NASCAR specifies penalties for behavioral issues
By Kenny Bruce | NASCAR.com | February 19, 2016at 07.20 PMDAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- NASCAR has strengthened the way the sanctioning body deals with behavioral issues as it relates to member conduct, both on and off the race track, with updates to its current policy announced Friday.
"It's an effort by the sanctioning body to improve the level of transparency within the grounds of how competitors' actions are dealt with both on the track and off the track," Jim Cassidy, NASCAR senior vice president of racing operations, said. "An evolution of the rules … to become more transparent to all participants involved, all stakeholders involved."
Cassidy said it was not an attempt to change the way drivers race.
"NASCAR is an aggressive sport," he said. "We understand the drivers are going to be aggressive to race for position. That is not going to change. That's a very significant point, it's spelled out in the rule and we understand that.
"But we also understand that there are points in time when the competitors cross the line and they should have a better understanding of what exactly may transpire if it's determined they crossed the line."
NASCAR's current deterrence system dealing with competition issues rank infractions, from lowest (warnings) to Level P6 (most severe). That won't be the case under Member Conduct Guidelines outlined in the 2016 NASCAR Rule Book for all three National Series (Sprint Cup, XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series).
But the range of potential penalties does increase, depending on the severity of the action.
A confrontation that does not include physical violence, such as a simple shove, shouting match or "venting," could result in a meeting with officials, a warning or possibly probation.
Disparaging the sport and/or NASCAR's leadership, verbal abuse of an official, media member, fans, etc., or intentionally damaging another vehicle under yellow or red flag conditions or on pit road with no one around could result in a fine ranging from $10,000 to $50,000 and/or probation.
Actions more egregious could result in the loss of 25-50 championship driver and team owner points, in addition to increased fines and/or race suspensions or termination.
Those include physical confrontations with NASCAR officials, media members or fans, member-to-member confrontations with physical violence, attempting to manipulate the outcome of the race or championship and intentionally wrecking another vehicle.
An action such as "premeditatedly removing another competitor from competition in a dangerous manner when not racing for position based on the available evidence and specific circumstances of the incident" could result in a loss of 150-200 driver and owner points and/or a two-race suspension, indefinite suspension or termination.
Cassidy said the changes were not the result of any one specific incident, but "I would say what we have learned after talking to everybody is that everybody wants to understand more clearly where possible what potential ramifications can be in different scenarios.
"So this is an effort to go down that road," he said.
