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NASCAR senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer said NASCAR wants to be able to penalize moves like the Martinsville brake-checks during races, instead of reviewing data for days afterward.
Sawyer spoke on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio after NASCAR penalized Carson Hocevar and Josh Berry for brake-checking Austin Cindric and Ryan Blaney.
Sawyer: ‘Officiate this within the race’
“The world that we live in today with the amount of data we can pull off the cars and go back and review that, you know, we can make better decisions,” Sawyer said. “The one thing that I would add, something that we’re looking at, is how we can do a better job, we as NASCAR do a better job and officiate this within the race.”
“What we really strive is to get it right. And sometimes you have to wait just a little bit to get all the data and get all the information to be able to do that. But I will give our team credit that the NASCAR production facility, Scott Miller and his team, and how we’re starting to be able to process data, and be able to have this information live so we could have made a decision in race. But that’s something for the future, but we’ll work on our side on that.”
“Would love to not be talking about this today. Would love to be talking about going to Homestead Miami, to crown, you know, three very deserving champions, whoever they may be, Friday night, Saturday, or Sunday.”
Why Hocevar’s fine was double
NASCAR docked both drivers 25 points, but fined Hocevar $100,000 and Berry $50,000. Sawyer said Hocevar’s history made the difference.
“With Carson being in situations before where we’ve had behavioral situations and penalties, we’ve had discussion with him, we just felt like after reviewing all of the data and the audio, that this one rose to a level that it needed to be more than just the $50,000 that Josh got,” Sawyer said.
Car data showed Hocevar braking hard on the straightaway in front of Cindric several times, as Pit This Time reported. His spotter could be heard telling him to stop. Berry has said he was trying to save his car after Blaney hit him.
“We wanted to make sure that we could walk in the garage area and look at all the competitors and feel like they’re playing on a level playing field,” Sawyer said.
The suspension
Hocevar’s Spire Motorsports team suspended him for Sunday’s finale before NASCAR announced its penalties, as Pit This Time reported. Justin Haley will drive the No. 77.
The softer short-track bumpers that made the brake-checks so damaging were used at Martinsville for the last time this season. Sawyer said drivers had asked for them. The Cup finale is Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on NBC.
https://x.com/SiriusXMNASCAR/status/2118004119738732715
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