NASCAR's Mike Forde makes surprising admission surrounding 'random' teardown inspections

Whenever NASCAR Cup Series cars are taken back to the Research and Development Center, how do they really decide on which ones to take? This week on Hauler Talk, race fans were given a peek behind the curtain on the post-race inspection process.

After the Brickyard 400, Chris Buescher and Christopher Bell had their numbers pulled by NASCAR. So, the 17 and 20 cars went back to R&D for a teardown. No penalties were announced regarding those two teams this week, so it appears that there were no issues.

Mike Forde, managing director for racing communications, talked about the process this 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.”

Things have been much more formalized in recent years. However, there is a historic basis for the way we see the “randomness” of this process.

NASCAR has had changes in ‘random’ selection

When it comes to the three NASCAR national series, there is potential for variations in how cars and trucks are selected after races. Forde touched on that as well.

“When Wayne Auton, the famous, legendary, iconic Wayne Auton, was the series director of the Xfinity Series, he did do it that way,” Ford explained. “Years ago. Towards the end of his tenure as the series director, he did not do it that way. And Brad Moran [of the Cup Series] doesn’t do it this way, and Seth Kramlich in the Truck Series doesn’t do it this way.”

So, why is it called random? Well, it isn’t like the NASCAR teams know. For the folks working on the cars who may cheat or push the limits, it is random. That’s what makes it such a gamble.

“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.”

Each team knows its time will come. When it comes, remains a mystery that only NASCAR knows.