It was just a non-points exhibition race but the Cup Series garage did not feel like the Cookout Clash was the finest hour from race control to those on the ground directly communicating with teams.<\/p>\n
Walking through the garage, there were several crew chiefs and veteran crew members who felt like the Sanctioning Body needed to do some work over the next week to mend some fences between them.<\/p>\n
One longtime crew member for a championship caliber team said NASCAR has lost the garage, referencing a narrative from the off-season, and that an event like this was reflective of why there is such a disconnect.<\/p>\n
That crew member said officials on the ground at Bowman Gray Stadium on Wednesday night could not provide a straight answer to anything and that the decisions made were a direct conflict to what teams understood the rules to be.<\/p>\n
It was best illustrated by Carson Hocevar and the Spire Motorsports No. 77 team. When NASCAR allowed teams to come back to the pit area to refuel, they also forced Hocevar back onto the wet weather tires they had taken off the caution before.<\/p>\n
NASCAR rules require race control to state that the track is dry before teams can put slicks back on. They hadn\u2019t done that yet but hadn\u2019t caught the 77\u2019s move until after the fact.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I ran like six laps on the dries and there was like, and I can\u2019t really answer this, they said we couldn\u2019t put dries on but someone else told us we could,\u201d Hocevar said. \u201cThis guy said \u2018no,\u2019 but this guy up top in the tower said \u2018yes\u2019 so the tower or someone did.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike, there was a guy in front of me, I don\u2019t know who, but they were telling us to \u2018stop\u2019 and then eventually he was like \u2018okay, you can go ahead\u2019 and then we resumed the race.\u2019 I mean, there was a lot going on.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt least they weren\u2019t like \u2018congrats, you ran on dries for six laps, so you\u2019re six laps down now.\u2019 Like, I just think it was a miscommunication of an already chaotic, probably, tower and I don\u2019t want to know what those radios sounded like.\u201d<\/p>\n
The decision to even let teams come down and add fuel was one of the reasons several crew chiefs were mad in the first place. It only happened after the likes of Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson ran out of fuel.<\/p>\n
In real time, James Small was furious because he had just told his driver, Chase Briscoe, that they had enough fuel to make it to the end even with all of the cautions. He budgeted the race to have enough caution laps to justify a full tank.<\/p>\n
Small intended to beat the field in part on fuel mileage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just don’t understand that,\u201d Small said. \u201cEverybody 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
In real time, he called it \u2018fucking bullshit,\u2019 over the radio to Briscoe.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s like, why do we even have the rules,\u201d Small said. \u201cYou 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were going to be fine, so I guess, overall, lucky it doesn\u2019t count for anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Race winner Ryan Preece benefitted from that decision and crew chief Derrick Finley says he was lobbying NASCAR for it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were pushing hard with the officials trying to get us to get some fuel, let us get fuel,\u201d he said. \u201cWe 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cApparently they agreed eventually. We came down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finley conceded they \u2018were going to be close\u2019 and that he was \u2018relieved and happy\u2019 that NASCAR let them take fuel.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do feel bad for the people who just came down and got gas the caution before,\u201d Finley said. \u201cIn 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jim Pohlman, new crew chief for Kyle Busch and the Richard Childress Racing No. 8, was one of those teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy only complaint was, we were probably short on fuel and I opted to come in,\u201d Pohlman said. \u201cOne of those late runs, I stuck fuel in it just to be safe and they told me I couldn\u2019t even do that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen the next caution, they let everyone come down and put fuel in, and I knew that, I wouldn\u2019t have put fuel in it and kept our track position. But you know what, I guess that\u2019s the way it goes sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n
When it came time to talk to Chris Gayle, crew chief of the JGR No. 11, he and Small were talking about it. The frustrations were shared.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, that\u2019s what we were just talking about,\u201d Gayle said of his chat with Small. \u201cAs 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\u2019t quite sure all of a sudden what the rules were and what was and wasn\u2019t allowed. I don\u2019t think many people did. That was unfortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gayle said the teams and NASCAR have a channel to be able to have these conversations in the appropriate forums.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor sure,\u201d Gayle said. \u201cAll the stuff that happened will be brought up in the right way at the right time with the right people, and we\u2019ll have those conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cliff Daniels, crew chief for Larson, was bit by the fueling decision but was more diplomatic because their race was so much more problematic than that one specific officiating outcome.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest, our race was such a mess that I’m in no place to talk about the officiating at all,\u201d Daniels said. \u201cThe 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
We want your opinion!<\/p>\n
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?<\/p>\n