Cup Series Teams Left “Begging for a Reprieve” as NASCAR’s Harsh Ruling Crashes Phoenix Party

Only a few weeks ago, NASCAR came under heavy fire from both the community and drivers alike for opting out of hosting practice sessions at Super Speedways barring Daytona. This decision was particularly hard for the rookies, as Atlanta’s race was witness. With that said, it looks like the officials are again drawing scrutiny from the community after NASCAR made a major change to the window teams would have between practice and technical inspection.

On the latest episode of the ‘NASCAR Live’ podcast from the Motor Racing Network, the host, Mike Bagley, got into a lengthy discussion with veteran crew chiefs Todd Gordon and Rudy Fugle, over the change in practice procedure for the Phoenix race this weekend. Unlike the weekend at Atlanta which had no practice at all, this time NASCAR has accommodated a 50-minute practice session.

However, the teams would now only get a 90-minute window after the practice session to collect driver feedback and get the car ready for technical inspection. This means that the teams would have very little time to filter out the details, making Phoenix a challenge tougher than expected by Daytona winner William Byron and his garage. Reflecting on how the change impacts the team’s ability to fine-tune the car, the crew chief of #24 shared his disappointment with the decision.

Rudy Fugle shared, “Normally we would have 50 minutes, you start working on the car, and you have overnight, which the engineers and myself would probably stay up for most of the night.” Fugle highlighted how the extra time helped the team reliably put together a car they were comfortable with. Now that it isn’t in the cards anymore, the HMS crew chief feels plans need to be changed accordingly despite being far from ideal.

With that said, Fugle shared the plan for the Chevrolet team going forward, “You’re going to be limited on what you’re gonna be able to change after practice, so what our practice plan will be knowing the things we can change in an hour and a half. Because we most likely have to change brakes in an hour and a half. So we’re going to be packed just getting the car ready to race, let alone getting it ready for inspection and changing things so, really all of us as a GM group will work on different little things that we can share.” 

Reflecting on Chevrolet’s past of working closely together as a group, Fugle felt all the teams under the Bowtie would need to repeat that teamwork. The crew chief also noted several changes they will need to make to create additional pressure on the team; “I think in addition to normal changes will be springs cambers tows and geometries and stuff like that, you’re not gonna have a ton of time to change.”

Ultimately, it looks like Phoenix will be quite challenging for even the top ones in NASCAR, leaving many questioning the fate of the newcomers and the underdogs. Fugle shed light on the stance of the crew chiefs when they heard of NASCAR’s decision; “As soon as we heard about it, we were begging for reprieve. But I don’t know what the deal is..that’s what they want.” 

It’s safe to say that Hendrick Motorsports and Chevy have their work cut out for them according to the #24 Crew chief, but he wasn’t the only one concerned about the limited window between practice and inspection. Fugle was also joined by Jimmie Johnson‘s crew chief at LMC, Todd Gordon.

Is 90 minutes truly enough time for teams to make it to the technical inspection and remain competitive?

When Todd Gordon got wind of NASCAR’s decision, the LMC crew chief shared how he too was surprised that the inspection wasn’t on Saturday morning. He stated, “That was the first thing I said to Steve before the thing, I said I’m gonna ask him if he wished the inspection was on Saturday morning.” 

Gordon expressed how having a night before the technical inspection would not only allow teams to get a complete understanding of the car but also help gain insight into all of the information other Chevy partners were stumbling upon. He added,  “I always enjoyed that night to just digest, and you can digest not only your stuff but especially in a situation here where you have all your partners pooling information, digesting that in what, 30 minutes? You gotta implement it, right?” 

The veteran crew chief highlighted how teams would now have to absorb all the information they had gathered from practice within that window and then implement it within an hour or so. This will make things fairly difficult even for the team that kickstarted 2024 with a win. Speaking of which, Rudy Fugle concluded his thoughts by sharing how little time they truly will have to work everything out.

Fugley stated, “I mean, it will take 15 minutes to debrief with all of our drivers and then you’re gonna have to make a decision, and 15 minutes later what you’re gonna put in, the engineers will run it through simulation and type it up, and it’s gotta go in the car. So yeah it seems like a Truck or an Xfinity-type old-school weekend when it’s like that, and we’re just trying to flex those and execute better than everybody else that’s all we can do” 

After taking a look at the challenges that the teams are going to face at Pheonix this coming weekend, NASCAR certainly needs to rapidly get on top of their friction with the community to help avoid an F1-like disaster.

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