“They're going to go for broke”: Insiders unravel how NASCAR’s unorthodox move could ‘alter the outcome’ of races

NASCAR insiders Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi sat down for an episode of Teardown, talking about the sanctioning body's recent rulebook bulletin update. They theorized how the new waiver policy could result in chaos, furthering an altered race outcome.

NASCAR recently announced a slew of rulebook changes, making a major tweak to the Playoff waiver system. The current rule states that a driver who skips a race could be awarded a waiver to keep their title fight alive. However, the interesting part is that in an event when, except for medical and age restriction cases, any driver misses a race, they can't begin the playoff slate with more than 2000 playoff points.

It's worth mentioning that if a driver has already triumphed in a race and has locked themselves in the playoffs, missing a race would undo their qualification, forcing them to attempt again.

Thus, Bianchi pointed out how NASCAR's move could change drivers' mindsets which could have a cascading effect on the track and the outcome.

"Any driver, they win early in the year and they lock themselves in. Well, sometime in the spring, they do something dumb and get suspended a race. It completely changes your mindset for the rest of the year if you're this team. You're no longer racing for stage points and bonus points and trying to win the regular season championship...because now anytime there's a gamble...they're going to go for broke because they have nothing to lose," Bianchi said via Dirty Mo Media.

"They don't care about points at all, that could alter the outcome of races, that's a great point," Gluck said about the cascading effect of the waiver rule.

Bianchi also conveyed it would leave drivers juggling between winning a race and fearing suspension, resulting in a "fascinating" showdown.

NASCAR takes big step to reprimand manufacturers for rule violation

NASCAR has never shied away from heavily penalizing drivers, teams, and crew members found violating the regulations. However, the sanctioning body's stance on Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) has been rather soft, which received immense backlash after this past season's Martinsville playoff race.

The Round of 8 finale witnessed the Chevrolets of Austin Dillon and Ross Chastain helping William Byron's #24 Chevy by road-blocking the speedway. Furthermore, Toyota driver Bubba Wallace was found to have deliberately slowed over the last five laps. As a result, the governing body issued $100,000 fines each on the three drivers and their respective team owners, making a bill of a whopping $600,000.

Nonetheless, the manufacturers walked away without any repercussions. Notably, Chevrolet instructed Shane van Gisbergen to take care of Ryan Blaney at Martinsville, but still couldn't be penalized as no provision existed in the rulebook.

But that will change the next season, courtesy of the massive rulebook alteration. NASCAR has made a provision to penalize OEMs with reduced wind tunnel hours, loss of manufacturer points, and Reduced Cost Facility Development if their role is deemed violative of the rules.