However, a number of teams and drivers found themselves baffled by track limits rules during the race, with NASCAR having to inform them some way into the race which corners would and would not be enforced.
It appeared that a number of teams believed they couldn't take a short line at turn six, resulting in a number of radio messages played on the race broadcast where crew chiefs and spotters relayed the enforced rules to their drivers.
hi jeff,
i missed the memo that we could just go ahead and cut corners. next time if they could be sure to get everyone that memo. that would be great. especially since we have to work on sunday.
Cup Series managing director Brad Moran told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio after the race: “We had no questions. No one came to the hauler on it. We thought we were pretty clear.
“...We thought we were in good shape. We did a lot of work communicating and everything was, we felt we were in a pretty good place. In the Cup race on Sunday, in the first stage, we caught on a team scanner that they weren’t sure about Turn 6 shortcutting. Obviously, we watched it take place right from the beginning of the race and we didn’t have an issue with it.”
He continued: “From that point [confirmation to teams] on, it played out well, but, obviously, there was some confusion because we had a lot of teams that had no questions, and I think we had a few teams that had questions and that’s our responsibility to make sure that all the competitors understand. So, going back, we will not make that error again. We will make sure that everybody totally understands.
“But a lot of changes took place from Thursday, Friday, very close to the race. We dealt with it as quick as we could. And I guess the broadcast, as well, was on the same page as a few of the teams. Got that corrected, carried on and had a great event. But again our responsibility. We’ll make sure that doesn’t happen again.”