What is going on with NASCAR’s damaged vehicle policy?

When over half the field crashed near the end of Talladega’s 500-mile event, several cars were left stranded despite sustaining minimal damage. Stationary burnouts and arguments with track workers ensued as drivers were desperate to remain in the race. For the multiple playoff drivers involved, there was an added sense of urgency. Chase Briscoe was actually told to put his hand over the latch if track workers tried to lower the window net. Talking immediately after the race, Joey Logano, frustrated after his day ended when he was collected in the wreck shared that it was a disaster.

“Everyone is just sitting on flat tires. They want to roll, but they can’t because they’re on flat tires. We got this machine that’s going to jack up the back of the car but if you’re flat on the fronts, you still can’t steer.”

In their respective podcasts, Kevin Harvick described it as a ‘s***show’ while Denny Hamlin went as far as to call it a ‘sham.’ 

So, what’s going on here? There’s a few overlapping components at work here. First, there’s NASCAR’s damaged vehicle policy, or DVP. It was originally introduced to prevent cars from going back onto the track when they honestly shouldn’t be there, in hopes to keep cars that are off-pace from re-entering. Teams are then allotted a limited amount of time to make repairs in the pits. After racing against the clock, their damaged car must go and meet minimum speed on-track, or the car can no longer race. If a driver is involved in a wreck and goes straight to the garage, their race is over as well. Gone are the days of drivers lapping the track 200 laps down and with half a car.

Flat tires = race over?

Where things get murky is when the problem of flat tires rears its rubber head. The current generation of Cup cars do not have inner liners (essentially a tire within a tire), which is a major departure from its predecessors. It’s now quite common to see a car spin and then become stranded despite suffering no damage at all. This has been an issue since the car’s introduction at the beginning of the 2022 season.

NASCAR has tried to be accommodating and is willing to give cars a push so they can get back rolling and make it into the pits. But often, that’s not enough and the cars remain stuck. So here’s the conundrum: When cars cannot continue on their own after being involved in a wreck, their race is supposed to be over. But what if the only reason they can’t move is because of…