DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – NASCAR officials announced on Wednesday that the rules for uncontrolled tire penalties have been modified, after criticism of the subjectivity of such calls in recent weeks.
The “arm’s length” interpretation of what constitutes a controlled tire during pit stops has been removed from the rulebook. The modification to the rulebook takes effect starting this weekend at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway and Iowa Speedway.
The decision comes in the wake of several controversial calls in the last month, including two penalties to Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 team in the last four races.
“After discussions internally and with competitors and teams, NASCAR will adjust how we officiate the uncontrolled tire rule to focus on preventing a safety hazard, rather than concentrating on the subjective ‘arm’s length’ criteria,” NASCAR said in a statement.
The new language specifies that tires will be considered under control if:
• Tire(s) do not roll into the traffic lanes of pit road;
• Removed tire(s) do not return to the outside half of the pit box;
• Tire(s) are handled in a safe manner, avoiding instances of bouncing or throwing tires.
Additionally, removed tire(s) from the outside half or race-track side of the pit box must not exceed the “proximity limits” to other pit boxes, as detailed in the NASCAR Rule Book.
“This is something we’ve been looking at for some time over the last year or two,” Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s vice president of officiating and technical inspection, told NASCAR.com. “The evolution of the pit stop has changed over time. There was a time when we needed to officiate that call based on an arm’s length.
“We have reviewed that numerous times and looked at it and feel like, in coordination with working with the teams, the timing is right to go ahead and remove that part of the rule from the rule book. We will continue to officiate uncontrolled tires. They still have to be controlled from the outside half of the pit box to the inside half.”
Teams must now also change outside tires first during four-tire stops, as a a safety measure intended to protect crew members from other cars leaving adjacent pit stalls.
That change will be in effect for all three NASCAR national series, starting next week at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) Int’l.
“This is something we’ve been working with the teams on,” Sawyer noted. “They came to us and they had been looking at changing the inside tires first, and Watkins Glen would have been the first event that they would have been trying to do that.
“Through the collaboration, through some additional conversations, we felt like that going forward starting at Watkins Glen, for all four-tire stops you’d have to change the outside tires first. That’ll go into effect across all three national series and at every event starting at Watkins Glen next week.”
The penalty for violations of the two pit-stop rules is the same, requiring a driver to drop to the tail end of the field under caution or serve a pass-through penalty under green.