What it’s like inside the NASCAR hauler: ‘You are better off just keeping your

The feeling is similar to being a school-aged kid who misbehaved and had been called to the principal’s office. Except in this case, the kids are adults who happen to be professional drivers, the principal is NASCAR’s top officials, and their office is a long trailer parked in the garage with an office in the back.

The foreboding sense of dread, though, remains the same.

“It’s not a comfortable situation,” Kyle Busch said. “… I haven’t been in there in a while. I’m going to knock on wood on that.”

Infractions that can earn drivers a trip to meet NASCAR officials in the hauler vary from big to small, and the severity can dictate the length of the meeting. Obvious infractions like overly aggressive driving, disregarding procedures, disobeying a directive from race control, and fighting are among the most common reasons. But drivers have also been called for speeding through the garage, something said over a team radio channel, or even public criticism that officials want clarification about.

Regardless of the duration or tone in which NASCAR’s message is delivered, these hauler conversations aim to remind everyone that NASCAR is in charge. It’s how officials have governed the premier Cup Series since Bill France Sr. founded NASCAR in 1948.

“It feels a little bit like being a kid again and going to see mom and dad with a problem,” Brad Keselowski said, “and you’re all flipped out and mad, and mom and dad are telling you to calm down and vice versa when you’ve done something wrong … It certainly harkens to those memories for me.

“Like mom and dad will tell you, ‘We put you on this earth, we can take you out.’ And I think there’s some similarities there. ‘We allowed you to race, and we can take you out.’”

There was a long stretch when a call to the NASCAR hauler almost guaranteed a stern talking to from either France, his son Bill France Jr., or Mike Helton, who in 1994 took on the role as NASCAR’s vice president of competition and in 1999 was appointed to oversee NASCAR’s day-to-day operations. And in line with how they operated, France Jr.’s edict to Helton was direct: “Don’t screw up my show,” as Helton recalled to The Athletic.

That all three tall, hulking men cast imposing figures made coming to the hauler an even more intimidating proposition.

“I felt like I was responsible for maintaining culture and quasi-law-and-order,” Helton said. “In the ’80s and ’90s, the sport was growing, and we were seeing cycles of new and different kinds of drivers replacing the older and the traditional culture in the garage area of drivers kind of helping each other learn the ropes. And it felt like maybe there wasn’t as much of that going on as there had been in the past, and a lot of the drivers would look at NASCAR and say, ‘You need to tell this guy to do this,’ or, ‘You need to help this guy understand.’

“In that moment, NASCAR took on a bit more responsibility of explaining…