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Some NASCAR pit road rules changes this year

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NASCAR had some media folks over at its R&D Center to go over the pit road rules for this season. A few things that were interesting:

  • A change this season is that NASCAR is going to enforce speeding on pit road more. Remember when a wrecked car would come to pit road, the crew would furiously make repairs and the car would fire down pit road faster than the speed limit to stay on the lead lap? Speeding penalty was no big deal because it only put the driver at the rear of the field. He still got to stay on the lead lap. New this year is that speeding is speeding. NASCAR will not allow such action again. What that means is that crews will have to complete their work sooner knowing they can't speed on pit road to stay on the lead lap.
  • As in the past, teams are allowed a 4.99 mph allowance before being penalized for speeding on pit road.
  • Another change this year is if a car is entering pit road or just entered pit road when the caution comes out (thus closing pit road), the driver can go down pit road (without stopping in his stall) while maintaining pit road speed and NASCAR will put the driver back in his spot when he entered pit road. There have been times guys entered pit road just as it closed because of a caution and never had a chance to react and all but had their day (or a good part of it) ruined with losing a lap.
  • You know how there are times when a NASCAR official in the pits will kick a tire back toward the pit wall and other times they don't? Here is what NASCAR tells its officials on those situations: If you (the official) don't have to move out of the way to knock the tire back, that is fine. If an official has to move out of position to do so, then let it go. The reasoning to allow officials to even knock the tire back is a safety issue. If an official can do so without getting out of position, then it prevents the tire from getting hit by a car and knocked back into that official or others on pit road.
  • NASCAR penalizes drivers for running over air hoses, yet there are cases when a driver won't be penalized for doing so. Think of it this way: On a four-tire pit stop where the front tire changer comes over to the left side, the air hose might not flip over completely away from the car. If the car runs over a small portion (small the key) then NASCAR more than likely will let it go. Hampton Roads