Ahead of the start of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs and following the demolition derby that was the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway, NASCAR this week announced a change to its Damaged Vehicle Policy.
Instead of teams having six minutes on pit road to repair a damaged car, starting with Sunday’s Southern 500 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway they will have 10 minutes.
NASCAR said the adjustment was made in “collaboration with race teams throughout the season following learnings on repair time of the Next Gen” car.
When asked Thursday if he felt he could drive closer to the wall at Darlington, Kevin Harvick said he thinks that’s “probably” part of the reason the change was made.
“I think everybody knows that if you hit it wrong, it’s gonna break the toe link or something on the suspension back there, so the car is more durable if you hit it square, but if you hit it while you’re sliding with the rear, it’s gonna snap something back there,” Harvick said. “I guess it was Bristol, I hit somebody with the front of the car and didn’t even think I hit it with the wheel and the wheel was broke – the suspension on the right-front. If you hit it just right, it’s gonna break. You feel like you can be more aggressive with the car and scrape it against the wall flush, but you still have to be mindful of breaking suspension pieces. The car is definitely more durable.”
Justin Alexander Moving On
Friday morning came a report from Fox Sports’ Bob Pockrass that Justin Alexander, crew chief for Austin Dillon in the NASCAR Cup Series, would be moving on from the role after this season.
Crew chief news: Justin Alexander tells me he won't return as Austin Dillon's crew chief next year. Alexander said it was his decision and he hasn't made a decision on what he will do in 2023.
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) September 2, 2022
Alexander’s news arrives just five days after he and Dillon won the regular-season finale at Daytona.
Alexander has 229 starts as a Cup crew chief since 2014. All four of his wins have come with Dillon in the No. 3 Chevrolet. Those win were in the 2017 Coca-Cola 600, the 2018 Daytona 500, the fall 2020 race at Texas Motor Speedway and Sunday at Daytona.
Only One Year-Extension For Suarez
In the midst of NASCAR’s “Silly Season,” most of the major contract announcements have included a variation on the phrase “multi-year deal.”
That wasn’t the case when Trackhouse Racing announced its extension with Daniel Suarez. It runs only through the 2023 season.
Suarez is the founding driver of the team, and he finally broke through with his first NASCAR Cup win this season at Sonoma Raceway.
SPEED SPORT asked team co-owner Justin Marks Saturday at Daytona why the extension was only for one year.
“Look, we’re a young organization,” Mark said. “I mean, we’re not even two years into this thing. So for us it’s really just building our business from the ground up and really establishing a lot of these partnerships like with Princess (Cruises) and Worldwide, Jockey, Tootsies … really everybody down the list. We’re really, really early on in the infancy of these relationships and we’re building these relationships and as it gets started, as a business, you have to make sure that you’re doing the responsible things and you’re making sure that the relationships in the partnership sides get really, really solidified and established.
“Then you kind of build the business around that. But with us being such a new a new company. So early in our phase, it was sort of the best thing for both sides.”