NASCAR VP of Competition Elton Sawyer: need to change 'culture' in race shops

NASCAR sent a stern message Wednesday, handing down a significant punishment to the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing team of Chase Briscoe for counterfeiting the NACA duct to the engine panel during Monday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

NASCAR issued an L3-level penalty, the most severe punishment under the sanctioning body’s deterrence system. The penalty is a loss of 120 driver and owner points and 25 NASCAR playoff points. Additionally, it’s a six-race suspension plus a $250,000 fine for crew chief Johnny Klausmeier.

Elton Sawyer, senior vice president of competition, said that NASCAR has been handing down large penalties and fines/suspensions in an effort to steer teams away from designing their own parts on the Next Gen car.

“The culture that was in our garage and our race teams shops on the Gen 6 car was more of a manufacturing facility. The Next Gen car – that’s not the business model,” Sawyer said, via Motorsport. “The race teams – and they’re doing a better job, but we still have a lot of work to do – they have to change that culture within the walls of the race shop.”

NASCAR not letting up on significant punishments

Sawyer added that NASCAR will continue to be diligent in being the “custodians of the garage.”

“We would much rather be talking about the phenomenal racing than about penalties,” Sawyer said. “But for us to keep this car in the box it needs to be in, we as a sanctioning body need to stay on top of it. We’re the custodians of the garage. We’re the custodians of this car. What we have to continue to do – and we will – is to continue to show the garage that we will not get lazy.

“We will continue to bring cars back to the R&D Center. We will continue to look at them and we’ll continue to write penalties if they continue to do the things they are doing.”

Prior to the ruling on the No. 14 team, NASCAR came down especially hard on Hendrick Motorsports. Following the March 12 Cup Series race at Phoenix Raceway, NASCAR docked the No. 5, 9, 24 and 48 Cup Series teams of Hendrick 100 owners points and playoff points and handed out $100,000 fines. The $400,000 total fine for Hendrick was the largest fine given out to a team in NASCAR history. 

NASCAR had confiscated the hood louvers from all four cars prior to the March 10 practice. NASCAR allowed the cars to practice before taking the parts back to R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina, for further examination. The National Motorsports Appeals Panel later ruled to amend the L2-level penalties, restoring the owners and playoff points.