Kyle Larson, Cup teams in utter confusion over NASCAR track limits at COTA amid mixed messages

The EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at COTA is off and running but there has been some major confusion about the track limits on the course.

NASCAR has apparently ruled that track limits do not apply in Turn 6, so some drivers have been cutting the corner off to set themselves up better for the next stretch of the track.

Meanwhile, other drivers have been advised by their crew chiefs not to cut the corner.

Kyle Larson has received conflicting information and was an unfortunate victim of a track limit penalty in Turn 3. Larson’s crew chief provided some communications that illustrated the confusion just before he was penalized.

“Is it true that NASCAR is not policing track limits in 6?” Larson’s crew chief asked his spotter, according to Richard Allen of Motorsports Report. “I received a message that they are not.”

The spotter responded in kind.

“I have not heard that,” Larson’s spotter said. “The official up here said they are.”

Shortly after that, Larson was dinged for cutting the corner on Turn 3. Other crews got different information, only adding to the confusion.

“All right, NASCAR just made a change,” someone on AJ Allmendinger‘s team radio said. “There’s no track limits in Turn 6 if that helps you. No track limits in Turn 6 only.”

Allmendinger was apparently on a different page anyway.

“I didn’t realize there was,” he said.

Even the FOX broadcast crew seemed a little confused by what was happening on the track and on the team radios at the time, with just about everyone talking about the confusion in the way the race was being officiated.

“Well that’s, you heard me say it, all the drivers, every single one of them, all the teams are talking about that,” one of FOX’s broadcasters said. “I don’t think it was a change, I think they just didn’t include 6.”

Another member of the broadcast crew then chimed in.

“Well we talk about track limits in the essess and on the old configuration Turn 6 would have been right in the middle of the essess,” he said. “And I’d have to go back to the driver/crew chief handout to see if the specific turn numbers were specified pre-race.”

According to a report from The Athletic’s Jeff Gluck, drivers were not informed which turns would be policed ahead of the race.

“Vehicles must run the full course at all times,” Gluck noted from NASCAR’s communications with the teams. “You will be judged as missing or shortcutting when all four tires are on the non-track side of the red and white rumble strips that define the apex of the turns.”

So much for avoiding confusion.