Drivers in the 2025 season have been able to continue racing despite their being damaged, thanks to a signifcant change in NASCAR’s Damaged Vehicle Policy.

In the past, NASCAR stipulated that cars damaged in the race would not have been able to return to the race if the car sustained enough damage that it had to be taken to the garage. Now, the crew is given an opportunity to assess the damage and make necessary fixes to the car to get it competition ready again.

A recent example of this policy change in action was during the Goodyear 400 when Kyle Larson spun on Turn 2 on Lap 4, which damaged his front end. He and his car were eventually towed to the garage where the team quickly went to work to salvage the day.

With Larson sitting in the car, the crew worked for two hours to get the car ready. Despite being 160 laps down, the team was able to get the NASCAR star’s car in working shape, and Larson was able to gain one position, finishing 37th and earning one point.

After the fact, Larson’s crew chief, Cliff Daniels, explained what went into the decision to work on the car for over two hours instead of just throwing in the towel and calling the weekend lost.

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“Given the opportunity to go through what we had to go through, which was replacing the front bumper bar, a lot of the components within the nose, that was a really good education for our team of just understanding the process with NASCAR (and) their level of expectation,” he said, per Racer.com.

“There are a lot of safety items on the car; there are tethers to the different parts of the nose, the splitter, so there are a lot of little details that if you’re going to embark on crash repair at Talladega in a couple of weeks or other tracks down the road, just from the learning and a process standpoint, today was really valuable for that.”

He added: “To be honest, I think it was good for NASCAR, too, because the criteria was pretty interesting with our car. The front clip wasn’t hurt, the suspension wasn’t hurt, the steering wasn’t hurt, and nothing in the radiator or oil cooler was hurt.

“It was really just the aluminum bumper bar, and that’s a lot of work just to get one of those changed. So, we learned all we could and tried to maximize our day.”

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NASCAR’s policy change comes after Ryan Blaney had pointed words for officials after his outing was cut short in last year’s edition of Watkins Glen. After a significant wreck in the opening lap ruled him out for the rest of the race, an irate Blaney made his thoughts known. 

“Give us a chance to fix it,” he said at the time. “How are they going to dictate if we’re done or not. They have no idea of the damage. They say because I couldn’t drive it back to the pit box we’re done.

“If you get four flats, you’re towed back to the pit box. I don’t know what’s going on, why they wouldn’t give us a chance to work on it. I don’t agree with it.”

He added: “I don’t even know what happened. Honestly, I was stacked up, steering broke. I don’t know if we could have fixed it. But the frustrating part is you don’t even get a chance. Just end our day. Not even getting a chance to look at it before it’s in the garage.”