NASCAR changes rules after William Byron decision
By Asher Fair
After the change to William Byron’s penalty, NASCAR has made a few slight changes to the rule book to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
NASCAR docked Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron 25 points and issued him a $50,000 fine after the round of 12 opener at Texas Motor Speedway two weeks ago for spinning Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin under caution.
NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition Scott Miller stated after the race that NASCAR had initially “missed” the incident and that they would have either sent Byron to the back of the field or allowed Hamlin to retain his position, had they been paying attention.
Given the fact that it was NASCAR’s lack of attentiveness which ultimately led to Byron receiving a harsher punishment than he should have, Hendrick Motorsports felt that they had a chance at a successful appeal.
Earlier this week, the National Motorsports Appeals Panel did amend Byron’s penalty. The fine was doubled to $100,000, but his 25 points were reinstated, taking him from 11 points below the round of 8 cut line to 14 points above it, heading into the round of 12 finale at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval this Sunday.
It is worth noting that it wasn’t NASCAR’s decision to amend the penalty; that was done by the National Motorsports Appeals Panel.
Byron was initially issued his points penalty due to a violation of Sections 4.3.A & 4.4.C of the NASCAR Rule Book, which pertain to the NASCAR Member Code of Conduct.
NASCAR typically wouldn’t want to see a penalty of this nature undone or even amended, so to avoid future confusion and ambiguity, they have gone ahead and adjusted the rule book — slightly, but significantly.
The Athletic‘s Jeff Gluck detailed the changes, noting that “and/or” was simply replaced by “and” when it comes to a points penalty and a fine.
There is also now an opening for a single-race “suspension” to become “suspensions”, this being in addition to the potential indefinite suspension which was already on the table.
Most notably, the rule on intentionally wrecking now also includes spinning, as Byron didn’t actually wreck Hamlin with his move.
The Byron appeal win forced NASCAR to update its rulebook language to cover future situations. Today’s update changes the language to add “or spinning.” pic.twitter.com/JqJaqPNNXs
— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) October 7, 2022
Similar changes were made to similar sections.
NASCAR revised penalty section that says points and fines are the penalty — not points “and/or” fines — in situations such as Byron. pic.twitter.com/YmQaxvo7yw
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) October 7, 2022
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The round of 12 is set to come to an end this Sunday, October 9 with the Bank of America Roval 400, which is set to be broadcast live on NBC from the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET. If you haven’t yet begun a free trial of FuboTV, do so now!