NASCAR official says 'work to be done' after dozens of penalties called at COTA
A NASCAR senior official acknowledged Tuesday that after a weekend with dozens of penalties for short cutting the course at Circuit of the Americas there is “some work to be done.”
Elton Sawyer, NASCAR senior vice president of competition, made the comments Tuesday on “The Morning Drive” on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
NASCAR issued 40 penalties for short cutting the course over the Cup, Xfinity and Truck races this past weekend at COTA. Additional penalties were issued in practice and qualifying.
“We’re calling balls and strikes on every lap and that’s not really where we want to be,” Sawyer said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio about the penalties for short cutting the course.
“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 pitstops and strategy and things of that nature. Some work to be done.”
NASCAR issued penalties for short cutting the course through only the esses on the 20-turn, 3.41-mile course. Other parts of the track saw drivers way off course and not penalized.
Sawyer noted that by running straight through the esses, a driver could lower their lap time compared to a driver who goes correctly through that portion of the course. Short cutting the corners there was penalized because of the advantage that could be gained.
Sawyer said that NASCAR did not issue penalties for going off course in Turn 1 at COTA because “there’s no lap time there. If there was lap time (to be gained), we would have to do it. The reason a lot of times they get out there, they get pushed out there.”
Sawyer also addressed the penalty to Chase Elliott for short cutting Turn 4 in the esses during the Cup race.
“They,” Sawyer said of the No. 9 team, “kept coming up that he wheel hopped, he had got loose, whatever that may be, that’s fair. I do believe that, but on the flip side you still have to make the call or every driver, every team is going to be calling up (to the tower) and say, ‘Look, he got loose, he wheel hopped.'"
While the 2025 schedule has not been announced, the Austin American Statesman reported Sunday night that the event was expected to return to the NASCAR schedule next year.
Sawyer noted on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that the sanctioning body will take a “much deeper dive” into the facility to address ways to manage short cutting the turns in the esses.
Sawyer also addressed the rear end housing coming off Marco Andretti’s truck in Saturday’s race. Sawyer said that NASCAR has the rear end house for further inspection.
“We need to take a deeper diver into that to see exactly what happened,” he said.
Sawyer also noted that Justin Haley’s car was one of two selected at random to be inspected after the Cup race. That’s when it was found to be under minimum weight and disqualified. Sawyer noted that teams are allowed to be within half a percent of the 3,400-pound weight to meet the weight requirement. Haley’s car was lighter than that.
