Ballasts are used to weigh cars down to meet requirements, but install them improperly and it can seriously get someone hurt. To ensure this does not happen, NASCAR maintains strict penalties in the event of a ballast falling off a car while on track, and Cody Ware‘s #51 Rick Ware Racing Ford is the latest entry onto the dubious list of disciplinary action.
During practice for this past weekend’s Cup Series race at Watkins Glen International, a piece of lead ballast came off his car near turn two and landed near a group of photographers. One of the photographers Chris Owens posted a photo of the ballast, showing it to be a rectangular box-like chunk.
Although small, such weights are so dense that they can result in severe car damage if run over, if not injury to drivers. In a 2015 Xfinity Series race at Iowa, Jamie Dick‘s windshield was destroyed by a tungsten ballast dropped by Ross Chastain‘s car that also shattered his helmet’s face shield, though he was unharmed. That same year at Dover, Carl Long was not as lucky when he was hit by tungsten from Peyton Sellers and crashed, breaking his shoulder in the process. At the Cup level, Denny Hamlin lost his crew chief for a loose tungsten piece at the 2020 Coca-Cola 600.
Rule 12.5.2.7.d.4 of the rulebook reads, “Loss or separation of added ballast from the vehicle will result in a four Race suspension of the crew chief, car chief, and head engineer. If NASCAR cannot identify which series or vehicle the lost ballast originated from, all vehicles entered for that Event from and associated with the team organization identified on the lost ballast may receive the suspensions.”
As a result, Ware’s crew chief Billy Plourde, car chief Jamie Edwards, and lead engineer Steven Gray have been suspended for the next four races at Daytona, Darlington, Kansas, and Bristol. RWR competition director Ken Evans is listed as interim crew chief for Bristol; he served in the same position for the team’s #15 in March.
Ware is currently thirty-second in points with a best finish of seventeenth in the Daytona 500. As he is outside the top thirty and 173 points behind thirtieth-placed Todd Gilliland, he is virtually assured of not making the playoffs and thus the suspensions will not impact the postseason championship picture even if he wins.
