I know its old news to many of you, but for those who don’t know, NASCAR changed a few key rules on pit road for this season.  The first has to do with pushing the car down pit road and the second involves controlling the old tires back to the pit wall.

During the first few races in all three series, we haven’t seen the first rule be an issue.  The rule says that crewmembers can only push the car the length of three pit stalls down pit road.  In previous years, if our cars stalled or were out of gas we could pretty much push them the length of pit road to get them re-fired.  NASCAR decided it was too dangerous to have us unprotected on pit road, so they changed it to three stalls.  As a crewmember, I don’t really mind it, because I’ve been one of those guys dying at the end of pit road after pushing the car so far.

The second rule however has come into play a few times, and you will continue to see it hurting teams that violate it.  With so many tires getting loose on pit road the last few years, NASCAR decided to make teams control the old right side tires half way back to the wall.  What this means is that no longer can we just roll them to the wall.  In the past, you’d see jackmen and front tire changers take off the right sides, put a good roll on them, and let them go to the wall.  Now, the tire carriers must be in possession of the tires until they are half way back to the wall.  If the tires are judged by the officials to be out of control during a stop, NASCAR will send that car to the tail end of the longest line.

For the front tire changers it isn’t too big of an issue.  And if the rear guys aren’t doing an adjustment, it isn’t a huge transition for them either.  When it really comes into play is pit stops where the rear carrier has to make a wedge or track bar adjustment on the right side.  In those cases, you will see either the carrier or the changer roll the tire back.  It gets dicey for the carriers if they have to roll the tire though, because it puts them behind on the stop a lot.  They’ve really got to hustle to collect the new left side tire and be in position to hang it on the car or truck.

As I’m sure most have, my team has been warned twice about this rule.  We’ve had two different races where tires almost got away, but we got lucky.

These rule changes did force us to make some adjustments to what we were used to, and probably slowed stops just a tick early on.  But this is just another case where NASCAR is attempting to make competition safer for everyone, and you can’t really blame them for that.

Related posts:

• Pit Road Explained: Rules
• Won’t You Be My [Pit Road] Neighbor?
• More On The Truck Series Rule Changes
• Pit Road Odds And Ends
• Pit Road Will Be Key At Darlington