The good and the bad of NASCAR's newest rules
2025-01-15
Category: sports

The biggest message among NASCAR’s rules changes last week was this: Don’t egregiously dump another driver on purpose or the consequences could derail your season. NASCAR didn’t say that outright but its new waiver rules certainly indicate it. NASCAR announced that any waiver to remain playoff eligible while missing a race was issued for a driver absence for non-medical (or family emergency) reasons would result in a driver forfeiting all playoff points earned during the regular season. That means a driver who advances to the playoffs would have their points reset to 2000 with no playoff points added. If the driver makes it to the next round, it would be 3000 plus only playoff points earned in the previous round. That’s a big hit for a moment of indiscretion if a driver does something so egregious on the track (or potentially off the track) that NASCAR feels it must bench the driver. This will require NASCAR to treat these situations with a little more nuance as a suspension now carries more weight than in the past. And it needed to. Should it devastate a driver’s championship chances? Possibly. This will be a good test to see if it will deter any driver from hooking another on the racetrack. The rule also would impact Kyle Larson in his Indy 500 attempt. If he didn’t get back to start the Cup race in Charlotte, he would forfeit all playoff points. That certainly hurts drivers hoping to do the double, something which NASCAR should embrace, but it was obvious last year that NASCAR for some reason doesn’t want to play second fiddle. It's disappointing because the potential windfall of interest generated by a star driver trying to compete in both IndyCar and NASCAR on the same day should make a no-consequence waiver a no-brainer. The ironic part? Another NASCAR rule is designed to embrace drivers from other series (granted they aren’t skipping a race of their own series) as NASCAR will allow a 41st spot in races, if need be, for a world-class driver from another series to make the field for a race if the driver doesn’t qualify naturally. That means Helio Castroneves will make the Daytona 500. He’ll want to make it naturally because qualifying his way in means that Trackhouse would get the purse money. If a team is granted that 41st spot if it doesn’t qualify for the race with a star driver from another series, it won’t get the dollars. This rule might cheapen the driver getting into the race, but it does bring eyeballs. Plus, it sets up a mechanism so when NASCAR races internationally, like it will this year in Mexico City, that a star driver from that country could be guaranteed a spot to compete.&nbsp; Whether necessary or not is debatable and certainly wasn’t something that people were clamoring for — so for those questioning why do it, those questions are valid — but if in the end this puts more of a spotlight on the sport, it’s fine.  The one thing hopefully it won’t do is create some unnecessary controversy, which is what the damaged vehicle policy seemed to do, especially in the Next Gen car era and especially this past season. With the new rules, NASCAR has set procedures for teams to now work on cars in a designated area in the garage. With the Next Gen car, there is less they can weld and work on, so maybe there isn’t as much of a need to worry that teams will spend an hour working on a car and then put a still heavily damaged vehicle on the track. The new rules also take it out of NASCAR’s hands as far as whether towing to the garage could end a driver’s day. Just as every time NASCAR makes a rule, there are questions of unintended consequences. Will a driver who was suspended and qualified for the playoffs race with a different approach knowing that there are no playoff points on the table? Will there be a flurry of teams and drivers attempting to get the provisional designated for a world-class talent who isn’t a full-time NASCAR driver? Will wrecked cars that previously would have been sidelined by the damaged vehicle policy now return to the track and create cautions? It's all possible. For better or for worse, though? It seems for the most part these rule changes are for the better. Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.