Chris Gabehart reveals NASCAR met with teams to discuss damaged vehicle policy

Last week at Talladega, Chris Gabehart was among the many folks confused at NASCAR’s ruling on the damaged vehicle policy. The crew chief for Denny Hamlin, just like his driver, is not afraid to speak out.

Chris Gabehart went on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio to discuss a recent meeting NASCAR had with teams. Officials let teams and drivers know that they will be treating wrecked cars differently.

It sounds like that rule that took Josh Berry out will be a lot more flexible moving forward. NASCAR doesn’t want to force good cars out of the last five races of the season.

“I am a proponent of, vulnerability or not, in the moment, the rule is the rule and in black and white it’s stated that if you can’t drive, if you’re deemed in an incident and you can’t drive back to your pit box you’re out of the race. Doesn’t matter how good or bad that rule is, just like at Kansas with Josh Berry, that was the rule and everybody can stomach it and understand it. What is confusing is when that doesn’t happen. No matter, gosh if it’s a 40 car wreck, which it was close to that, we can’t finish the race and boy that’s an unintended consequence. I get it, but from a competitive standpoint, I prefer sticking with the rules.”

My only question, why are we having rule changes with five races to go? And why did Ryan Blaney and Josh Berry go through what they went through?

Chris Gabehart: NASCAR is loosening the reins

In the radio appearance, Chris Gabehart revealed what NASCAR conveyed to teams. The meeting was necessary after all of the confusion.

This feels like an own goal from NASCAR.

“So in this meeting, NASCAR wanted to go over, in light of that, they’re wanting to make sure all of the competitors moving forward for the remainder of the year have a clear understanding of what their intent is,” Gabehart continued. “And their intent is to not put anybody out of the race that doesn’t mistakingly not need to be. So if they misjudge your damage type of thing they don’t want to put it on their officials on the ground, and because of that they want to put it more in our hands.

“So, it sounds like towing cars back to the pit stall is going to be more of a thing a lot like you saw with the 9 and the 14. If the call is on the fence, if the cars can’t move but we’re not sure how bad the damage is, they want to put it back in the team’s hands and give them an opportunity to go out and compete again. I don’t want to speak entirely for them on the specifics. I’m sure they’ll do that in the coming days but the just of it is, it sounds like they’re going to loosen up the reins a little bit with five [races] to go.”

NASCAR teams, drivers, and fans want one thing from the sanctioning body: CONSISTENCY.