Dale Earnhardt Jr. Opposes NASCAR Wasting Tony Stewart & Co.’s $250,000 Efforts at Kansas

The DVP is one of the most controversial rules in NASCAR, as it has affected the drivers during the playoffs. So far, two drivers; Ryan Blaney and Josh Berry have had to retire from a race because their cars were deemed undrivable, despite the teams believing they would be good after a pitstop. This has sparked many questions from teams, drivers, and critics alike.

Every time a team puts their car into a race, they spend thousands of dollars to make it happen. Being told that their race is over in less than a lap gets frustrating for the team and its fans too. To add to the frustrations, NASCAR’s Managing Director Brad Moran announced that they will not be changing this rule despite what happened with Josh Berry in Kansas, “The rule hasn’t changed, but it certainly can give a different view when it happens and it’s unfortunate.” In an attempt to put out a more common ground statement, Dale Earnhardt Jr. took matters into his own hands.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s take on the DVP

According to the rule, if a car is involved in a crash and cannot drive back to the pit stop, it is raced over for them. However, in Josh Berry’s case, the team claims that the only damage that was done to the car was that the tires went flat. Denny Hamlin also explained how it is the rub blocks in the NextGen cars that make it so that the car cannot move unless there is air in the tires but NASCAR’s decision is made.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. joined in the discussion when he spoke about the incident in depth on Dale Jr Download. While discussing the controversial Damaged Vehicle Policy in detail, he said, “There’s a lot of reasons why this vehicle policy is in place. But is it perfect? Maybe not. Would you have liked to have seen Josh Berry, or any guy in that situation, be able to put tires on his car and go back out there and finish the race? Yes!”

Explaining what it takes for a team to bring out a car for a race, Dale Jr. added, “They did build a $250,000 race car roughly, with all the man hours in the shop. They hauled this thing halfway across the country, unloaded it, practiced, qualified, and raced. NASCAR definitely has to assist in giving the teams the ability to finish that race.”

As a team owner and former NASCAR driver himself, Dale Jr. knows the pain of putting in all that effort only to exit the race before it really started. So although he believes the rule is in place for a reason, on his podcast he said, “I’m hoping that in the offseason they’ll look at how they can adjust the policy without ruining the intent.”

Having a damaged car on the track is a hazard for safety reasons. Emphasizing the same Dale Earnhardt Jr. further explained, “No one wants the rule to go away. I just think we can use our heads here and say, ‘That car could have raced; it absolutely could have raced.’” Being ever so hopeful, Dale Jr. hopes that the rule changes to become fair to all teams, but he closed his sentence by saying that there might be a scenario where a fault will show up in the refined rule.

Although NASCAR has given its justification for retiring Josh Berry from the Kansas race, Rodney Childers, his crew chief, is not over the issue.

Rodney Childers brings the heat to NASCAR

Everything started on Lap 1 when the cars were just getting fired up. Josh Berry and Erik Jones came into contact, which sent the former’s car into the apron. Although there was no significant damage to the car except a few flat tires. When the car was stranded on the track, Crew Chief, Rodney Childers told Berry not to get out on account of what happened to Ryan Blaney at The Glen.

But when the tow truck moved the car off the track and near the fans, Childers started to get emotional. Obviously, the crew chief was unhappy considering all the work the team put into having the car race, so when the media spoke to Childers, he said, “I’ve seen a lot of things over my 25 years in the Cup Series, but that’s the most screwed up thing I’ve ever seen or been involved with.” 

According to Childers, all the team needed to do was tow the car back into the pitlane and make minor changes. In his frustration, he continued his rant, saying, “All we needed was tires with air in them. And how many times have we drug cars to the pit stall to put tires on them? Why today?!?”

After seeing such an incident ruin the race for him, it’s only fair that Childers gets frustrated. Especially when he was trying to get in touch with officials from NASCAR while the incident took place. All his efforts were in vain and it shows. However, Brad Moran’s words made it clear that this was a case closed.

• Where do you stand when it comes to Josh Berry’s DVP rule implementation?
• Did NASCAR do the right thing?