Photo – Getty Images
Two big events headline Valentine’s Day for race fans. At Daytona International Speedway the ARCA Racing Series’ Lucas Oil 200 will air on Fox Sports 1 at 4 pm ET; followed by NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series’ Sprint Unlimited at 8 pm ET on FOX.
A big part of today’s stories include veteran Frank Kimmel – the winningest driver in ARCA history – going for his first Daytona win ever; and veteran Jeff Gordon racing his last Sprint Unlimited – after racing 21 consecutive – as he begins his farewell tour throughout the 2015 season and retires his racing career.
While fans are happy to see drivers and their cars back on the track, what will take center stage for NASCAR is what happens behind the scenes after making several changes on how they will officiate their events.
Last season, the Sprint Cup Series had their fewest penalties of 81 since record keeping began in 2000, after averaging 205 penalties a year. That happened because NASCAR published their rules for the first time in their 66-year history that included a six-tier system with escalating penalties for each infraction.
Drivers knew their boundaries and abided by the rules outlined – at least for the most part, there was a vast improvement. But heading into this season, there’s a new technology twist creating some unknowns for drivers and their teams that may increase the number of penalties – at least in the beginning of the season – which starts tonight.
NASCAR has clearly stated they intend to level the playing field to create better racing on the track for the fans of the sport. That is the motivation for clearly defining their rules and car packages and now executing and managing those rules and packages falls on their officiating team – so it makes sense to modernize that process by using technologies to do a better job.
Here’s an Outline of NASCAR Officiating Changes for the 2015 season:
- Pit Road officiating now taking place primarily in a hauler using computers and pit road cameras. Results of testing the process late last season, show more pit road penalties until drivers discover their new boundaries.
- 45 HD cameras face pit road for use by officials
- There are now 10 officials on pit road instead of 43.
- Pit Road speeding penalties still called from race control based on scoring loops
- Pit stalls are laser measured before the race
- Fueling can start when the car stops and continue until car leaves the stall.
- NASCAR is no longer officiating air pressure and lugnuts during pit road stops. Teams will experiment to discover their boundaries – this comes down to ‘Risk versus Reward’ giving every team complete accountability for their decisions. No more blaming Goodyear for tire pressure decisions.
- Goodyear only provides data for the teams – all tire decisions are from the teams.
- There’s an app for that! NASCAR now monitors the pre-race inspection process using an app to keep track of the inspection progress and response to any issues resulting in better time management. Nothing will go unnoticed with their laser inspection process giving officials a database including photos for every infraction, resolution and response time. No more cutting corners – all teams must pass pre-race inspection to race the event. Anyone not meeting specifications or completing the process and found on the track will get black flagged as Stewart did in the practice session yesterday.
- Flaring fenders – not penalized last year – will result in NASCAR calling the driver back to pit road for resolution and include a pass through penalty based on whether the infraction happens during a green or yellow flag.
Fans will see more penalties during the race in the beginning of the season, which may result in some frustration from teams and drivers. Remember it’s all part of the process of learning, while keeping in mind the drivers and their teams are smart people and they will use that intelligence to accelerate their learning curve as quickly as possible – They always do.