“The policy hasn’t changed”: NASCAR’s Elton Sawyer extremely clear about DVP amid backlash from the community

NASCAR's Senior VP of Competition Elton Sawyer has clearly remarked that the Damaged Vehicle Policy (DVP) "hasn't changed." This comes after the officials faced backlash for allegedly not adhering to the rulebook and allowing damaged cars to be repaired under the red flag and return to the asphalt.

The closing moments of the YellaWood 500 took a chaotic turn. With just five laps until the checkered flag dropped, Brad Keselowski's run-in into Austin Cindric's Ford cascaded into NASCAR's biggest modern-era crash. The massive collision trapped 28 NextGen cars, eight of which were Cup Series title contenders.

But instead of awarding a DNF to the drivers unable to steer to the pit road by themselves, the officials towed their cars and permitted the teams to rework the stock car while the race was red-flagged. This included Chase Elliott and Chase Briscoe, among others.

The move allegedly breached NASCAR's DVP which bars any driver from returning to the track, whose car has been damaged from a collision, and can't drive to the pit lane. Even insider Jeff Gluck couldn't find stable ground amid the officials' Talladega ruling.

However, Elton Sawyer firmly believed that the "policy hasn't changed." He elaborated on his take and said (via SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on X).

"Our goal from day 1, when this policy came into place, is not to put good cars or good trucks out of the race. The way we executed that over the last three years, the policy hasn't changed. There's been times that we have towed vehicles back to the pit road to be able to correct their issues," Sawyer said.

"There's a very small list of things that you can change once you get back there in the pit lane, is one of them. The cars that we did tow back this past weekend were able to make those modifications to get back on the racetrack and meet minimum speed," the VP of Competition added (0:24).

After Josh Berry was given a DNF at the preceding race in Kansas, the SHR driver didn't hold back from taking a dig at the officials when he witnessed Elliott, Briscoe, and others being towed to the pits.

Denny Hamlin reprimands NASCAR for letting three drivers allegedly escape the rulebook

The 'Big One' damaged race winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s left door and the door foam. However, the JTG Daugherty driver resumed the remainder of his run despite the door foam not meeting NASCAR's requirements.

Hamlin's Actions Detrimental's co-host Jared reiterated the rules which state that the door foam must be installed on both doors and, if it gets damaged during the race, the foam must be replaced before the driver re-enters the track. But that didn't happen and Stenhouse Jr. went on to clinch the superspeedway victory.

The JGR driver slammed NASCAR for not "following the rules" and even highlighted the RFK Racing drivers- Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher, who had their roof rails missing after the 195-lap dash wrapped up.

"If there was no rule, common sense says, 'He's fine, just let him go,' and he won the race. The issue is the rules, they didn't follow the rules," Hamlin said (26:29).

"There's just so many others that you don't see. I know that the 6 (Brad Keselowski) and the 17 (Chris Buescher) had their roof rails missing after the race. The 4 (Josh Berry) got disqualified after the race because he had bolts missing out of the windshield. The 6 and the 17 had their fu**ing right side fins gone," he added (27:56).

After Berry's Kansas dismay, NASCAR promised to re-evaluate its Damaged Vehicle Policy.