Elton Sawyer explains why NASCAR resumed practice of displaying illegal parts

After a decade long hiatus, NASCAR has resumed the practice of displaying illegal parts or components a week after decisions are finalized in order to provide transparency to those within the sport.

Making an appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Tuesday, NASCAR vice president of competition Elton Sawyer said he wasn’t sure why the sport got away from displaying illegal parts but emphasized that transparency has been a welcome addition over the past three seasons.

“We appreciate our fans weighing in on that and giving us positive feedback because we don’t always get that,” Sawyer said, via Sportsnaut. “In this case, it’s something we used to do back in the day, takes parts they found and display them outside of the hauler so teams could come by and look at them, know what they can’t do.

“There was a period of time that we got away from that. I’m not a hundred percent sure why, but we did and now we revisited that, and we feel it’s the right thing to do, being transparent with the garage area, fans and media so everyone knows why the deterrent needs to be what it is.”

NASCAR notably showed a video of the webbed glove Joey Logano had ahead of the Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. NASCAR forced Logano to start from the rear of the field and serve a pass-through penalty, and later received a $10,000 fine. They were also transparent in displaying the illegal roof air deflectors confiscated from the No. 10 and No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing teams. Both Noah Gragson and Ryan Preece received a 35-point deduction for the infraction.

NASCAR’s Elton Sawyer confirms why NASCAR won’t penalize Kyle Larson for son Owen climbing on car

Sawyer also touched on Kyle Larson’s win in the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this past Sunday, particularly the post-race celebration when Larson’s son, Owen, climbed on top of his racecar and then inside. Some voiced concern following the moment, believing it could lead to a penalty if Larson’s son broke something inside the car.

Sawyer explained why Larson’s celebration with his son won’t lead to a penalty for the Hendrick Motorsports star.

“If you look at our sport, it’s a family sport, and to see Kyle win the race and Owen come running across the infield there, I just thought that was a great moment,” Sawyer said. “We’ve seen that before. We’ve seen Kevin Harvick and Keelan at Michigan a couple years ago. We do want to preserve the vehicle and make sure it gets through the inspection process.

“But in this case, there was no issues there. If we see issues going forward, then we will, you know, we’ll get with the teams and the drivers and say, ‘Hey, we probably need to look at it from this angle.’ But I will say that was a special moment and to see that was great.”