O’Donnell, Childers talk common pit gun post-Atlanta

NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O'Donnell addressed Sunday's handful of common pit gun malfunctions at Atlanta Motor Speedway, saying it's something he wants to "get cleaned up" before teams take the track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. "It's something we're going to review," O'Donnell said during his Monday morning appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. "Obviously we never want to see any failures with any part or piece. " NASCAR and the race teams worked together to implement the common pit gun initiative for the 2018 season in an effort to reduce the performance premium on equipment and place the emphasis on the pit crews' athletic performance. Some teams were forced to pit twice, or had an extra long stop, due to a malfunction. "We're going to have those conversations and get it right," O'Donnell said. "This was an initiative we worked closely with teams on, and we never want to see a part or piece malfunction. We want it to be in the hands of the drivers and the race teams. That's something we obviously take very seriously. We'll have that dialogue this weekend and head to Vegas and hopefully get that cleaned up." Winning crew chief Rodney Childers, whose team had to make two pit stops following the competition caution at Lap 30, chimed in during his post-race victory press conference, emphasizing the continued need for collaboration. "I have to be honest, the people that have took that on really have done an outstanding job," Childers said. "Like, there's no way I could sit up here and complain about anything they've done because I can't imagine taking that on over the winter and what they did over a two‑month span or a three‑month span of trying to get all this stuff ready for the teams, number one. "But my opinion is we're going to go through ups and downs, and we need to go through them together and learn together."