Approaching the tail-end of the 2024 season, NASCAR has found itself in another controversy. And it’s not the Next-Gen car but the safety trucks that have drawn the ire of some of the sport’s biggest names.

Around 28 cars found themselves entangled in the biggest one ever at Talladega last week. But the nine-or-so-minute track clearance delay is where all the drama went into overdrive. As per the earlier iteration of the Damaged Vehicle Policy (DVP), if contact renders a car unable to move, its race is essentially over unless the driver can roll his vehicle back to the pits. But things got a little escalated when NASCAR allowed Chase Elliott and Chase Briscoe’s beached cars a towback for repairs under the 7-minute DVP limit, which went somewhat against the word.

The backlash from the Talladega wreck led to a sudden rule change by NASCAR, but not everyone is concerned. Bubba Wallace, whose #23 Toyota narrowly avoided disaster in the Big One, managed to secure a top-10 finish in overtime. In contrast, drivers like Joey Logano, Austin Cindric, and Josh Berry faced tougher fates. Berry, still reeling from a similar DVP mishap at Kansas, expressed frustration over the inconsistency in NASCAR’s decisions, emphasizing the impact of these rules on race outcomes.

His frustrations talked about the big point of contention in a profanity-laden rant at Talladega: “The f***ing No. 42 car is over there doing burnouts, slinging rubber all over the safety workers trying to get going, but if you have four flat tires and have to get towed to pit row, you’re done, right?” What Berry meant to say is that cars can get stuck on all flats sometimes, similar to the #4 in Kansas, which renders them unable to move, even if there’s minimal damage. Situations like this demand closer inspection from the race organizers. And it was Berry’s case that lifted the curtains for the fallout from Talladega’s DVP debacle to receive a detailed look under the microscope.

Once NASCAR dissected the discrepancies and promised to rectify their DVP policy over the off-season, some still considered it way too late. After all, the rule became official back in 2017 when the Gen-6 cars still used tires with inner liners, so an amendment has been a bit overdue in that regard. Besides, what if this contentious rule ruined the chances of a Playoff contender when it mattered the most? So, NASCAR met with teams and crew chiefs and announced that the ruling and procedures used at Talladega would be the norm going forward in the last 5 races of the 2024 season. But more on that later.

When members of the media asked Bubba Wallace what his opinions were on this new & updated DVP rule, he had a fitting reply. “Here we go. Don’t get in the crash. Don’t worry about it. You know?” – said the #23 driver. He remarked, “You’re putting the situation in their hands and never really works out in your favor…” Some might even consider this nonchalant demeanor from one of the sport’s most controversial drivers toward an equally scandalous policy as uncharacteristic. But as he explained his situation at home, things became a lot clearer. In his own words, “What’s clear to me is I’ve been taking care of my baby boy and I haven’t paid one bit of attention to what’s going on in this world. So I could care less.” 

When you think about it, fatherhood is a responsibility much heavier than any damaged vehicle or policy, for that matter. And Bubba Wallace welcomed Becks Hayden Wallace with his amazing wife Amanda only a few days ago on September 29th. Hence, it is quite understandable why he isn’t losing any sleep over the DVP debate. As he noted, “[Becks Hayden] is sleeping. I’m still becoming an ace at changing diapers. So I’m enjoying it. It’s been a blast.” And that’s what’s most important for him in the present picture.

On the flip side, NASCAR has already made somewhat of a rectification to their tow-back rules. Kelly Crandall revealed NASCAR’s new DVP mandates for the rest of the season. As of this moment, the following conditions are only temporary since the sport’s governing body has promised to give all of it a closer look in the off-season:

• If a car has repairable damage and flat tires (e.g., the 9 and 14 at ‘Dega), it will be towed back and put on DVP policy.
• If a car has significant damage (oil or water spewing, broken radiator, etc.), it will be towed to the garage and out of the race.
• If a car has inflated tires but cannot drive back to pit road from an incident (e.g., Ryan Blaney at Watkins Glen), it will be declared out of the race.

As is the nature of NASCAR, this one’s bound to be another point to divide opinions if things go south, considering safety workers are only humans who are not unbeknownst to making mistakes. Regardless, as the #23 team spotter Freddie Kraft noted in a recent episode of Door Bumper Clear, “[NASCAR] said we’re gonna look at it in the off-season…Well, that was a very short off-season because it was about 6 days maybe, before we completely did a 180…”

And he’s not alone in expressing his displeasure. Even Christopher Bell’s crew chief, Adam Stevens, sounds bewildered by these ‘inconsistent’ decisions from NASCAR.

NASCAR’s temporary changes fuel further questions from crew chiefs

“I don’t have any clue what the rule is going forward. That was all blown up this weekend,” said the #20 team pit boss. And let’s be honest, that reaction sums up the majority sentiment inside the wider NASCAR community toward the renewal of the DVP policy. Stevens laments that they “have been a victim of that a dozen times” in his career. But he also realizes that “you can pick a car every week that is a victim of that” scandalous repair rule. However, he exposed that “this weekend, that wasn’t the case and there was nothing communicated to me, my team, or anyone within the walls of Joe Gibbs Racing that it was going to change.”

And quite naturally, it doesn’t sit right with Stevens that the rule “just changed on the fly.” Elaborating himself better, the Ohio native did not hold back on expressing his grievances, “I don’t care what the process is… I just want it to be consistent for all the races the entirety of the year… If we’re going to tow cars back and have a look at them, that’s fine, but that needs to be communicated to the teams. It needs to be in writing and we all need to know how that is going to operate.”

But there are some, like Kyle Busch’s current crew chief, Randall Burnett, who consider themselves lucky to not be in NASCAR’s shoes at the time of these decisions. The #8 team leader observed the contrary with a solid opinion. “Some cars you look at and you think there’s no damage and a lower control arm is broke and you can’t see that but the body looks okay,” while others might suffer extensive damage but the “car rolls fine” on the re-fire.

Hence, as Burnett concurs, “it’s a little bit of a sticky situation.” However, the fact remains: NASCAR must make amends to their seven-year-old policy. And it’s almost disrespectful that the governing body would overlook something this big in the grander scheme of the world’s premier stock car racing experience. So is Bubba Wallace not wrong in letting himself be unbothered by NASCAR’s decision-making discrepancies?