{"id":117685,"date":"2025-09-03T21:23:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T21:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/117685\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T21:23:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T21:23:10","slug":"nascar-considers-cup-series-rule-change-backed-by-kevin-harvick-motorsport-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/117685\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR considers Cup Series rule change backed by Kevin Harvick – Motorsport – Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASCAR is considering a major rule change regarding the awarding of points for the fastest lap ahead of the 2026 Cup Series<\/a> season. This comes just days after Playoff driver Josh Berry returned to the track at Darlington late in the Cook Out Southern 500<\/a> after a first-lap wreck to pick up the bonus point.<\/p>\n

Having qualified third in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford, Berry spun out exiting turn two after bottoming out<\/a> on a patch of asphalt. After a lengthy stint in the garage, Berry wound up returning to the oval, finishing last and 128 laps down, but still picking up two valuable points, with one coming courtesy of the 34-year-old recording the fastest lap.<\/p>\n

As such, while still last in the Playoff standings, he remains just 19 points below the cutoff line with two races to go in the Round of 16, tied with Hendrick Motorsports\u2019 Alex Bowman.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, the heights were set really low, and I don’t know that obviously Josh wasn’t expecting it to drag the ground right there because that’s really early in the corner,\u201d 2014 Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick<\/a> said of Berry\u2019s spin on his podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it looks to me like they just missed their heights right there and too aggressive on the back of the car. And it got on the rub blocks and bottomed out. And when it hits those rub blocks like that, it spins out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harvick also went on to suggest that cars that return to the track after a trip to the garage, only to then set a fastest lap for an extra point, cannot be \u201clegal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think if you go to the garage – I think this is something that NASCAR needs to address at the end of the year – If you go to the garage and you get put on that clock, you are not eligible for the fastest lap,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause there’s obviously some\u2026we’ve seen Kyle Larson do it a few times. We\u2019ve seen Josh Berry do it now at a high-grip race track.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat car was wrecked on three of the four corners. And I think if you go back to the garage, you should not be eligible for the fastest lap. And I know we’re talking about one point, or what’s the incentive? Don’t care.\u201d<\/p>\n

DON’T MISS…<\/p>\n

As mentioned by Harvick, Berry isn\u2019t the first driver to return from a wreck to set a fastest time, with Hendrick\u2019s Larson having previously done the same both at Mexico<\/a> City and Watkins Glen. And it seems clear that NASCAR is all too aware of what is going on – although it is also worth noting that Larson\u2019s car did have to undergo an inspection after Watkins Glen, while Berry\u2019s car \u201cpassed body and underbody scans after Darlington to ensure its legality,\u201d per NASCAR<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the latest \u2018Hauler Talk<\/a>\u2019 podcast, managing director of communications Mike Forde revealed that talks have taken place among NASCAR bosses about changing the fastest lap rule, potentially to only apply to those on the lead lap.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s some of the conversation in the offseason, nothing\u2019s going to be changing over the next nine races, but that is something we plan to look at as we move forward into 2026,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Forde later explained that \u201cboth sides\u201d of the argument are being heard, whilst adding, \u201cFans of Kyle Larson came out to watch him, and they want to continue seeing him strive and compete for something when you\u2019re double or triple-digits laps down. So there are good reasons to keep it in there. And the same thing with Berry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASCAR is considering a major rule change regarding the awarding of points for the fastest lap ahead of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,65737,58721,25423,2332,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-117685","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fastest-lap-rule","11":"tag-josh-berry","12":"tag-kevin-harvick","13":"tag-motorsport-section","14":"tag-nascar","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}