“Give us a chance to fix it!” In September last year, Ryan Blaney was infuriated at Watkins Glen. Barely a lap had passed and Blaney damaged his car so much that it could not move. That was when he protested vehemently against NASCAR’s DVP (Damaged Vehicle Policy), as he was not allowed to repair his car. But now Blaney may be regretting his earlier anger – the revamped DVP policy was partly why his Darlington chances ended. However, race winner Denny Hamlin supports the change.
On lap 4 of the Goodyear 400, Kyle Larson spun off of Turn 2. The No. 5 Chevrolet rolled into the Hendrick Motorsports garage to get repairs. But that took them two long hours so that by the time they returned they were already 160 laps down. Yet Denny Hamlin believes that was crucial.
Denny Hamlin defends his old rival
Well, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver benefited from the new DVP policy. Earlier, teams were only allowed 8 minutes to repair their cars and get back on the track. Now that the time frame is unlimited, Kyle Larson and Co. could persist in the garage efforts. They came back and were an invisible factor throughout except for the waning laps. At the exit of Turn 2, Larson abruptly slowed down his No. 5 car, receiving a blow from Bubba Wallace’s No. 23 Toyota from the back. Ryan Blaney had just wrested the race lead from Tyler Reddick – and just like that, saw it slip from his fingers. That allowed Denny Hamlin to charge to the front on fresher tires and seize the victory.
In a recent ‘Actions Detrimental’ podcast, co-host Jared Allen added a smirk while pointing out Blaney’s misery. “The new DVP policy affected the outcome of the race.” Then Denny Hamlin responded enthusiastically: “It did, yeah. And it won’t be the last, either. I mean, certainly, as long as guys are able to repair wrecked race cars.” Hamlin may have been the unlikely recipient of the DVP advantage, buthe also saw the benefits that Kyle Larson could accrue. “You gotta give the 5 team credit, like they worked really, really hard to get that car back on the racetrack for multiple reasons.”
The No. 5 HMS team got to continue learning during the race by going through pit stop reps, making adjustments, and learning the pit cycles. This proved a learning exercise for the NASCAR Cup Series second stop at Darlington this Fall. That is what Denny Hamlin emphasized as he enlisted Kyle Larson‘s learning points. “One is that, ‘We need to analyze our car, we got to come back here for the Southern 500, and we didn’t get enough laps to even realize if our car is good or not?’ And so they probably went through a bunch of changes. They probably had an opportunity there to go through reps of fixing the car…Was this car optimum for the day? No, definitely not. But any kind of information that they can squeeze out of that last 100 laps or whatever that they’ve got to run is beneficial for them.”
Last Fall, there was a resounding hue and cry for NASCAR to change the DVP policy. So Ryan Blaney and other drivers cannot really say much. However, one Cup Series veteran did call out the revamped rules.
Another roadblock despite the change
The main purpose behind tweaking the DVP policy was to afford teams more control on the racetrack. After all, as Denny Hamlin pointed out, any mishap can be a huge learning exercise provided teams are allowed. However, NASCAR’s policy may not have given full control to teams. During the 2025 Daytona 500, Kyle Busch was caught up in a crash on lap 186. The No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet returned to the garage for repairs duly. However, as Busch attempted to return to the track, NASCAR officials told his team that they would need to return to the garage area for further work. Under the new DVP, teams have to meet minimum speed – something which Busch did not meet. Unless they do that, they would have to return to the garage or be ruled out of the race.
The two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion voiced his dissent then. “We got beat by NASCAR procedures again,” Kyle Busch said to several media members after the race. He continued, “(NASCAR) towed us into a work area where our guys reviewed the car, looked over the car and didn’t see anything massively wrong. All the wheels were pointed in the right direction. We put four new tires on it to go back out to see what the next process was going to be for us…So what are we supposed to do to continue to work on it now that we have four new tires on it and all the wheels are pointed in the right direction?”
Apparently, not all is hunky dory with the new DVP policy introduced this season. As Denny Hamlin pointed out, Kyle Larson was able to learn from an otherwise disappointing day. Let us see how that works out for the HMS team during the Southern 500.
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