NASCAR makes surprise decision, takes four cars post-race to R&D including Denny Hamlin

Whenever NASCAR takes cars to R&D, it is a “random” process. Except, it isn’t exactly random. NASCAR has a procedure and a process that dictates which cars will be taken each week. However, for the teams in the garage, it is random. No one knows when their number will be called, but it could be any team at any point.

How does NASCAR decide who to take to R&D?

Mike Forde, managing director for racing communications, talked about the process last week on Hauler Talk. Many fans see it as a “random” process, but that isn’t necessarily the case. At least, not anymore.

“How we kinda pick those cars, if you will, you know, fans hear the word ‘random’ and think that we have a pill bucket and we pull it out and whoever finishes, and we pull out 19 and whoever finished 19th knows that they’re coming home with us,” Forde began. “That is not how we do it.”

No one knows when they will get pulled. So, it ideally keeps teams in check and deters them from cheating.

“It’s random in that the garage doesn’t know what’s coming,” Forde continued. “The randomness isn’t a pull it out of the hat, and that’s who is coming home with us. What we try to do is pick a selection, we obviously keep track of all this, we have a grid, and try to pick the, spread it out through all the teams.

“So, by all the teams, not just Hendrick and Roush and Penske and JGR, which is the case, but have all five, all four Hendrick cars come home. Have all three Penske cars come home throughout the season. And have different OEMs as well. So very rarely will you see two Toyotas come back or two Chevys or two Fords. This week we had a Ford and a Toyota on the Cup side come home. So, that’s kind of how we look at it. When we do it is also mildly random.”