February 1st, 2009 
T.C. In what appeared to be an eleventh hour decision, NASCAR announced last week that they were changing the pit stop rules for the Truck Series, but not to what we had previously reported. They will allow five guys over the wall, and will not allow fuel and tires on the same stop as we said. They are also limiting teams to 12 hard cards (annual credentials) and are creating a rule regarding engine use.
We were close on this call and I felt confident putting it out there, as I knew of some teams that had already been working on the new style pit stops. But as I said in the other post, I hoped I was wrong about it. And now with the official announcement, I am definitely glad we ended up being wrong about the changes. In the end, NASCAR did the right thing in keeping the limit at five guys. It was the best call for the safety of the guys that will be on pit road this season in the Truck Series.
Now that teams know what they are up against in terms of the new rules, the scramble is on to finalize those crew rosters. The greatest challenge now lies with this limit on credentials.
In the past, there really was no limit on how many crew members a team could bring to the track. Now, teams will be limited to 12 guys working on the trucks at the track. This includes over the wall guys, mechanics, the driver, crew chief, and spotter. So minus those last three, teams must put together a working crew with nine open slots.
With those nine slots they need to fit in a truck chief, hauler driver, engineer, engine tuner, mechanics, and at least five guys to go over the wall. It would appear that the math doesn’t add up.
What this announcement does, is effectively end the days of having specialized crew members in the Truck Series. Teams must now find crew guys who can serve multiple functions. Guys will need to be a mechanic and a tire changer, or a hauler driver and a fuel man. Or any number of other combinations of functions. If you only fill one of those functions, odds are you will either lose your spot on the road, lose your job completely, or won’t be able to find a job in the Truck Series.
Beyond the specifics, these rule changes will save team owners money and shouldn’t affect the competition too much. Pit strategy will change some, but races will still be affected by what happens on pit road. I do think too, that we will see pit stops be a bit slower. With the crew number limits, the talent pool for pit crew guys shrinks considerably and stop times will suffer because of it.
All in all, I commend NASCAR for trying to aid in teams saving money. And if it was necessary to change the pit stop rules, they did it right. Only allowing four over the wall would have been a mistake, and would have resulted in a lot of guys getting hurt.
What I don’t agree with, was the timing of all of this. Making a final decision with less then two weeks before the season opener is ridiculous. These teams are already pressed for time and now must scramble even more. And while these changes will help those teams who survived this brutal off-season, it will not bring back those teams we lost. It’s just another example of NASCAR’s inherent reactive nature. In the future, they need to start looking at changes like this before half the teams lock their doors.
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Yes, but there are problems.
The rules state “Active Crew Members” I believe. That does not really limit the number of personnel that can come to the track and participate.
Also, there was no mention of the “fuel and tires” on 1 pit stop. Last I heard they are not going to be allowed to do tires and fuel on the same stop.
Am I the only one that thinks that sounds insane? Or Maybe I overlooked something and now have old info.
I understand trying to save teams money and get more teams to the track for the races. Is this REALLY the way? I don’t think so.
Along with the engine requirements.
I wrote about it here –
http://racingnewsdigest.com/2009/01/30/official-camping-world-truck-changes/
How many more Truck teams are these rules really going to bring into the series? I will be surprised if it is 5. So we will have 20 instead of 15 truck teams in it full time for 2009.
And for the record….we won’t even see 5 teams come aboard fulltime with these rules.
If you ask me, NASCAR is making a lot of “saving money” policy errors. All across the board.
Fellas,
With this hard card limit announcxed, I think it’s time that the race haulers formed some kind of Teamsters chapter and made a case for them to have their own race credentials. I know the boys in Charlotte ain’t gonna like hearin’ the “U” word, but let’s face it, this ruling may end up costing a number of families their source of income.
I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop at the higher levels.
RND: The 12 “active” crew members includes the driver, spotter, crew chief, and the mechanics. Only the owner, PR people, and guests don’t count towards that limit. So while more people may be able to attend the race, only those 12 can work on the trucks and be apart of the race.
And as I said in the post, NASCAR will not be allowing teams to take fuel and tires on the same stop. With only five guys being allowed over the wall, you are two guys short to get the fueling done. Teams will come down and take tires, then have to come back in for fuel. The idea is that two of the five that do tire changes will also serve as the fuel man and catch can man.
Like I said in a previous post, the no combo fuel & tire stops will play a big part in pit strategy. Which do you do first and nothing says they have to be on consecutive laps…right? Will be interesting. In some endurance races I’ve run, the driver has to be out of the car for refueling (sometimes even doing the refueling themselves). Might this be the future of stock car (uh truck) racing?
On the credentials issue….I see where this will definitely favor multi-car teams that can “share” all types of behind the wall crews over the course of a weekend. A single car team should bring a start-n-park, just to get dbl credentials. Maybe have both teams w/ identical uniforms to inter-work between cars. How could NASCAR police the garage area. Sounds like our US Gov! What will this cost us taxpayers! and our grandkids….
I can’t wait to see how this plays out in Speedweeks. Headed down next week. Anyone else?
T.C.
I understand all of that. I was more just venting.
What I really don’t like is having the 2 separate pit stops. Why not have a long pit stops so it all can get done with 1 stop. 2 pit stops just sounds like a nightmare to me.
Under caution will they let the caution run longer so that every truck can come down pit row twice? Just makes no sense to me.
I would rather see trucks out racing instead of having to come down pit road twice. That’s all.
And the big question is…..Will this ultimately save teams enough money that we will see a spike in the number of full time teams….which is the root of the original problem.
I don’t think so.
And NO UNIONS. That would be a great way to run NASCAR right into the ground. Just like any company – How does a union help by forcing the company to keep people hired on when they can’t afford it.
Look at the big 3.
OK, I will quit writing these mini-novels.
RND: We certainly won’t see more teams. The savings are just too small compared to the budgets. In terms of the pit stops, USAR ProCup has their pit stop rules this way, and it runs okay. But they only race on short tracks…
And don’t worry about mini-novels, we love it! Although, we don’t pay by the word…
I think the rules are great and I feel that the limits on over the wall and hard cards should extend to the Nationwide and Cup series. This would cut cost for those groups by a ton and also set up a more even field and follow the hey we have a new car that will make things more compeditive thought process.
I don’t think we’ll see any significant savings by teams & these changes won’t add even one full time team this year. The simple fact is that the purses are too low. I bet you would lose money if you tried to start & park in the truck series.
I don’t know how you would get the purses raised besides NASCAR throwing money at the series but I think that’s the only thing that will ultimately save the trucks. I don’t see how a team can break even running a full truck schedule let alone make money.
Guess we’ll all just have to watch and see how Daytona turns out. Year in and year out, the truck series has always put on the best show during speedweeks. Been for all of them, from 2000 when Bodine had the huge wreck and Mike Wallace won, until Sprague’s victory last year. Can get really cold since they moved it to night racing. Even in Daytona.
Sure do miss IROC though!
The cost savings is trival,my biggest concern is the safty factor. Pit row is busy enough now with lead lap cars / trucks coming into and exiting pit row. It is dangrous enough for the pit crews now. Just think how many pit members have been hit by cars and trucks while they are trying to do their jobs. Now with the removal of two pit crew and increaseing the traffic on pit road x 2 it appears that the cash savings is not worth the risk.
TC your out there on pit lane all the time, whats your take on the safty side of things.
Steve: I think if they really felt it was necessary to eliminate guys over the wall, this is the best possible scenario. While the teams will have to pit more often, in some respects this new way is safer. Not fueling and doing tires at the same time does eliminate some risk of fire. Having some experience as a rear changer, trying to change the left rear in a puddle of fuel can be scary. And at least with five guys over the wall, teams can stick to changing tires the way they have always done it; two changers, two carriers, and a jackman. There will be no awkward transition period while crews learn how to make a new style of pit stop work. So compared to what they had last year, I don’t think the overall safety of pit road is either more or less safe; its probably about equal.
T.C.
You were talking about changing tires in a puddle of fuel. I have seen some night races when cars or trucks are leaving their pit stalls & you can see sparks behind the rear tires. An announcer said the sparks were from driving over the lugs.
I would think these sparks & leaked gas combination would mean trouble. I can also imagine lugs run over while the rear tires are spinning would fly out like bullets but you never hear of people getting hit by flying lugs or see too many fires in the pits. Why is this?
Maybe this should be an ask the insiders.
windowlicker: So do you want me to answer it, or wait for Ask The Insiders?
I do wonder how officials will, under caution, handle lead lead lap trucks and those laps down. If the lead lap trucks pit 1st go round, then pit again the next lap, do the lap down trucks have to wait until the 3rd and then 4th caution laps before pits are open to them. If so, sure would make for lengthy caution periods!
T.C.
It’s up to you, it’s your blog. Use it where you see fit.
Ask The Insiders it is!