NASCAR to review COTA track limits enforcement

The New Zealander was dumped from second to 27th in the Xfinity Series when he had 30 seconds added to his race time as punishment for cutting a corner on the final lap.

NASCAR is selective in its enforcement of track limits, in so much that only parts of the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix venue are no-go zones, namely the insides of the esses.

However, van Gisbergen’s was one of 16 such penalties issued in the Xfinity race, with four in the Cup race and 20 in the Trucks.

NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, Elton Sawyer, believes track limits penalties were too much of a factor over the weekend.

“We’re calling balls and strikes on every lap and that’s not really where we want to be,” he told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

“I commend our team and the tower. I thought they did a good job, but it’s way too much about us and not enough about the athletes and our teams and our pit stops and strategy and things of that nature.

“Some work to be done.”

Van Gisbergen’s penalty came after he was pushed long at Turn 1 upon the second and final Overtime restart, before returning serve at Austin Hill in the final corners on the following lap.

The outside of Turn 1 remains a free-for-all, which Sawyer rationalised because “there’s no lap time there.”

“If there was lap time [to be gained], we would have to do it,” he added.

“The reason a lot of times they get out there, they get pushed out there.”

Van Gisbergen had revealed in the lead-up to the COTA event that he was struggling to adapt to NASCAR’s track limits rules – because he was conditioned to staying in/on the lines during his 16-and-a-half years in Supercars.

Sawyer reiterated that NASCAR does not want to get involved, but believes officials made the right calls under the circumstances.

“We don’t want to over-officiate,” he said.

“That’s not what we want to do. Again, we don’t need 20, 30 penalties in a race.

“We don’t need that. So, all of those things will be taken into consideration.

“Again, I feel the calls made on Saturday and Sunday were the correct calls based on the information we’ve given the teams, the facility and how we need to officiate it.

“That doesn’t mean we’re not going back today and working extremely hard in all areas, so that’s not a focal point going forward.”

COTA is now out of contract but reportedly set to feature on the NASCAR calendar again in 2025.

Meanwhile, van Gisbergen has been officially promoted to 20th in the Cup Series race after Justin Haley’s #51 Rick Ware Racing Ford was disqualified for being underweight.

The New Zealander looked on for a top 10 until he was pinged for speeding in pit lane and, by the time he had recovered most of the ground which he lost due to the drive-through, the #16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet had developed a gearbox problem anyway.

“Tough day for our WeatherTech team,” admitted the Kiwi.

“We battled some issues all day and could just never overcome everything.

“I appreciate all the hard work from everyone at Kaulig and Trackhouse. We will try again at Talladega [his next Cup race] in a few weeks.”