NASCAR Alters In-Race Penalty Rules for Driving Violations

In any sport, playing by the rules and good sportsmanship is always encouraged, and the same applies to racing. So there are obviously a number of rules surrounding dirty driving and strict punishments meted out.

Now, NASCAR has tweaked the wording on its rule regarding dangerous driving.

Initially, it was dubbed as ‘Aggressive Driving’, but in all honesty, aggressive driving is a very broad blanket. The sport clearly came to a similar conclusion, so they changed the wording to ‘reckless driving’.

Now, this means that drivers can cop a time penalty or a lap penalty for committing such an offense.

NASCAR will also impose penalties for other misdemeanors

In addition to reckless driving, racers can also get a penalty for intentionally causing a caution period. Similarly, drivers are discouraged from passing the caution vehicle, crossing the blend line when exiting the pit lane, and restart offenses.

The officials can also slap penalties for verbal abuse directed towards officials, violating pit norms while repairing vehicles. Furthermore, there are also Safety violations and unauthorized adjustments or modifications.

Coming back to the subject of reckless driving, some NASCAR drivers have been found guilty of the same. A notable example is Justin Haley, who lost his chance at the final $100,000 Xfinity Dash 4 cash prize at Pocono.

He was handed a two-lap hold penalty on pit road for punting Riley Herbst into the wall with 42 laps to go. A 2-lap hold means that a driver is stationary in the pit lane for two full laps before he/she can get going once again.

Suffice to say, he was not the only guilty party, but one of the few who were penalized for it. Several drivers like Erik Jones called out their contemporaries in the Xfinity series for a lack of respect.

Apparently, Herbst and Haley were jostling for position when the former clipped the latter’s rear bumper. Haley got loose but managed to save it and keep it out of the wall.

However, the red-eyed beast struck him and he veered left, hooking Herbst’s right rear as he passed him on the inside. This sent Herbst into the outside wall at the flag stand, and the stewards were not impressed with the stunt.

WATCH: NASCAR Xfinity Driver Noah Gragson Crashes Out Joe Gibbs Racing’s Riley Herbst

SOURCE- Bob Pockrass- Twitter