NASCAR has increased the allowable repair time for race cars on pit road from six minutes to 10, according to a rule book update announced Wednesday afternoon.
Previously, if damaged cars could not be repaired within a six-minute window, the driver’s race ended because of what has been called the Damaged Vehicle Policy (DVP). That time has been expanded to 10 minutes for the playoffs, which are scheduled to begin Sunday with the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway (6 p.m. ET on USA Network). The change will remain in effect for next season.
NASCAR said the change was made “in collaboration with race teams throughout the season following learnings on repair time of the Next Gen race car.”
NBC Sports’ Parker Kligerman said on Monday’s Motormouths program that Ryan Blaney’s team had told him they had about 20 seconds left on their six-minute DVP clock last week at Daytona International Speedway when he left his pit. He stayed in the race and got the final playoff spot.
Numerous cars were damaged in a series of accidents in last Sunday’s race at Daytona International Speedway. Three were parked because of the DVP limit; 16 were eliminated by crashes.
Sixteen drivers will begin the search for the Cup championship Sunday.