NASCAR has decided not to impose sanctions on Shane Van Gisbergen after the incidents that occurred during the race at Chicagoland Speedway. The director of the NASCAR Cup Series, Brad Moran, stated that the sanctioning body did not find sufficient evidence to justify a penalty related to the contacts between Van Gisbergen, Austin Hill, Zane Smith, and Carson Hocevar.
On lap 48, Hill crashed into the wall after being hit by Van Gisbergen. Hill’s team interpreted the action as an intentional maneuver, in response to a previous incident between the two drivers. In that prior race, Van Gisbergen was also spun by Hill, causing a major collision.
After the race, during the TNT Sports broadcast, data was analyzed suggesting that Van Gisbergen’s action was deliberate. However, the lack of an explicit admission of intent from the driver in the radio communications was decisive for the decision not to penalize him.
Moran explained in an interview that they conducted a thorough review, including telemetry and radio communications, and that there was no clear evidence indicating that the incident was intentional. This criterion was also applied to the incidents involving Smith and Hocevar.
Apart from these decisions, Moran added that NASCAR will speak with all those involved to clarify expectations and manage tensions among the drivers.
In a previous incident this summer, Ryan Preece was fined $50,000 and lost 25 points for a crash with Ty Gibbs. Moran compared both incidents but highlighted that the key difference was the radio communication in Preece’s case, which revealed an intention to collide.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI