All eight cars that remain in the championship will go to NASCAR’s Research and Development Center for a pre-Homestead inspection, since the five drivers who aren’t locked into the championship race all have a shot at making it in Phoenix. The R&D Center, on any other given week, is only for post-race inspections and certifying new race cars for safety prior to teams entering them into races.
This unusual trip to R&D will be to try to keep teams from tampering too far with cars before Homestead,
as teams are known to do, so that NASCAR won’t have to encumber anyone. The cars will be “built and ready to go” for the race when they get there, the spokesperson said.
“We’ll have all eight teams into the R&D center and inspect the cars,” the spokesperson said. “We’ll certify some of the parts like the engine, so that when we give them back, they can’t mess with them.”
The spokesperson called it a system of “checks and balances” with an extra layer of preventative measures that NASCAR doesn’t have any other week.
“Once we get to Homestead, it’s the same,” the spokesperson said. “We’ll have pre-qualifying inspection, like we always do, and we’ll have pre-race inspection like we always do.
“After the race, we’ll check the lug nuts prior to [the championship drivers] getting to the stage so the lug nuts will be good to go. They’ll celebrate, then we’ll do what we typically do at the R&D center at the track. We’ll do a full teardown on the champion at the race track.”
If a car doesn’t meet lug-nut requirements, it’ll be an immediate encumbered finish before the champion reaches the stage. But NASCAR isn’t too worried about lug nuts or any infractions that would encumber a championship finish
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