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The non-points exhibition NASCAR Cup Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium was intended to be a showcase of early-season excitement, but the event has instead ignited significant debate and frustration within the Cup Series garage regarding the officiating and race control decisions. While the outcome of the race itself – a victory for Ryan Preece – has been overshadowed, a palpable sense of discontent lingers among crew chiefs and veteran team members, who feel a critical disconnect with NASCAR’s sanctioning body has been laid bare.
Sources within the garage, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the topic, described a prevailing sentiment that NASCAR needs to address underlying issues in communication and rule interpretation in the week leading up to the official season opener. A long-serving crew member from a championship-contending team articulated a recurring narrative, suggesting that NASCAR "has lost the garage" and that events like the Clash serve as stark reminders of why this disconnect exists. This individual pointed to a lack of clear and consistent answers from officials on the ground at Bowman Gray, with decisions appearing to directly contradict the understanding of rules held by the teams.
The confusion was perhaps most vividly illustrated by the experience of Carson Hocevar and the Spire Motorsports No. 77 team. During a period where NASCAR permitted teams to return to the pit area for refueling, Hocevar’s team was compelled to revert to the wet-weather tires they had fitted prior to the caution. This occurred despite the track having been declared dry enough for slick tires. NASCAR’s regulations stipulate that race control must officially announce a dry track before teams can switch back to dry-weather tires. However, the No. 77 team’s move to slicks was not immediately addressed, and the infraction was only noted after the fact.
Hocevar himself expressed bewilderment at the situation. "Yeah, I ran like six laps on the dries and there was like, and I can’t really answer this, they said we couldn’t put dries on but someone else told us we could," he stated. "This guy said ‘no,’ but this guy up top in the tower said ‘yes,’ so the tower or someone did." He further elaborated on the communication breakdown, recounting conflicting instructions: "Like, there was a guy in front of me, I don’t know who, but they were telling us to ‘stop’ and then eventually he was like ‘okay, you can go ahead’ and then we resumed the race. I mean, there was a lot going on."
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Despite the potential for a significant penalty, the team was not penalized for running on dry tires before the official declaration. Hocevar attributed this to a miscommunication within race control, acknowledging the likely pandemonium on the radio frequencies. "At least they weren’t like ‘congrats, you ran on dries for six laps, so you’re six laps down now.’ Like, I just think it was a miscommunication of an already chaotic, probably, tower and I don’t want to know what those radios sounded like."
The decision to allow teams to pit for fuel was itself a point of contention for many crew chiefs. This measure was implemented only after prominent drivers such as Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson ran out of fuel. This decision directly impacted teams that had strategically managed their fuel to reach the end of the race without pitting.
James Small, crew chief for Chase Briscoe, voiced his strong dissatisfaction with the late decision to permit refueling. Small had meticulously planned his strategy, calculating that with the anticipated number of caution laps, his driver would have sufficient fuel to complete the race without an additional pit stop. His strategy aimed to leverage fuel mileage as a competitive advantage.
"I just don’t understand that," Small commented. "Everybody knows the rules, everybody. If you started the race full, you had more than enough fuel to get to the end. So, yeah, I guess whatever." He did not mince words on the radio to Briscoe at the time, reportedly calling the situation "fucking bullshit."
Small elaborated on his frustration: "It’s like, why do we even have the rules? You know, even after the LCQ, I think they gave another car a set of tires that they said they were never going to give. So you know, it was just constantly chopping and changing and it was frustrating because I thought we could outlast on fuel a lot of the guys were racing against." He concluded, "We were going to be fine, so I guess, overall, lucky it doesn’t count for anything."
Conversely, race winner Ryan Preece and his crew chief, Derrick Finley, benefited from the decision to allow late-race fueling. Finley confirmed that his team had actively lobbied NASCAR for permission to pit for fuel. "We were pushing hard with the officials trying to get us to get some fuel, let us get fuel," he stated. "We felt that was a pretty extraordinary circumstance, to be out there in the rain and snow and spinning out and running all these caution laps that don’t count."
Finley acknowledged that his team was "going to be close" on fuel and expressed relief and gratitude that NASCAR ultimately granted their request. However, he also expressed empathy for teams that had already pitted for fuel before the change in policy. "I do feel bad for the people who just came down and got gas the caution before," Finley said. "In fact, we were talking about doing it ourselves. Because we were leading, we didn’t. Had we not been leading, we probably would have come down and fueled up and lost our position."
Jim Pohlman, the new crew chief for Kyle Busch and the Richard Childress Racing No. 8 team, found himself among those penalized by the late policy shift. "My only complaint was, we were probably short on fuel and I opted to come in," Pohlman explained. "One of those late runs, I stuck fuel in it just to be safe and they told me I couldn’t even do that. Then the next caution, they let everyone come down and put fuel in, and I knew that, I wouldn’t have put fuel in it and kept our track position. But you know what, I guess that’s the way it goes sometimes."
Chris Gayle, crew chief for the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 team, discussed the officiating with James Small, sharing similar frustrations. "Yeah, that’s what we were just talking about," Gayle said regarding the chaos. "As chaotic as it was on the track, with all the contact in the wet conditions, it was just as chaotic back here on pit lane because I wasn’t quite sure all of a sudden what the rules were and what was and wasn’t allowed. I don’t think many people did. That was unfortunate." Gayle affirmed that teams have established channels to address these issues through appropriate forums. "For sure," Gayle stated. "All the stuff that happened will be brought up in the right way at the right time with the right people, and we’ll have those conversations."
Cliff Daniels, crew chief for Kyle Larson, was also affected by the fueling decision but adopted a more measured approach, attributing his perspective to the broader challenges his team faced during the race. "To be honest, our race was such a mess that I’m in no place to talk about the officiating at all," Daniels commented. "The one thing I will say is we have inches of snow on the ground here still, and I know the track crew, everybody, the speedway, everybody in NASCAR worked really, really hard to get this event in. So, I’m going to go ahead and give them a bunch of credit in that department because I think they deserve it in getting us here and communicating all the things they needed to for us to race under these circumstances. There was a lot of good there."
The chaotic conditions at Bowman Gray, marked by rain and sleet, undoubtedly contributed to the challenges faced by both drivers and officials. However, the persistent complaints from multiple team members suggest that the officiating issues extend beyond the unique circumstances of the Clash, highlighting a need for clearer communication and a more consistent application of rules within NASCAR’s race control. As the series heads into its official season, the reverberations of these officiating concerns are likely to be a significant topic of discussion.
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