Tech talk: News and notes from around the garage

"It'll shake the shifter so bad, the shifter literally breaks right off, right on top of the transmission," Earnhardt said during his weekly Dale Jr. Download on Dirty Mo Radio.
 
"We put another shifter on the car, and it broke that one real quick. And then we put a third shifter on there that actually was a completely different model that held up."
 
At one point in the Martinsville race, Earnhardt said, he felt the best option would be for the team to take the car behind the wall to for repairs.
 
"I'm glad we didn't because we would have lost a lot of laps doing it," he said. "But I felt like that vibration was so bad that we weren't going to ever get the shifter thing fixed."
 
The 36th-place finish dropped Earnhardt to eighth in the standings.
 
After a weekend off for the Easter holiday break, the series heads to Texas Motor Speedway for Saturday night's Duck Commander 500 (FOX, 7:30 p.m. ET).
 
"When you have those kinds of days, what's important is that you get the car fixed and you go back out there," he said. "… It may seem pointless to worry about gaining a spot or two, but as a competitor, you have to find something to work for, some goal. … As a team, we have to stick together and try to go to the next race and put it behind you, and that's the best way to do it. Get out there and do everything you can do, run every lap you can run and load up and go to the next race."

Rarity of the P5 Penalty
 
The P5 level penalty levied against the Richard Childress Racing No. 31 team last week was just the second of that severity since the debut of the NASCAR Deterrence System last season.
 
Driver Ryan Newman was stripped of 75 points after a tire audit conducted by NASCAR revealed the team had improperly altered air pressures in its tires during the Auto Club 400 earlier this year.
 
NASCAR also docked team owner Richard Childress 75 owner points; crew chief Luke Lambert was fined $125,000 and suspended for six races. Tire technician James Bender and engineer Philip Surgen were also suspended for six races.
 
RCR has filed an appeal, and a request for deferral of penalties until the appeal is heard has been granted. That means those suspended will continue to be allowed to attend events until a decision is rendered.
 
The loss of points, however, remains in place and would only be reversed should RCR win the appeal.
 
A P5 level penalty was lodged against Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 11 team and driver Denny Hamlin in 2014 following the Sprint Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
 
The team was penalized for improperly sealed panels/ductwork inside the No. 11 Toyota.
 
Hamlin and owner Joe Gibbs were docked 75 driver and car owner points, respectively, while crew chief Darian Grubb was suspended six weeks and fined $125,000. Car chief Wesley Sherrill was suspended six weeks.
 
JGR officials initially said they would appeal the decision but later chose to accept the penalties.
 
Under the deterrence system, violations are grouped from levels P1 through P6, according to severity.

Passing Grade for PRO Trailer; Upcoming Upgrades
 
Beginning with this weekend's race at Texas, all Sprint Cup teams will be provided adequate bandwidth to allow videos detailing pit road infractions to be sent directly to the appropriate pit box.
 
In late May, when the series moves to Charlotte Motor Speedway, similar connectivity will also be provided in each garage bay.
 
Video showing an infraction is currently sent to the team in question – typically to their haulers where they have adequate bandwidth to handle video – almost as soon as it is received and processed by officials in the PRO trailer.
 
Some teams have the capability and bandwidth to forward it along to their pit box, where the crew chief and any others may view it as well.
 
Now, when a team commits and infraction, video evidence will be delivered to the crew chief on the pit box almost as soon as it occurs.
 
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Managing Director Richard Buck said the sanctioning body has been pleased with the new officiating system through the first quarter of the season.
 
"It's leveling the playing field for all of pit road, which we've seen is a good thing," he said. "We're getting a lot of kudos in the garage area for the use of it and how it operates."

Penalty Breakdown
 
With one quarter of the season complete, teams have been penalized 201 times through the first six races for technical infractions.
 
Not surprisingly, pitting before pit road is open has been the most common infraction, being called on 54 occasions. The loss of track position is of little consequence for a team that possibly needs to make repairs to a car that's been damaged
 
The penalty for too many crewmen in contact with the pit area, another common occurrence (24), is often related to the "pitting too soon" infraction. Again, getting a car repaired and back on the track is more important than the loss of track position due to the penalty.
 
Too fast entering/exiting pit road has been called 35 times this season while uncontrolled tire violations have been called a season-high six times in the last two races.
 
"What we're seeing, I think … is the teams are pushing the limits," Buck said. "They're pushing the limits not only on the mechanical side but on the human side and the athlete's side, they're pushing these pit crews to get every tenth of a second on pit road.
 
"And with that comes the occasional mistake and a tire will get away from them. They'll release it too soon, but our software and our PRO system is so exact and so precise that we're catching those and seeing those."

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