O’Donnell discusses pit road protocol, plus a look at Sonoma strategy
You go by what you see and not what you hear. That’s the message NASCAR officials relay to drivers and crew chiefs each week during pre-race driver’s meetings, and it arose during this past weekend’s XFINITY Series race at Chicagoland Speedway.
When the caution flag was displayed following an incident involving Dylan Lupton on lap 151 of the 200-lap race, 19 teams were subsequently penalized for pitting before pit road was officially open, including eventual race winner Erik Jones.
Most teams made the decision to pit based on information coming from officials in the scoring tower, and the message from the tower was that pit road was open. However, the official stationed at the pit road opening was displaying a red flag and the indicator light at the entrance was still red, both of which signified that pit road was still officially closed.
The penalty for pitting too soon under caution is restarting the race at the tail end of the field. Had the race been under green, drivers would have been required to serve a pass-through penalty by returning to pit road a second time.
“When you looked at it, the tower did come over the radio and say pit road was open,” Steve O’Donnell, Vice President of Competition and Racing Development for NASCAR, told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Monday. “But if you go back to the driver’s meeting, what we say in every driver’s meeting is that the light and the flag are what dictates whether it’s open or not.
“The person at the opening did not hear the radio communication so the red flag and the light were still on. And in that case if anyone comes down pit road, when it’s technically closed via the light or the flag, they’ll receive a penalty for pitting too soon.”
Although Jones fell out of the lead when he and the others dropped to the rear for the following restart, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver eventually made his way back to the front by lap 190 and led the final 11 laps of the race to score the win.
“It’s certainly something we’ll continue to look at,” O’Donnell said. “We’ve always put it ultimately in the driver’s hands. They’re the last person that can see (if the light is red). They know or should know that if it’s red, it’s closed. That’s something we like to see completely line up over the radio and match up with the technology.”
Running the Race Backwards?
Teams often use a somewhat different pit-stop strategy when competing on road courses, as will be the case this weekend. It’s known as running the race backwards.
What does it mean?
On a course where passing opportunities are limited, track position and fuel mileage are crucial factors.
For those that hope to complete the race on only two pit stops, after calculating fuel mileage they subtract that number (typically between 37 and 42 laps) from the total number of laps in the race.
So under normal circumstances, a driver who can run approximately 37 laps on a full tank of fuel would have to make his final stop in the 110-lap race at lap 73. That means his first stop, under green-flag conditions, would come at lap 36.
But should better mileage, or mileage management, allow a driver to run as many as 42 laps, his final stop would fall at lap 68 while his first would come on lap 26.
In that instance, the track position a driver would gain after pitting as others eventually made their way to pit road later in the run could prove to be the difference between contending for the win or having to work his or her way back through traffic.
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New Tire for Sonoma
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams will be competing with a new tire code for this weekend’s Toyota/SaveMart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.
According to Goodyear, the code (D-4638) is being used for the first time and it features an increase in tread thickness for better wear.
Goodyear will also have wet weather tires on hand in case of inclement weather. However, the forecast calls for sunny skies and temperatures in the high 70s to mid-80s through the weekend for the area with no mention of rain.