran and Elton Sawyer are out there running around in the tow trucks…” The ambiguity of whom to talk to is so profound that Kraft takes it up a notch when he questions: “Are we relying on a tow truck driver to tell you if the car’s damaged or not?”

NASCAR needs to point its stakeholders toward the people in charge in situations as such if everyone is to experience the world’s premier brand of stock car racing competition with total closure. If a Cup Series spotter says he does not “understand what that protocol is,” there is something seriously wrong with the organization. Nevertheless, Kraft assures the audience, “That’s a question I’ll have to ask you know Elton or whoever when I see him.” Besides, it is never a one-off affair.

Only a couple of weeks back, there was all that uproar at Watkins Glen when NASCAR denied Ryan Blaney’s Team Penske Ford a chance to return to the pits for repairs after a Lap 1 crash. Although not completely similar to Berry, that situation led to the #2 car getting disqualified for not making the DVP clock in time. In fairness, Blaney’s car suffered damage to the steering arm. But Berry’s car did not report any significant problems. One can’t help but question the logic behind these decisions, as Kraft so eloquently put it, “What are you gonna do when this eventually happens to one of your final four guys?” Now that would draw the ire of people much more influential than Rodney Childers.