Elton Sawyer touts success of paving Daytona backstretch: 'Was a benefit' in limiting crashes

NASCAR made a major change to Daytona International Speedway this season, paving the apron on the backstretch in hopes of limiting violent crashes.

Elton Sawyer, NASCAR senior vice president of competition, believes it was a job well done, as evident by multiple cars spinning and showing “no indication of getting up into the air” during this past Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400.

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#NASCAR SVP of Competition Elton Sawyer says they're looking deeper into the @joshberry and @Mc_Driver flips from @DAYTONA on Saturday, but said paving the backstretch after last year "was a benefit" in limiting the crashes.

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— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) August 27, 2024

“I think you look at the changes we made just to the facility from the Daytona 500 when we had paved the back straightaway area around the chicane, we feel like that was a benefit,” Sawyer said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Tuesday. “We had a couple incidents early in the race where single cars were just spinning. And showed no indication of getting up in the air.”

In addition to removing the backstretch grass, NASCAR mandated a new right-side rear-window air deflector for Daytona. The sanctioning body implemented the new procedure following Corey LaJoie’s scary flip down the backstretch the week prior at Michigan, and though there were times where cars stayed on the ground while spinning as Sawyer mentioned, Daytona saw multiple cars take flight and flip over, including Josh Berry, who turned over and hit the inside wall while upside down.

Sawyer acknowledged that additional work needs to be done to prevent cars from flipping over at superspeedways.

“It’s a complicated situation there when you’re running the speeds that we’re running. And you put multiple cars close together and how they affect each other,” Sawyer said. “Our guys in the back, I know they’ve been working since Saturday night to kind of recreate all that. And still some additional work on our side to be done.”

Denny Hamlin reacts to NASCAR making change to avoid flips ahead of Daytona

Denny Hamlin, speaking on Sunday’s “Actions Detrimental” podcast, said he doesn’t have a “giant issue” with cars flipping, citing the low rate of injuries during those types of wrecks. Berry himself walked away clean from his violent flip and subsequent contact with the wall.

“No one likes flips, right, but I just don’t have a giant issue with it. Because there hasn’t been many major injuries come from flipping,” Hamlin said. “You’re dispersing energy when you’re flipping. If Josh Berry’s car does not flip over, he hits the inside wall harder. Because when he flips over, that is essentially slowing his car down. As it’s turned to the side, starts to flip over, his car is slowing in speed. If that car doesn’t and it just streamlines into the inside wall without a flip, it’s going faster. You’ve taken from point A to point B at a faster rate.”