NASCAR To Punish Teams For Tossing Water Bottles?
Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
Sunday in New Hampshire NASCAR experienced a problem that has been an on-again and off-again issue in the sport for awhile now and that is drivers tossing their empty water bottles onto the track. On two separate occasions in New Hampshire empty water bottles were viewed on TV during cautions.
At first glance the practice seems ridiculous. Why in the world would a NASCAR driver purposely throw their empty water bottle onto the track? The first thing that will come to mind for most is that said driver is looking to create a caution which of course is something that most would have to believe NASCAR would frown upon. However, according to some drivers the practice of tossing the water bottles has nothing to do with trying to manipulate cautions.
No. We all do it.
— Brad Keselowski (@keselowski) July 19, 2015
Common practice. https://t.co/Z7QxLz2YCS
Empty water bottles don't handle the corners very well. Sometimes fall down on the floor boards and cause trouble. https://t.co/EYGUbSVIfr
— Brad Keselowski (@keselowski) July 19, 2015
Strange how much my Twitter feed is full of water bottle conversation.
— Brad Keselowski (@keselowski) July 20, 2015
Bottom line- debris on the track can always be found.
On Monday NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer Steve O’Donnell spoke with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio’s “The Morning Drive” show. O’Donnell talked about how tossing bottles onto the track has been commonplace in NASCAR for awhile but any drivers doing so in an effort to draw a caution would be dealt with by NASCAR.
"Coming off pit road sometimes you see it down on the apron where some water bottles are discarded. I think in this case, we candidly weren’t really sure and knew it was potentially one of the drivers’ ones that are a little bit different with the material they’re made out of. If someone is purposely trying to manipulate a caution, that’s not something that is going to be tolerated, and we’ll have to look into that further as we go and we’ll address that with the teams also. It’s something that we’ve addressed in the past, and we’ll continue to do that with the drivers."
Other drivers in the world of twitter also took some time after the race to talk about water bottles in the cars and on the racing surface.
Totally agree. Keep it in the car. Toss it during a pit stop. Not all that difficult people. https://t.co/CR1luSSzNh
— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) July 20, 2015
Worse than water bottles are the visor tear offs at the events that start late evening. Folks need to keep their trash.
— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) July 20, 2015
We all know a caution shouldn't be thrown for a water bottle... https://t.co/5EPfvqKyVv
— Jimmie Johnson (@JimmieJohnson) July 19, 2015
For those awake and still interested, here's a view of my cockpit and where I keep my bottle. Via carbon bottle cage pic.twitter.com/2DMu1yXpR5
— landon cassill (@landoncassill) July 20, 2015
So, which side of this water bottle debate do you fall on? Should drivers be allowed to throw trash out from their cars onto the track? You would think that NASCAR would have a clear stance when it comes to this sort of thing to prevent discussions like this from having to take place. If NASCAR simply said ‘no you cannot throw things out of your car on purpose during a race’ none of this would be an issue. However, if NASCAR is going to allow there to be a grey area; this is the kind of situation that we are going to end up in.
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