Nascar Worried About Excessive Burnouts Celebrations

Posted on August 10, 2016 by admin in Sports News

NASCAR could soon ask the pilots to avoid excessive celebrations with burnouts to avoid damaging the cars before the inspection required after the races.

Steve O’Donnell, Executive Vice President and Head of Development, told SiriusXM NASCAR inspectors are analyzing incidents like Denny Hamlin after his victory last Sunday at the Cheez-It 355 at Watkins Glen International, where he destroyed the Toyota rear tires and left the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing in such poor condition that had to be pushed to the official celebration in Victory Lane.

“It’s something that is happening and we are trying to avoid and balance the celebrations,” O’Donnell said. “I think we will see in the near future … and we’re not trying to blame NO. 11. This is something we talked about before. It is a trend that we want to avoid.”

NASCAR said it had no plans to regulate such celebrations because they wanted to give pilots the opportunity to “express their enthusiasm” for the win and give the fans an ‘exclamation point at the end of the race. “

Last October, when Kevin Harvick won at Dover, there were suspicions that he intentionally hit the Chevrolet No. 4 of Stewart-Haas Racing against the outer wall, but the car passed all inspections.

O’Donnell said NASCAR inspectors continue to allow the celebrations, but should avoid “creating unnecessary damage” to the cars.

“We want to see the celebrations and we believe that pilots can do without all that,” he said. “Sooner rather than later, we will set something to cover the issue, as we enter the final stretch of the season.”

The actual NASCAR regulations says that the winners of the Sprint Cup Series drivers can “celebrate properly before reporting to Victory Lane.” These “celebration activities” include laps of victory, burnouts or “donuts”.

The rules add that once the car takes the checkered flag (or the race is declared finished), all vehicles in competition are “requisitioned” and should not be altered in any way before reporting to the inspection area.