It’s been no secret that driving standards in NASCAR’s top division have declined greatly in recent years. It seems every race that at least one driver is complaining about the moves made on them by another driver in the field. With no signs of it getting better, and the events of the race at Pocono two weeks ago, many have started to advocate for the re-introduction of ‘rough driving’ penalties to try and reduce idiotic maneuvers. So, I’ve decided to take a look at how these penalties could be introduced, how they could be enforced and whether or not the fans would actually support them.
First of all, why have driving standards gotten worse?
Well, the introduction of the next gen car in 2022 has been cited by many as the main reason. The next gen car is a lot more durable than the previously used gen 6 car, which allows for drivers to be a lot more physical during a race. While this has given us countless great finishes, such as Ross Chastain’s brawl to the finish at COTA in 2022, it has also given drivers the greenlight to use their car as a battering ram with very little consequences, with races like the Indianapolis Road Course in 2022 and COTA in 2023 being standout examples of drivers sending it.
What is a rough driving penalty?
Rough driving penalties would involve NASCAR holding drivers on pit road for a certain number of laps during the race. Rough driving penalties were used in NASCAR during the 90s and 2000s to control driving standards to ensure contact didn’t get out of hand. Rough driving penalties were gradually phased out in the cup series in favor of a more self-policing attitude, but they are still occasionally used in the warzone that is the NASCAR truck series.
How would they be enforced?
This is a difficult question to answer. The key charm of NASCAR has always been that it is a contact sport, allowing drivers in race to bump into others to try and gain an advantage , and I don’t want to lose that with these penalties. So if NASCAR did reintroduce penalties for rough driving, they would have to be enforced correctly, as to still allow drivers to make contact with each other and keep NASCAR’s core identity.
So, my proposal for this is for NASCAR to allow contact among drivers, but will investigate anything, regardless of intention, that results in race ending damage to one car, while the car that primarily caused the wreck continues on. This way, wrecks such as Ross Chastain dumping Brennan Poole at Dover in 2023 will be punished, while mere spins will not be. If an incident is shown to be necessary and not-overly aggressive, then no punishment will be enforced, such as the incident at the end of the 2022 Bristol Dirt Race.
Now, this is nowhere near perfect and no proposal really would be. Ultimately the decision to penalize a driver would be a judgment call for NASCAR officiating, which they have been shown time and time again to not be trusted with. Leaving the calling up to NASCAR would ultimately result in missed or undeserved penalties that will directly influence the outcome of a race towards a specific driver, no doubt angering NASCAR nation. However, I still believe that this penalty system is infinitely better than allowing guys to dump someone over with 200 laps left for 25th with no repercussions.
Do people actually want this?
From a poll conducted on Twitter (now X), 92% of 26 respondents voted that they would support the use of a penalty system to control cup series driving standards. However, qualitative data collected from r/NASCAR on Reddit showed a far more mixed response. Some believed that a penalty system would be necessary, as actions like LaJoie at Pocono are dangerous and cannot go unpunished. Others argued that, while they don’t want to open the can of worms of introducing rough driving penalties, agreed that more punishments would be needed, while some outright rejected the idea, citing the inevitable inconsistency from NASCAR and wanting the boys to have at it.
That brings me onto my final point: in the early 2010s NASCAR adopted the “boys have at it” system, where they would allow drivers to take matters into their own hands to control each other. Essentially, you could dump someone and run all over the racetrack, but someone would give it back to you next week. The most common reason I saw opposing rough driving penalties was the “boys have at it” system. However, are we letting the boys have at it anymore? The system encourages drivers to get revenge but anytime an incident occurs on track, the victim is put under a microscope for the next few weeks to ensure that they don’t intentionally wreck another driver, and drivers have been careful to avoid using any language that would even imply that they intentionally wrecked someone. The system has collapsed due to NASCAR’s own restrictions on intentional wrecking, so drivers can just get away with whatever they want to.
A new system is desperately needed. The next gen car has made it so much harder to pass at a lot of tracks and a lot easier to drive through someone to get where you want. While this has given us as fans several highly entertaining races and finishes, there is always a line of aggression that needs to be enforced. Certain moves are inexcusable and must be punished in some way, shape or form. If NASCAR does decide to implement any form of rough driving penalty system in the Cup Series, then it will at least be a step in the right direction to fixing the atrocious driving standard in a series that is meant to host some of the greatest drivers in the world.
Featured Image Credits: Patrick Vallely
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