NASCAR official says issue of tossing water… – NBCSports.com

A NASCAR executive said Monday that officials will address the issue of throwing water bottles out of the car with drivers after a water bottle was spotted on the apron during a debris caution in Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Another water bottle was spotted on the apron during a caution for Paul Menard later in the race.

Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer, told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio’s “The Morning Drive” that it’s not uncommon for drivers to discard water bottles during a race.

“Coming off pit road sometimes you see it down on the apron where some water bottles are discarded,’’ he said. “I think in this case, we candidly weren’t really sure and knew it was potentially one of the drivers’ ones that are a little bit different with the material they’re made out of.

“If someone is purposely trying to manipulate a caution, that’s not something that is going to be tolerated, and we’ll have to look into that further as we go and we’ll address that with the teams also.’’

O’Donnell said officials were not able to see which car the water bottle came from during the race that was spotted during a debris caution. He reiterated that officials would get their message to drivers.

“It’s something that we’ve addressed in the past, and we’ll continue to do that with the drivers,’’ he told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

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