NASCAR tweaks appeals process amid continuing debate over rules violations

BRISTOL, Tenn. — A couple of days after losing an appeal on penalties for wrecking Ross Chastain, Denny Hamlin remained incredulous and befuddled.

“I still don’t understand the ruling, considering all the examples and all the precedent, and even the real data that I brought to the table,” said Hamlin, who thought the telemetry data from his car showed he didn’t violate NASCAR rules.

“It still doesn’t make sense, which is the disappointing part, especially NASCAR’s stance on it. Refuting real data was just a tough pill to swallow.”

Hamlin wasn’t the only one who seemed a little confused on a decision last week, except this time the roles were reversed with NASCAR officials as the ones who left disappointed.

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Hamlin and his fellow team owners opted to skip the quarterly Team Owners Council meeting scheduled for Wednesday. They did it to send a message that there needs to be more progress between the teams and NASCAR in negotiating a new revenue distribution model.

“We held our meeting and went over what we wanted to go over. We did have one [executive] call in,” NASCAR Chief Operating Officer Steve O’Donnell said. “We meet on a quarterly basis. We’re going to continue to do that.

“We’re open to dialogue. We think it’s important to grow the sport to work together on a number of issues. … We were disappointed and surprised by what happened, but we’re going to continue to put our best foot forward.”

As NASCAR and owners and drivers seek answers to their questions, the sport will try to move forward. It isn’t rare for there to be some angst at some point during every season, and the last few weeks have had everyone maybe a little more on edge.

The negotiations between the owners and teams will likely continue for several months as the charter agreements — NASCAR’s version of a franchise — expire at the end of the 2024 season, correlating with the end of the current 10-year television deal with FOX and NBC.

The teams hope to get an increased share. They currently get 25% of television revenue with NASCAR getting 10% and tracks — the majority owned by NASCAR — getting the other 65%.

“As a sport, everybody wants to keep moving forward,” said driver and co-owner Brad Keselowski. “And we’ve got a lot of work to do to get there.”

Said Hamlin: “We had some glaring issues that we need to work out that are much bigger than probably what was going to be addressed there, so we chose to just save ourselves some time.”

It seems that one issue — unrelated to those negotiations — for both the teams and NASCAR that they hope potentially can be worked out is for NASCAR to be able to enforce its rules and have an appeals system that doesn’t appear inconsistent.

NASCAR will now require its appeals panel to give a reason when modifying a penalty. And if the appeals panel determines a team committed the violation it is accused of by NASCAR, then the panel cannot completely rescind any category of the penalty — it can only adjust within the range prescribed in the NASCAR rule book.

That decision was made after an appeals panel rescinded a 100-point (and 10-playoff-point) penalty to all four Hendrick Motorsports teams and drivers last month while keeping the $100,000 fines to crew chiefs and their four-race suspensions. Then the following week, a different appeals panel only adjusted a Kaulig Racing penalty for the same violation from 100 points to 75 points.

For any penalties issued this week and beyond, the appeals panel in this situation would be able to rescind the entire points penalty as it did with Hendrick.

“Our penalties have been consistent. We were surprised as a lot of the fans [were] on the ruling on the Hendrick [appeal] taking away all points,” O’Donnell said.

“We recognized our system had a flaw.”

Former Cup champion Kevin Harvick advocated that appeals should just be streamed live to help fans and teams understand the issues and the debate.

“We should do them publicly,” he said. “Why not? If it’s truly fair, let’s just do it publicly and livestream them on NASCAR.com and go for it. … Seeing it live would be way more entertaining.”

As with any NASCAR decision, there will be debate. Harvick wasn’t surprised that Hamlin lost his appeal to a 25-point penalty and $50,000 for intentionally wrecking Chastain at Phoenix — a penalty issued after Hamlin admitted on his podcast to letting his car slide into Chastain’s.

“Bragging about it is not the way to go about it — and win,” Harvick said. “I’ve loved every minute of it, but you can’t beat your fist on your chest and then try to back up. That just doesn’t work.”

Kyle Busch, though, felt Hamlin should have prevailed because those type of accidents are a common occurrence.

“Every chance somebody crashes from somebody else from car contact, it can be a penalty, it can be a fine, it can be whatever,” Busch said.

“Their rule book contradicts itself quite a lot. All of us have a very, very hard understanding what’s what. It is what it is.”

If there’s any team wondering about the rule book, it could be Hendrick. NASCAR penalized two Hendrick teams — those of Alex Bowman and William Byron — another 60 points and five playoff points for a body violation found in their Richmond cars.

“I don’t have anything good to stay about it,” Byron said.

NASCAR had taken the two Hendrick cars following the race at Richmond for additional scrutiny — just four days after NASCAR had for all intents and purposes lost the appeal. NASCAR has the option to take cars after any race and regularly — but not always — takes a couple.

“NASCAR wasn’t happy about that [initial penalty] getting overturned and the lack of transparency or understanding of why it got overturned didn’t make sense to anyone,” Hamlin said.

“Everyone was angry. There was only one team that was happy about the results. It’s their sandbox and if they’re angry, they can scrutinize more so than they do other cars. That’s how things have worked for a long time, and I’m sure it’s not going to end anytime soon.”

Whether Hendrick appeals is still to be determined. If there is an appeal, NASCAR obviously hopes this penalty stands in totality.

All the penalties and other off-track drama have made it a tough few weeks for NASCAR.

“It’s the way it goes sometimes,” O’Donnell said. “We want to put that focus back on our stars, back on racing, back on having some fun, too, and celebrate the sport.”

Thinking Out Loud

Because it couldn’t paint a choose V and box on the track to show drivers where to choose a lane for the restart, NASCAR used a drone to flash a box above the track to signal drivers where to make their choice.

Many short tracks just use a cone on a rope but NASCAR opted for the drone, and while it certainly could be considered a bit overboard, it seemed to work pretty well. Drivers said they were able to see it.

Obviously NASCAR couldn’t officiate it as closely as it does when a box is painted on the track as far as drivers making their choice in the spot designated. And that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Should NASCAR consider it for more races? Maybe road courses. But beyond that, there still would be a fear of an operational hiccup that causes the drone to malfunction while above the race cars.

In The News

— When will Chase Elliott return? This Friday will be exactly six weeks since he broke his leg in a snowboarding accident in Colorado. The team has been saying it is week-to-week on when he could return and his camp is optimistic that he could be back soon, but there hasn’t been any indication yet that this weekend’s race at Martinsville, a track which would require significant braking with his healing left leg, will signal his return.

— Chase Briscoe broke the middle finger on his left hand in a dirt late model race Thursday night when he had the wheel turned to the left and hit the wall, causing the wheel to spin quickly. The break goes from his knuckle diagonally to the middle of his finger and he said is having trouble even putting on his socks. But he wore a brace at Bristol that he said worked well and allowed him to hold a steering wheel, which he has to do with his left hand while he shifts. He said Sunday night that X-rays Monday will determine whether he has surgery.

— Matt Crafton replace Cody Ware, son of Rick Ware Racing owner Rick Ware, for the Cup race on the Bristol dirt. The team characterized Ware’s absence as a “personal matter” and didn’t indicate when he would return. Crafton said he was called Tuesday about the possibility of replacing Ware and then found out Thursday he would be in the car. 

— This is the third year of Bristol dirt. Will there be a fourth? Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith said that there has been no decision yet. He also indicated that what will return next year is another trip to Circuit of the Americas, which Speedway Motorsports leases for the NASCAR weekend with an option on the lease for 2024.

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Stat of the Day

Joey Logano, Ty Majeski and William Byron finished 1-2-3 in the first stage of the truck race on the Bristol dirt. And the second stage. And the finish. It’s the first time that the same drivers finished in the same 1-2-3 order since the implementation of stage racing in 2017.

They Said It

“That was a lot of fun.” —Christopher Bell after his Bristol dirt win

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass, and sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass.

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