David Becker Getty ImagesCompetition model for 2019 adds disqualifications, alters post-race inspection

Zack Albert NASCAR.com February 4, 2019 at 1:54 pmNASCAR competition officials announced Monday that post-race inspection for all three national series will have a new model for 2019, introducing a system where race-winning teams found in violation of the rule book would

be disqualified.The rules change signals a shift in a long-standing tradition of penalizing an offending race winner with fines, suspensions and/or points deductions, but allowing victories to stand. The new system also accelerates the timetable for thorough post-race technical

inspections, which will now be conducted at the track soon after the checkered flag instead of midweek at the NASCAR Research & Development Center in Concord, North Carolina.“I think for us, we’re really looking at a total culture change,” said Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR

Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer. “We’ve been through a deterrence model where we’ve really worked with the race teams at the track and probably been more lenient than we should in terms of the number of times teams can go through inspection and

pass, fail and there’s almost incentive to try to get something by NASCAR, so we want to really reverse that trend.“We’re going to put it on the teams to bring their equipment right. When they come to the track, we’ll be much less lenient as they go through technical inspection with
stiffer penalties in terms of qualifying, and then ultimately during the race, obviously we want everyone to be racing straight up.

”RELATED: More competition tweaks for ’19

The cars of the first-place and second-place finishers, plus at least one randomly selected car, will undergo post-race inspection at the track. Competition officials said they are targeting a time frame of approximately 90 minutes to two hours to complete the inspection and confirm the

race winner.Should one of those cars fail the post-race inspection, the driver and team would receive last-place points and the rest of the finishing order would move up. Disqualified teams also would be stripped of the benefits of playoff points, stage points and automatic

postseason berths and playoff advancement.The shift in rules marks a distinct break from a longstanding, unwritten company policy. Series organizers have avoided taking wins away for decades, adhering to a belief that fans should leave the race track with an assurance that the

first finisher was indeed the winner.Current-day officials acknowledged that break in tradition, saying that a goal of the new procedures was to accelerate the inspection process and avoid the potential pall that midweek penalties can cast over both the previous week’s result and the
following week’s race.

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“Times have changed. We’ve moved forward with a lot of things,” said Jay Fabian, who was named the new Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series managing director on Jan. 16. “There’s always been different thoughts on what the right way is to do it and it’s migrated to saying, hey,

we really need to do this as more of a real-time thing and make sure it’s right post-race and move on with it from the weekend.“We want to be able to avoid the Tuesday, Wednesday announcements of penalties. We want to take that story line away and we’ve got to be rid of all that.

So it’s up to the teams to behave the right way and if they don’t, they’ll get a DQ and we’ll move forward from that on a Sunday or Saturday whenever we race instead of a Tuesday or Wednesday.”Said O’Donnell: “I think it’s evolved over time as you look at it. Certainly we wanted to

declare a winner at the track, but what was happening was a potential negative story line that just stayed with the sport and really for the fan base for too long. So with the ability now with Jay Fabian coming into the director’s seat, and we have the capabilities to conduct a thorough

post-race inspection at track and do it in a somewhat efficient timeline and still be able to declare that winner that night, put it to bed, celebrate that winner and go on from there.”NASCAR’s history of disqualifying drivers can be traced all the way back to the first race for the

Monster Energy Series (then called Strictly Stock) in 1949. Jim Roper was declared the winner at the old Charlotte Speedway after the car of apparent first-place driver Glenn Dunaway was found with illegal springs.Last year, a rash of five penalties in the first three months of the

season were issued for rear-window modifications. That outbreak prompted Scott Miller, NASCAR senior vice president of competition, to indicate that the sanctioning body was exploring harsher punishment for such violations.The Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 team drew the

heaviest penalty of last season after an illegal rear spoiler was found on Kevin Harvick’s race-winning car from Texas. That infraction became a headline-grabbing story line with two races left in the playoffs, something Miller said the sanctioning body hopes to avoid this season.

RELATED: Recapping No. 4 penalty

“I don’t know that our hand was necessarily forced,” Miller says, “but really and truly a lot of the team owners, we have this culture of playing these cat-and-mouse games between us and the teams, and that’s really kind of a lot of wasted energy on both sides of the fence and I think

that the best way for us to get our arms around that is to have a little bit stiffer deterrent.“Then there was also, I think every time we had a penalty on Wednesday, there seemed to be an outcry from a lot of the fans about how can you not take the win away if there was something

wrong with the car, so I think there’s a lot of factors that went into us moving in this direction for this season. But I think it’s been, as you’ve probably seen, it seems to be pretty well received so far with most all of the industry.“They kind of asked for it, and it was time. Definitely a

departure for us, but times change and I think this is just one of those things of us changing with the times.”Miller and Fabian said NASCAR will continue to focus on certain “hot” areas of vehicles in inspection, including parts and components designed to fail over the course of a race

to gain an advantage. Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s Vice President of Officiating and Technical Inspection, said officials still will inspect cars at the R&D Center to explore trends as teams search for gray areas in the rule book.

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Sawyer said the potential for penalties to emerge from the R&D Center still is a possibility, but that likelihood is remote with at-track inspection becoming more rigorous. Sawyer also indicated penalties still will be classified as either L1 and L2, following a structure that was

introduced before the 2017 season.“I think the positive was that disqualification, it’s really clean,” Sawyer said. “It’s simple. Our fans will understand it. It won’t be that someone won the race and had an L1 or L2 and they get no benefit from it, but the second place, third place

and fourth place on down, they were somewhat penalized. They basically ran second, third or fourth to a vehicle that was not in compliance to the rule book.”According to a survey of NASCAR statistics, the most recent instance of a premier series driver’s disqualification from the

finishing order came Oct. 7, 1973, in the National 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Team owner Nord Krauskopf ordered driver Buddy Baker to park his No. 71 Dodge nearly 100 laps short of the finish, saying carburetor rules had made the car uncompetitive. Krauskopf refused to let

NASCAR officials inspect the car, resulting in the DQ.The last known disqualification of a race winner in NASCAR’s top series came April 17, 1960, at Wilson (N.C.) Speedway. Apparent winner Emanuel Zervakis was demoted to last place after his car was found with an oversized fuel tank. NASCAR Hall of Famer Joe Weatherly was elevated to first place, credited with leading one lap.

Phoenix 101: Rules package, Goodyear selection, more for race weekend

Staff Report NASCAR.com March 6, 2019 at 1:18 pmThe Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads to ISM Raceway this weekend for Sunday’s TicketGuardian 500 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).Teams will have to adjust from their first two races with

the 2019 rules package in Atlanta and Las Vegas to this weekend’s stint in Phoenix, where a different-sized tapered spacer — and no aero ducts — are on display for the first time this year.ISM Raceway has an idiosyncratic layout where it’s nice to have a fast car — but a fast car

that handles well is even better.

We explain that, plus much more, below to get you ready for racing in the desert.

RELATED: Full weekend schedule

Keeping up-to-date with the rules

In October, NASCAR officials unveiled a new rules package that would be incorporated into the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, featuring a car with higher downforce and lower horsepower to develop

closer racing.The different packages are tailored to the specific tracks on the Monster Energy Series circuit. On the larger tracks, including superspeedways, cars will use a .922-inch tapered spacer to reduce horsepower and a larger spoiler to add roughly 50 percent more downforce. At tracks shorter than 1.33 miles and at road courses, the Cup cars will use a 1.17-inch tapered spacer, with engines expected to generate roughly 750 horsepower.This week’s configuration of a 1.17-inch tapered spacer with no aero ducts will be used in 14 events this year — mostly on shorter tracks and road courses. Cars will feature traditional brake ducts, not aero ducts, at Phoenix and because tracks like this

require heavier braking and additional cooling.

Tapered spacers, aero ducts and spoilers — oh my

Beyond the tapered spacers and ducts, the baseline aero elements of the 2019 rules package are a taller 8-inch by 61-inch rear spoiler, a larger front splitter with a 2-inch overhang,

and a wider radiator pan that measures 37 inches wide in the front tapering to 31 inches at the rear. Those base changes will be in place at every race season with the intent of adding downforce to stabilize handling, a break from a trend of downforce reduction from 2015-18.“For us, it’s really a focus on getting back to a true focus on the drivers and what NASCAR is all about — close side-by-side racing and trying to

deliver more of that,” NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell said when the rules were announced last year.

Good(year) times

Monster Energy and Xfinity Series teams are going from a 1.5-mile track to a 1-mile desert oval and
they will be under a lot of (air) pressure with the new rules package at ISM Raceway. This will be the first race with the 1.17-inch tapered spacer that produces more horsepower. Phoenix is a smoother surface, but is one of the more unique and challenging tracks on the circuit. It

differs from other shorter tracks in that aerodynamics will play a more vital role.ISM Raceway has three distinct corners with a lack of banking, so aerodynamics are more relevant. With this rules package being high-downforce, high-horsepower, the combination should result

in higher speeds and increased tire loading, making the level of air pressure a very important factor.“Teams will be under a new rules package this week at Phoenix, with all the new aerodynamic elements, but with more horsepower than they’ve had over the past couple weeks,” said

Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s Director of Racing. “When we tested on this package at Phoenix last fall, teams were considerably faster than we’ve seen in recent years.“With the extra downforce versus the 2018 rules package, much of that speed comes through the corners, which

generates higher loading on the tires. Teams will need to be mindful of our recommended air pressures as they develop their set-ups to optimize grip. Running below our minimums can cause the sidewall of the tire to flex more and over-deflect, generating more heat, higher wear

and fall-off, and even damaging the tire to the point of air loss. Finding that balance will be key.”There will be a brand-new tire compound debuting at Phoenix. Teams in both series will run the same tire compound at ISM Raceway this weekend. This is the first time either of the

two Goodyear tire codes will be run. The left-side tire features a construction update that Goodyear will begin displaying at many more tracks this season, while the right-side tire features a compound change designed to introduce more tire wear and run cooler. Phoenix is the only

track where either of these two tires codes are scheduled to run.There was a tire test in Phoenix last year (Oct. 2-3) with this tire combination. Drivers Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth, Kyle Larson and Paul Menard were among those at the test. Similar to other NASCAR ovals that are one mile or less in length, they will not run liners in their tires at Phoenix this weekend.

Chris Graythen | Getty Images

Three car chiefs ejected following pre-qualifying inspection failures

Staff Report NASCAR.com February 10, 2019 at 12:27 pmThree car chiefs were ejected from Daytona Speedweeks on Sunday, following their respective cars failing pre-qualifying inspection twice in advance of the Daytona 500 next weekend.The No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet of driver Chase Elliott, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet of Austin Dillon and No. 13 Germain Racing Chevrolet of Ty Dillon failed pre-qualifying inspection twice, leading to their respective car chiefs being ejected.REWATCH:

Pre-race inspection

Sunday was the start of NASCAR’s 2019 deterrence model, and the results were felt early. Previously, a car chief was not ejected unless a team failed inspection three times. This year, it’s two. Additionally, all three teams were docked 15 minutes of practice time.Last month NASCAR introduced a system where race-winning teams found in violation of the rule book post-race would be disqualified. Additionally, post-race inspection is done at track following the event, with penalties — if any — handed out then instead of following a mid-week teardown at the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina.

Daniel Shirey | Getty ImagesLug-nut violation for No. 18 team after Phoenix win; inspection otherwise all clear


Staff Report NASCAR.com March 10, 2019 at 8:47 pmThe race-winning Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota of driver Kyle Busch has passed inspection at ISM Raceway, with only a lug-nut violation found in a post-race check.The No. 18 entry was found with a single lug-nut not safe

and secure after Sunday’s TicketGuardian 500. Under the guidelines in the 2019 NASCAR Rule Book, the minor infraction should result in a fine for crew chief Adam Stevens. The car was otherwise compliant with NASCAR’s rules, and the victory will stand

RELATED: Kyle Busch ices Phoenix win | Race results

With the post-race teardown complete, the race results are official.The post-race process is part of a new, more timely approach to inspection for all three NASCAR national series. Competition officials announced in February that thorough post-race inspections would take place

shortly after the checkered flag at the track instead of midweek at the NASCAR Research & Development Center in Concord, North Carolina.Those inspections come with a stiffer deterrence structure that includes disqualification for significant rules infractions — “a total

culture change,” according to Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer. In the past, race-winning teams found in violation of the rules were penalized with post-race fines, points deductions and/or suspensions, but victories were

allowed to stand.Competition officials introduced the quicker post-race inspection timetable in an effort to make the results official on race day, aiming for a 90-minute target time frame to complete their scrutiny. The new post-race inspection process was also designed to deal with

potential violations more promptly, avoiding any midweek news that might cloud the previous week’s results or the build-up to the following week’s event.NASCAR will still inspect cars and parts at the R&D Center as needed, but the more comprehensive at-track inspection will

take priority.According to NASCAR statistical archives, the last time a premier series driver was disqualified occurred in 1973, when early retiree Buddy Baker was demoted to last place in the National 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The last time an apparent race winner in

NASCAR’s top division was disqualified came on April 17, 1960, when Emanuel Zervakis’ victory at Wilson (N.C.) Speedway was thrown out because of an oversized fuel tank on his No. 85 Chevrolet.