Victory burnouts and celebrations have created a controversy as to whether drivers are trying to skirt post-race inspections.
Several drivers discussed the topic during Tuesday's Contender Round Media Day in Charlotte in the aftermath of Kevin Harvick’s victory celebration last Sunday in Dover.
Harvick literally burned his tires to the ground in a smoky celebration that also included backing his car into the interior wall.
It caught the eye of several competitors including Denny Hamlin and his crew chief Dave Rogers.
“He took the hot rod and just fenced it hard right in front of us,” Rogers said on the team’s radio. “Drove it straight into the fence. Be awfully hard to tech that one.”
Harvick seemed unaware of the situation when it was brought to his attention that some construed his celebration as possible nefarious behavior.
“I didn’t even know,” Harvick said.
Reporters informed Harvick how social media buzz took off about the possible post-race inspection process problems caused by the celebration.
“I knew how to knock my car back into compliance by rubbing up into the wall,’’ he cracked. “I don’t even remember actually hitting the wall. I remember the tires blowing out, but I don’t know if I actually hit the wall.’’
Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer, addressed the point when he was asked about it during his weekly appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio’s “The Morning Drive.”
“I don’t blame him,’’ O’Donnell said of Harvick’s celebration. “That was a huge win to move on. That’s something we’ll certainly look at. I chalk that up to some real enthusiasm and the guy is just happy to move on.
“I think the good news on that front is that you go back to all the pre-race work that was done and all the inspection that is done.”
However other drivers aren’t so sure there are enough checkpoints in place to prevent purposely damaging a car in a post race celebration to hide something illegal from inspection.
“Oh yeah. Absolutely,” said Brad Keselowski. “Because of the way the tech process works. The cars aren’t tech’d the same way at the track as they can be tech’d at the R&D Center. It’s been going on for a long time. But I’m not making any accusations.
“I’ve definitely blown tires out, yeah. I think every driver has done things to do some kind of damage to their car.”
Hamlin believes there should be more safeguards put into place to eliminate the possibility of intentionally damaging cars to get around inspection.
“Nothing we do is without merit,” he said. “We all know what we’re doing. It’s a tough balance because NASCAR wants you to celebrate, but as drivers, we know when the tire is about to blow. Sometimes we continue to put the throttle to it and sometimes – if you really want to save your car for a race coming up – you don’t do that.
“There’s a way to do it. I’m going to leave it up to NASCAR to do it however they might, but I’d like to see in the future of saying, ‘Hey guys, make sure it comes into Victory Lane the same way it was on the racetrack.’”
It will be interesting to see how this subject moves going forward as drivers appear in agreement that sometimes there’s more than meets the eye in a post-race celebration.
“Sometimes when you’re in a burnout and you’re in the smoke, you can’t see where you’re at,” said Kyle Busch, who followed the statement with a huge wink.
