NASCAR makes even more changes to Damaged Vehicle Policy after Bristol

NASCAR made some changes to its Cup Damaged Vehicle Policy following the race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Teams can now replace the diffuser flaps while preparing a vehicle.

“NASCAR updated its Cup DVP policy where it used to not allow teams to replace the diffuser flaps but now they can replace the diffuser flaps (extensions) when making their repairs,” Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports wrote on X/Twitter. The diffuser flaps help keep the car on the ground.

NASCAR updated its Cup DVP policy where it used to not allow teams to replace the diffuser flaps but now they can replace the diffuser flaps (extensions) when making their repairs. ⁦@NASCARONFOX⁩ pic.twitter.com/ASHZPRnF14

— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) April 16, 2025

Ahead of the 2025 season, NASCAR updated its Damaged Vehicle Policy, adjusting the rule that damaged cars that are either driven or towed to the garage will be out of the race. If that happens now, the cars will be permitted to continue in the race after repairs.

The changes were made after some issues last year. Following the fall Talladega race in October that had a major wreck with multiple cars, NASCAR’s vice president of competition Elton Sawyer spoke to reporters about how NASCAR determines a car can go back on the track.

More on NASCAR’s Damaged Vehicle Policy

“Our goal is never to put good cars out of the race,” Sawyer said, per Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports. “When we developed DVP five or 10 years ago, that’s never been the goal. Based on our experiences last week at Kansas and looking at what happened there, with the four car, we felt like we probably could have made a different call there. We had a good car that probably just needed tires last week.

“As we went into this week, we wanted to err on the side of the competitor. Again, we don’t want to put cars out of the race. We had a situation in Turn 3 where we got 25-plus cars down. We’re not sure why they can’t continue we don’t know if it’s strictly because they’re just in the grass or high-sided. For us to make a determination that they got some suspension damage and can’t continue, that puts a lot on us that we want to err on the side of the competitors. Once we got the 14 and nine back to pit road, they made their small repairs that they can make on pit road and went out and met minimum speed. We felt like we made the right call there.”