NASCAR to issue ‘stern communication’ to drivers in all three series ahead of races at Pocono Raceway after New Hampshire Restart Problems.
Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, appeared on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Tuesday morning and answered questions about the multi-car crash during Saturday’s Xfinity race in New Hampshire.
“I don’t think our guys have done a good job on restarts, whether it’s the Cup race or the Xfinity race, we’ll start there,” Sawyer said on NASCAR SiriusXM Radio. “And as we rolled out and looked at the SMT data and just the optics of it, we felt like it was happening maybe in the second or third row where the cars were backed out.
“So as we come into Pocono this weekend, there will be a very strict line of communication with our drivers in all three series – that slackening will not be acceptable as we enter the latter stages of our regular season and head into the playoffs.”
The Xfinity incident on Lap 71 began when the field bunched up behind leaders John Hunter Nemechek and Chandler Smith in the front row. It included Parker Kligerman, Ryan Sieg, Jeremy Clements, Blaine Perkins, Mason Massey, Parker Retzlaff, Chris Hacker, Patrick Emerling, Ryan Ellis, Anthony Alfredo and Alex Labbe.
Most of the drivers involved were able to continue the race. Allgaier finished sixth with a damaged Chevrolet Camaro. The cars of Kligerman, Alfredo and Sieg were too damaged to continue.
Sawyer said resting on the restart would fall under the category of restart violations. The offending driver would be black-flagged and would have to serve a drive-through penalty.
“Our guys have done a great job this year of that,” Sawyer added. “It just feels like it’s starting to get a little sloppy, so we’ve got to get that better before we get into the playoffs.”
All three NASCAR national series are in action this weekend at Pocono. The Truck Series and Xfinity Series will take place on Saturday, while the Cup Series will take place on Sunday (2:30 p.m. ET on USA Network).
