NASCAR Announces New Rules, Segments For Daytona

The 2017 Daytona 500 will feature three segments

Chris Trotman/NASCAR via Getty Images

NASCAR announced new more new rules changes in advance of the start of the 2017 season in two weeks, including the segment lengths for the upcoming season-opening races at Daytona as well as changes to rules concerning damaged race cars returning to the track and the addition of a new traveling safety and medical team.

The new Damaged Vehicle Policy announced Wednesday that will be in effect for all three of NASCAR's major tour series. Under the new policy, teams will still be able to repair damage to their cars, but will no longer be permitted to replace damaged body panels.

Repairs can only be done on pit road, and teams will only be allowed five minutes to make repairs – any car with damage that requires it to be taken behind the wall or to the garage cannot return to the race, including any car that has to be towed back to the garage.

Scott Miller, NASCAR's senior vice president of competition, said it all boils down to the safety of the other competitors on the race track as well as in the garage.

Familiar scenes like this will soon be a thing of the past under NASCAR's new rule

Pete McCole/AR1

"The safety thing was a concern of ours," Miller said. "There is a safety aspect to not only what goes back out on a race track. But actually the process that takes place in trying to repair those things in the garage is sometimes not a very safe situation."

"We have a lot of cars that are going back on the track that end up in 38th position, for instance, that probably don't need to be out there from a safety and competition aspect. That's because they always tend to bring out more yellows with stuff falling off."

The new rule changes do not apply to cars needing to go behind the wall to fix a mechanical problem, unless the mechanical issue is the result of damage from a crash.

"We're not going to tell a guy who breaks his transmission at Watkins Glen or Pocono, for instance, and coasts into the garage area that he's out," Miller said. "Because that doesn't create an unsafe situation – that is a mechanical failure.

"There will be many circumstances and many things happen and you will continue to see it where cars are in wrecks and never go to the garage area. They come down pit road, they work on things … and they go back out and make minimum speed. They continue to work on the car as the race goes on. That will still completely be in play. You can replace a bumper cover, but if there's no quarter panel to attach it to, you're out."

American Medical Response will provide on-track services for NASCAR

To further enhance their safety protocols, NASCAR has followed the lead of other sanctioning bodies such as the NHRA and IndyCar and added a dedicated traveling safety team that will follow the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

NASCAR will partner with American Medical Response to provide first responders and physicians who will be stationed in chase vehicles to respond to any incident on the track and provide on-site medical services to the drivers.

"This partnership further strengthens NASCAR's medical response capability, making our well-established, medical response system even better," said Steve O'Donnell, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer. "AMR is a leader in the emergency services sector, and its doctors and paramedics add another layer of expertise to the immediate response team."

AMR will also provide will provide a physician to serve as the national medical director of the AMR Safety Team, and serve as a liaison between AMR and NASCAR's medical team.

Also announced on Wednesday was the formats and segments lengths for the upcoming events at Daytona International Speedway, including the Clash at Daytona, the Can-Am Duels and the Daytona 500.

The Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona to be held Saturday, Feb. 18 will simply be a 75-lap race with no segments, while the two Can-Am Duel qualifying races held on Thursday, Feb. 23 will likewise each be a single segment, 60-race.

The first event of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event will be run on Friday, Feb. 24 at will be three segments of 20, 20 and 60 laps. The season-opening NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Saturday, Feb. 25 will be three segments of 30, 30 and 60 laps. The season-opening Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb, 26 will consist of two 60-lap segments, followed by a final 80-lap segment.