NASCAR front office forced to speak out on controversial rule

NASCAR officials clarified why Josh Berry was ruled out of the rest of the Hollywood Casino 400 after an opening lap crash with Erik Jones. In the wreck, Berry’s car suffered multiple flat tires, which prevented the No. 4 Ford from making it to the pit under its own power. 
As per NASCAR’s rules, any car that is unable to move independently because of flat tires resulting from a crash on track is automatically disqualified from the race. Berry’s crew chief Rodney Childers posted an angry message on social media, blasting NASCAR for its rules. 
“I’ve seen a lot of things over my 25 years in the Cup Series, but that’s the most screwed up thing I’ve ever seen or been involved with,” Childers’ post on X began. “All we needed was tires with air in them. And how many times have we drug cars to the pit stall to put tires on them. Why today?!?”
As a result of the outrage, NASCAR Cup Series Managing Director Brad Moran explained the thought process behind why Berry was unable to continue. More than anything, Moran reiterated that the decision came down to safety and admitted officials cannot inspect a vehicle on the side of a racetrack to determine where it can continue to run in a race.
“Once you’re involved in a DVP (Damaged Vehicle Policy) accident – and by the way the IDR (incident data recorder) reporter did go off, so it was a significant incident that the (No.) 4 was in,” Moran explained on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio [h/t Toby Christie]. “If he couldn’t drive that car back, it was out due to DVP.”
Once the season ends, Moran added that NASCAR will look at how it looks at incidents such as the one Berry had with the Next Gen car so that officials are properly able to determine a course of action. “Now, we’ve had a new car. We’ve had three years with it. We’re learning every time it goes out there,” he continued. 
“We looked at (the DVP policy) last off-season. We’re going to take a much harder look (this off-season). Unfortunately, we’ve a couple of samples we don’t really like, and we’re going to go back and take a hard look at it and get with the industry and see if there’s a modification that we can do where everybody feels is fair and equitable.”
Along with Moran noting NASCAR will potentially revise its rule regarding DVP incidents, star driver Denny Hamlin noted it would behoove NASCAR to make changes. On his “Actions Detrimental” podcast, Hamlin expressed his thoughts, citing the increased backlash as a motivating factor for a change. 
“I predict they’ll change that rule. There’ll be enough uproar, and they’ll respond to social media and stuff, and they’ll allow that,” Hamlin said on the episode. “There’s no reason why he shouldn’t have been able to continue. So where in the loophole of rulebooks can you come up with a way to change this to make it to where he’s able to put your tires on it?”
Michael Jordan uses NASCAR team to make seven-figure Hurricane Helene donation
Tyler Reddick makes worrying admission after difficult NASCAR Playoffs performance
Denny Hamlin slams ‘terrible’ day and admits he’s not ‘mentally in’ NASCAR playoffs
Spotter Brett Griffin also expressed his displeasure with how the rule works. On a recent episode of the “Door Bumper Clear” podcast, Griffin told fellow spotters T.J. Majors and Freddie Kraft that considering how long the Next Gen car had been in development, there should have been a better solution to cars having flat tires. 
“This has to stop happening,” Griffin said. “I mean, these guys spent three days of their life, they left their families at home with a hurricane coming and they spent a gazillion dollars to build this car and drive this car across country to be able to qualify, practice and race it, and you didn’t let them because they have four flat tires.”
Kraft added: “How is it we’re three years into this car and we don’t know out how to get around the track with flat tires? How? How is it possible? What are you going to do when this eventually happens to somebody in the final four? You’re going to eliminate a championship contender because he got a flat tire?”