Martin Truex Jr and Erik Jones Triggered NASCAR to Tweak Pit Road Rules

Normally, NASCAR is quite strict about enforcing any rules and regulations. Among the most important ones are the rules about entering the pit road and conducting operations there. To be precise, NASCAR has been cracking down on loose wheels, owing to safety issues. Already, there have been incidents involving Martin Truex Jr and Erik Jones in the past couple of races. Owing to this, NASCAR has come out with some new pit road rules.

If a driver experiences a loose wheel on the track, two crew members are suspended. That rule is nothing new, but if the driver is still in the pit lane, the rules are different. They could stop at another pit box and wait for their team to catch up.

If a loose wheel happens under caution, then the drivers are dropped to the tail end of the cars on the lead lap. However, if this occurs during green flag conditions, then they are slapped with a drive-through penalty. Pitting in someone else’s pit box is not exactly a big penalty.

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What else to know about this NASCAR regulation?

In essence, stopping at a teammate or competitor’s pit box is not exactly breaking the rules. The officials are willing to cut offenders any slack, as long as the wheels don’t come off and endanger someone. After all, driver and personnel safety is the top priority and as long as the wheels are not flying off, there is no issue.

At the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Jones managed to escape a penalty when he carefully reversed back up the pit road. Admittedly, he was lucky to not collide with anyone who was going in the opposite direction. Hopefully, this new rule will be a bit more lenient for the teams and not put them under so much pressure. On the other end of the spectrum, it does not give them the freedom to take this Get Out of Jail Free card too often.

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