Nascar “part-time driver” approval process under heavy scrutiny

Some quotes from drivers in this article:

Daniel Suarez: “I believe that I'm one of the best racing drivers in a stock car in the world, and if I want to run Formula 1 tomorrow or Formula 2, I can't. I'm not qualified to do that… and I shouldn’t. I believe that the process to allow somebody to run in the Cup Series should be a little bit harder for respect to the driver that is trying, to respect the fans and to respect the drivers and teams that are running full time because we work very hard to get into silly accidents like the one [at Phoenix].” Suarez would also add: “She got set for failure. It doesn't matter if you're a great driver or a bad driver. If you are thrown in one of the most difficult series in the world to be competitive, is just not fair. That’s the way I saw it. I was more disappointed in NASCAR than her.”

Joey Logano: ”I would consider Phoenix a fairly high-speed oval. I know it's only a mile, but you're carrying some good speed around there, and there's a lot of potential to get in trouble, and we saw two cautions [at Phoenix] that unfortunately ruined Suarez’s day and it was not his fault. If I was him, I'd be very upset. Very upset.

Kyle Busch: ”Being an owner [previously] in the Truck Series and seeing some young drivers get opportunities at different tracks versus my drivers that I was trying to get them opportunities at some of those same tracks getting denied — I was very confused, and probably I'm even more confused now on how it all works, I think it's broken. There’s a lot of work that could be done to make it better. I also do feel as though it shouldn't be ‘suit and ties’ making the decisions.”

Denny Hamlin: It should open eyes to NASCAR that we're not very strict in who gets to run Cup cars. It should be the most elite series and you shouldn’t be able to come in whenever you want." Hamlin would also add: ”I feel bad for Katherine because I told Kyle Larson at the drivers' meeting, ‘How impressive is it? She's only a second off in an underfunded car, and never running in this type of series. "That's really, really, really impressive.”