New pit-road officiating system utilizes technology with an eye on safety
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CONCORD, N.C. -- The new NASCAR pit-road officiating system boasts some impressive technological grunt, including what NASCAR officials claim is a processing power estimated at 9,000 times that of the last space shuttle. Its bandwidth means that pit lane infractions -- even during the busiest wholesale stops for service -- will be monitored and flagged on the laser-mapped tracks and captured by a traveling armada of 45-plus high-definition cameras mounted around every facility the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series visits.
But the new technology, being prepared for Daytona's Speedweeks, is far from a cold, Orwellian "Big Brother" system of cables, processors and screens. There remains a human element -- both for officials and for race teams -- in the new way of enforcing the rules.
Officials gave the working press a walk-through of the new pit-road technology Wednesday afternoon at the NASCAR Research & Development Center, revealing the inner workings of the system that will take effect in the 2015 season. In the hauler that for now resembles a "Black Ops" workshop -- the plain black transports is still awaiting a graphics wrap ahead of its at-track debut -- eight workstations will house officials at a trackside location each race weekend.
The remote nature will allow the rotating group of eight officials to view pit stalls from an "eye in the sky" viewpoint, making the final call on infractions or providing them the ability to forward footage on to race control for further evaluation. And lest the flow of the race be disrupted, they'll be doing so with double-time replays, allowing them to click off a pit-stop review at eight seconds a pop.
According to Gene Stefanyshyn, NASCAR's senior vice president of innovation and racing development, the new system will help officials make major strides in fairness -- putting violations that were once judgment calls into black-and-white terms -- but also in safety, eliminating the need for NASCAR officials to observe pit stops among the high-traffic areas on pit road. In 2014, an over-the-wall official was assigned to each of the 43 cars each week; in 2015, it's estimated that only 10 behind-the-wall officials will be necessary under the new system.
The added human interaction, Stefanyshyn said, is designed to help identify circumstances that fall outside black-and-white rulings.
"I think we're relying a lot on the computer, but we still have a human involved because there are still circumstances like, 'hey, I didn't want to drive through that pit box, but there's a car here,' so then we can overrule," Stefanyshyn said. "So that's why we want to keep the human element in for those types of things."
During Wednesday's demonstration, pit-stop footage culled from the latter races of 2014 were fed into the officiating system, each one prompting a significant "ding!" alert when it reached each officials' queue. From there, officials are able to see the system's flagged violations and confirm or refute the ruling as needed.
The resulting human/automation balance falls somewhere between IBM's "Jeopardy"-dominating Watson and the interpretive referees' calls that have stoked controversy in the NFL playoffs for the past two weekends.
Some pit-road rules enforcement will remain under the conventional format of previous seasons. Commitment cone violations will remain a call by the pit entrance official and race control, and speeding penalties will still be detected by the use of timing and scoring loops on marked sections of pit road.
But the human side of the new system also involves race teams, especially in one crucial area -- lug nuts. Whereas teams in past seasons were docked for loose or missing lugs, anything short of five tight lug nuts will not be a penalty in 2015.
With quick pit stops being held at such a premium and no risk of a penalty, would tire changers gamble with fastening just four or even three lug nuts to save time in a crucial pit stop? Shawn Rogers, NASCAR Managing Director for Planning and Business Operations, said that would be up to the team's discretion, but that the reward might not outweigh the potential pitfalls.
"We're just relying on them to install the wheels correctly," Rogers said. "The downside of not doing so, it's pretty risky."
Even though the system has seemingly omniscient capabilities, Stefanyshyn said he expects crew chiefs to seek out the new technology's gray areas.
"Of course they will. They've got creative minds and that's what they get paid to do," Stefanyshyn said. "I'm sure there will be some creativity. … At least the cameras won't be around them, so there won't be spray paint actually getting on the lens or something like that."
The system is still under development and will get test runs at Daytona International Speedway in preliminary events to the Feb. 22 Daytona 500, including the IMSA Tudor United SportsCar Championship's Rolex 24 on Jan. 24-25, the Sprint Unlimited on Feb. 14 and the Budweiser Duels at Daytona on Feb. 19. But the ultimate goal for human engagement with pit-road officiating is to eventually bring a bevy of data, footage and statistical insight both to TV broadcast partners, teams and fans.
"There are a lot of other next steps to come with this," Stefanyshyn said. "I believe we'll start seeing some of that in the first quarter of this year."