NASCAR official explains controversial Josh Berry ruling at Kansas Speedway, reveals rule will be examined

NASCAR parked Josh Berry for the remaining 266 laps of Sunday’s Round of 12 opener at Kansas after he was involved in the Lap 1 accident.

Berry had multiple flat tires after the multi-car wreck and was unable to make it back to pit road on his own. Despite NASCAR allowing drivers to continue if they can’t make it to pit road because of having four flat tires, the sanctioning body deemed his race over since he sustained some additional damage to his No. 4 Ford.

Brad Moran, Cup Series managing director, said Tuesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that they will review the rule in the offseason.

“It didn’t feel right or look right, but [the rule] was done correctly,” Moran said, via Dustin Long of NBC Sports. “Again, it’s something we’ll review over the winter, and it may change.”

Berry picked up light damage to his right rear after making contact with Harrison Burton. His tires were flat, and he wanted a tow back to pit road to get a new set. NASCAR instead parked him, leaving him and his team frustrated.

“I’ve seen a lot of things over my 25 years in the Cup Series, but that’s the most screwed up thing I’ve ever seen or been involved with. All we needed was tires with air in them,” crew chief Rodney Childers wrote on X. “And how many times have we drug cars to the pit stall to put tires on them. Why today?!?”

NASCAR official explains Josh Berry controversy in detail

Moran explained in detail why Berry was removed from the race in accordance with the Damaged Vehicle Policy, which has been in place since 2017.

“The hit was hard enough on [Berry’s] car to lift the car off the ground, slam it down on the ground,” Moran said. “Once you’re involved in a [Damaged Vehicle Policy] accident — and by the way the [incident data recorder] did go off, so it was significant incident that [Berry] was in — if he couldn’t drive the car back, he was out due to DVP.

“We don’t inspect [the car], obviously on the side of the track. We haven’t got that ability, but the indicator is, you drive it back, you’re good [to continue]. If, however, he just spun and had four flat tires, he would have been towed to pit road under yellow under the flat tire recovery program. But it’s really clear on our recovery program in our [Damaged Vehicle Policy] that if you’re involved in an incident, you have to be able to get your vehicle back to pit road.

“If it’s just sitting there flat tires, you spun out, we’ll even give you a light scuff [in contract], that would be one thing, that vehicle would have been towed in. … From the reports I had the car really wasn’t damaged and probably could have participated. We never want to take vehicles out of the race and that is our rule. It’s similar to what happened to [Ryan Blaney at Watkins Glen], but he did have a mechanical issue. Unfortunately, you just don’t have the ability to inspect that. It’s more if the car, if they can drive it back or not.”

Berry was credited with a P38 result, his seventh consecutive finish of 22nd or worse.