NASCAR's Elton Sawyer met with Joey Logano about flat tire issue

Joey Logano’s viral tow to pit road during Sunday’s Pocono race may have gone over the heads of many due to the beef between Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson, but the two-time NASCAR champion is looking to make change.

For context, Logano was stuck in Turn 1 on Sunday afternoon with four flat tires following a spin, which has happened on multiple occasions since NASCAR turned to their Next Gen car. Of course, Logano had to be towed back to pit road, but the system was something the Team Penske wheelman questioned.

Logano could be heard voicing his opinion on the matter, saying it didn’t make sense to drag the car around the track and risk further damage, with driver also moving around inside. Evidently, he took his concerns to NASCAR senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer, who joined SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Tuesday to highlight their conversation.

“Joey and I spoke yesterday and had a great conversation and here’s the real positive, he and I agree 100% and we’re on the same team of trying to fix it,” Sawyer said, via Kelly Crandall of Racer. “This is not necessarily a Next Gen car problem as much as a no ride height (rule). Even our cars in the past on four flat tires … would basically have similar situations having difficulty getting back to pit road from time to time. Not to the level of that we’ve had with our Next Gen car, so we have a plan in place today that we were working toward, and we did this past weekend, to execute getting the 22 back to pit road.

“Obviously, (it’s) a two-and-a-half mile racetrack, just taking vehicles straight to pit road there are a of negative consequences that come with that from scoring the event. We’re shortcutting the course (and) a lot of things behind the scenes that are not on the table to make that work that way.”

Elton Sawyer: ‘I wish we could flip a switch and have it fixed overnight’

Continuing, Sawyer explained that NASCAR is working on what could be a more efficient procedure to get cars back to pit road.

“But we will go to work to figure out what the next procedure is to be able to get the cars,” Sawyer added. “We need to get them picked up straight and get on a rollback and get them back. Towing them or pushing them back is not ideal but it is what we have today.

“And as far as putting tires and a jack and electric impact on a chase vehicle and getting them to the incident, I’m not saying that’s not on the table, but it’s pretty far down the priority list for the simple reason that just fast forward to a superspeedway where we could potentially have multiple vehicles sitting there with four flat tires. So, what are we going to do, pull out the point standings and say, OK, go get the point leader first? Those things are just not practical in a way during the event to be able to recover those vehicles.”

While Sawyer wishes NASCAR would have a solution at the drop of a hat, he recognizes that it’s not that simple, but Logano’s input will certainly help them get to a better solution.

“Our team here at the R&D Center is wide-open to figure out the next steps on that,” added the NASCAR VP. “This is something that came up at Auto Club in year one. We have a procedure now. Our folks at Steps Towing do a phenomenal job; they’ve been a great partner and teammate on the towing side. They’re with us every week so they have an understanding of what we’re up against, so we’ll get to a good place and continue to work with our drivers and again, had a great conversation with Joey yesterday on some ideas and some thoughts.

“I wish it was a light switch. I wish we could flip a switch and have it fixed overnight. If it was that easy, we would already have it done.”

It remains to be seen, but it’s nice to see NASCAR taking the input of their drivers on one of the biggest issues at the moment. Hopefully a more perfect solution will be bestowed upon the sport by next season.