Currently the “crash clock” – the Damaged Vehicle Policy – for the O’Reilly Auto Parts and Craftsman Truck Series gives teams a very limited amount of time to make repairs to the vehicles before they are deemed out of the race.
NASCAR has changed that policy to match that in the Cup Series where teams can have their cars taken to the garage, repaired, and allowed to return to the race.
NASCAR senior director of racing communications Amanda Ellis spoke on the change saying, “after a couple of incidents and just some continued conversation, it was decided that it was best for them to move toward having a true DVP opportunity. Those drivers will now be towed back, dropped in their garage stall, and they will have the opportunity to make repairs based on what is allowed. They still have a chance to get back out there, especially with points being how they are now. We often will hear teams say every point counts, and this helps with that. There has been continued conversation around this from the start of the season, and it felt like a great time to go ahead and make that change.”
NASCAR made the announcement during its weekly podcast “Hauler Talk”.
Also announced during the podcast is that NASCAR will no longer penalize teams who fail inspections with docked practice times. Last weekend at Dover Motor Speedway five trucks were docked practice time – one of which was a rookie making her debut in the Truck Series.
Ellis noted, “what was happening was just an unintended consequence. The reasoning for those penalties was needed, and some structure and boundaries were put into place in the Truck Series around tech for all good reasons. But what was happening was you would potentially have a rookie driver who was getting practice time cut because of these penalties.”
Following the same policy as in the Cup Series, teams who fail inspection three times will be moved to the back of the field for inspection at the next race; “encouraging” teams to be better prepared for the tech inspections.