Insiders debate when NASCAR officials should make calls on rough racing
As NASCAR moves on from the 2024 season and gets ready for 2025, should officials make more calls on rough racing? On The Teardown podcast, NASCAR insiders Jordan Bianchi and Jeff Gluck of The Athletic discussed if NASCAR needs more officiating.
“I want less officiating, not more,” Bianchi stated. “I want NASCAR to make fewer calls that are in the gray and not in the black and white because I don’t want officiating to dictate things. I want NASCAR to be a rough-and-tumble, short-track rules kind of thing. That’s the ethos of NASCAR. Going back to its foreign foundation, guys moved each other out of the way on the last lap for wins. It happens. That’s what NASCAR is all about.
“What I’m concerned about, and haven’t seen it yet, I think NASCAR is going to exercise good judgment on this, I don’t think they’re going to start issuing penalties for last-lap things if a guy puts a bumper on somebody and spin somebody out for a win. … I just worry that now we’re asking NASCAR to officiate more and to come in and start ruling on things before it’s like that’s part of NASCAR this is what makes NASCAR unique and different.”
More on the NASCAR officials debate
Gluck has a slightly different opinion on officiating. “I don’t want anybody to think that I’m advocating for no contact, I’m not advocating for FI or Indy Car unavoidable contact type standards. I want there to be contact. NASCAR is a physical form of racing,” Gluck said.
“Bump-and-runs are fantastic. There’s very few instances I could point to and say this is where I would draw the line. But the other one is Ty Gibbs–Brandon Jones Martinsville Xfinity race. That’s another one where I would have said, I’m sorry, no. You cannot win the race that way, we will not have that. That’s not two cars, that’s one car. But if I saw that in a race, I would say alright NASCAR, you need to step in.”
Officiating was a big story in NASCAR this past season. Former NASCAR driver and current Fox Sports announcer Kevin Harvick said that officiating was “awful in certain situations” and it “has to be better.” We’ll see if things change once the 2025 season begins in February.
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