NASCAR insiders respond to continued confusion over DVP policy after Ty Dillon Atlanta incident

For the second straight week there was confusion over NASCAR’s new damaged vehicle policy (DVP), with Ty Dillon bewildered after he was unable to get a push or a tow to his team’s pit box during the Ambetter Health 400.

Dillon was fuming after spinning out on Lap 81.

With a right rear tire down, Dillon couldn’t get off the apron. He tried his best to get to pit road to avoid having to go to the garage, but to no avail.

“I’m not going to let them hook me up! They’ve got to push me!” Dillon said, via Jeff Gluck of The Athletic. “These guys have no clue, every week.”

One problem: NASCAR’s new DVP does not allow drivers to be pushed or towed to the pit box.

“They explained before the season. I’m almost positive the rule is now you can’t get pushed at all,” Gluck said. “If you can’t drive it back, you get towed to the work area. You don’t get towed to your pit stall. They’re trying to eliminate all the inconsistency of, ‘OK, this guy got towed to his pit box, this guy got pushed, this guy got towed to the garage.’

“So they revamped the DVP policy. The rule is if you can’t drive it back you don’t get pushed, you don’t get towed to your pit box, you get towed to the work area, the garage.”

Dillon eventually did get taken to the garage under the DVP. His team made some quick repairs to the car and he was back out on the track.

He even managed to meet minimum speed after returning to the track.

Still, the continued confusion over the DVP has left some in the NASCAR world surprised.

“These guys are learning this a little bit,” said Jordan Bianchi, Gluck’s co-host on The Teardown podcast. “This is Week 2, even though there have been many meetings about this, NASCAR sat down with everybody and they worked through it. It’s just this is new. You’re going to need a few weeks to kind of remember this is the new system not the old one.”

But once more, for clarity, the new NASCAR DVP rule:

“When you go to the work area, you can take all the time you need to fix it as long as the driver doesn’t get out of the car,” Gluck explained. “If the driver stays in the car you get all the time you need to fix it. When you go out to the track you get one attempt to get minimum speed. One.”