NASCAR Plans to Disqualify Illegal Cars After Races in Effort to Stamp Out Cheating

NASCAR announced a stronger set of penalties for cheating in the 2019 season on Monday, up to and including the possibility of disqualifying cars that have already won races.

The move represents a major change for NASCAR, which has previously considered it critical for fans at the track and watching on television to know who the winner was as soon as the race ended.

A Culture Change for NASCAR

That meant that in previous years, a car that failed a post-race inspection could cause its driver and team to lose points, pay fines, or potentially even face a suspension. But the results of the race itself weren’t altered, meaning the official winner wouldn’t change even if the series standings were impacted.

That will no longer be the case.

“If you are illegal, you don’t win the race,” NASCAR chief racing development officer Steve O’Donnell told the Associated Press. “We cannot allow inspection and penalties to continue to be a prolonged storyline. Race vehicles are expected to adhere to the rule book from the opening of the garage to the checkered flag.”

According to O’Donnell, the new rules reflect a culture change for NASCAR – one that will take the sport away from the idea that if you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.

“We’ve been through a deterrence model where we’ve really worked with the race teams at the track and probably been more lenient than we should in terms of the number of times teams can go through inspection and pass, fail and there’s almost incentive to try to get something by NASCAR, so we want to really reverse that trend.”

Failing Cars to Lose All Benefits

Under the new regulations, all first- and second-place finishers will be forced to undergo a post-race inspection at the track, along with at least one additional randomly selected car. Officials will work to get the inspections completed within 90 minutes to two hours after race time, at which point an official winner will be determined.

If any car should fail inspection, the driver and team will be bumped to the bottom of the standings, receiving only last-place points. They would also lose any other benefits that came with their initial position, including playoff points, postseason berths, or advancement through the playoff stages.

While this may lead to some awkward situations where fans only learn that a result has changed hours after a race, NASCAR officials say this will help protect the integrity of competition throughout the season.

“Times have changed. We’ve moved forward with a lot of things,” said Jay Fabian, the managing director of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. “We want to be able to avoid the Tuesday, Wednesday announcements of penalties. We want to take that story line away and we’ve got to be rid of all that.”

Sportsbooks React to Rule Change

The move could also cause some complications in how sportsbooks resolve bets on NASCAR races. According to a report by The Action Network, Jeff Sherman of SuperBook USA says that the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook will now add rules that clarify that all NASCAR circuit races “will be graded according to and after the post-race inspection.”

Similar changes are likely to come at other sportsbooks, which will mean bettors will have to wait until the inspection process plays out before cashing what appear to be winning bets after races this season.