Tech Talk: Debate over lug nuts continues

Posted on April 14, 2015 by Nascar

Chad Knaus: NASCAR shouldn’t be in the business of counting lug nuts

Dale Earnhardt Jr.. made an unexpected return trip to pit road early in Saturday night’s Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Earnhardt was fortunate. Timing was on his side.

Not so for Richard Childress Racing‘s Ryan Newman, who had to make an extra stop as the race was winding down. 

 Earnhardt and Newman were just two drivers forced to return to their respective pit stalls to correct lug nut problems. Kasey Kahne, Earnhardt’s teammate at Hendrick Motorsports, said after the fact that he had a similar issue on as many as three occasions during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.

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The 2015 season is the first that officials aren’t keeping tabs on how many lug nuts are going on wheels, and the initial reaction to the news earlier this season was something between "not a big deal" and "it’ll be a disaster."

Thus far it’s trending more toward the former.

Although officials are no longer peering over tire changers’ shoulders during stops, there’s still the threat of a P3 level penalty should a tire come off due to loose or missing lug nuts.

"I think we all were a little worried when NASCAR said we were going to have to police it because that’s just a big change from the norm and what we’ve done in the past," Earnhardt said after his third-place finish at TMS.

The bigger concern is the danger — "the corner speeds are 18 miles an hour faster at (Las) Vegas … in the middle of the corner," he said. "And if you lose a wheel going that fast, it’s not going to be very good."

The general consensus was that teams wouldn’t intentionally shortchange their driver, unless the race was on a track where speeds aren’t as fast, or perhaps when pitting with only a handful of laps remaining.

In the cases of those at TMS, it appears the incidents weren’t intentional."

Race winning crew chief Chad Knaus said there are "definitely teams out there that aren’t hitting all five lug nuts" and the former over-the-wall crewman should know — "we work from a conservative standpoint and we go after four," he acknowledged.

It’s Knaus’ contention that NASCAR officials shouldn’t be in the business of counting lug nuts.

"That’s not their job," he said. "They shouldn’t be telling us how much camber to run. They shouldn’t be telling us anything like that. They should just be focusing on what’s within the guidelines and what isn’t."

TMS Penalty Breakdown

A season-low 14 penalties were handed down during the NSCS race at Texas, including the first two of the season for commitment line violations. Former series champion Brad Keselowski had to go to the end of the lead-lap cars after the Team Penske driver crossed the commitment line, then darted back out onto the track on Lap 266. He had been running inside the top 10 when the violation occurred.

HScott Motorsports driver Justin Allgaier was also penalized for a similar infraction on Lap 33.

MORE: Keselowski hits the commitment cone

There were no penalties for uncontrolled tire violations at Texas, two weeks after six teams were penalized for the infraction at Martinsville.

A No-Tire Stop For NASCAR

After obtaining tires for further inspection following races at Las Vegas, Phoenix, Auto Club Speedway and Martinsville, NASCAR officials took no tires from competitors following Saturday night’s Duck Commander 500.

The Richard Childress Racing team was hit with stiff penalties for illegally altering the air pressures during the Auto Club race. Driver Ryan Newman was docked 75 points and crew chief Luke Lambert was fined $125,000 and suspended for six NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points races.

RCR officials have appealed the penalties and a hearing is scheduled for Thursday, April 16.

Cars taken back to the NASCAR Research and Development Center from the Texas race were those of winner Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick (2nd), Carl Edwards (10th) and Clint Bowyer (22nd).

No. 4 car chief Robert "Cheddar" Smith reminded crew chief Rodney Childers that their Chevrolet SS is becoming a frequent visitor at the R&D center.

@cheddar_smith reminded me today,, the 4 team has had the car taken back to the @NASCAR R&D center 14 of the last 17 races.. #goodproblem ��

— Rodney Childers (@RodneyChilders4) April 13, 2015

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Posted on April 14, 2015 by Pat DeCola

Kevinharvick

Harvick decided to let someone else finish first or second for a change two weeks ago at Martinsville, but figured he’d reassume his role as front-row-finisher in Texas with his sixth of the season.

Joeylogano

Logano and Harvick are arguably the best two drivers in 2015 and will continue to tangle like they did at Texas. As the most recent Bristol winner, expect the 22 to be up front again on Sunday, whether the 4 car likes it or not.

BradKeselowski

Keselowski once won back-to-back races at Bristol, the second of which sparked his 2012 championship run. As the series’ most recent runner-up at the short track, is another Tennessee victory and eventual Cup title on the Team Penske driver’s horizon?

JimmieJohnson

In his quest to win every race the Sprint Cup Series has to offer, Johnson finally took home a Texas trophy in the spring. He’s won the Bristol spring race before, but it’s (somewhat surprisingly) his only victory at the facility. Something tells us he wouldn’t mind adding another one to the win column.

Martintruex jr

-1

Do we expect Truex’s blistering average finish of 6.6 to be around that mark come November? No. Do we expect him to still routinely finish in the top 10, like he has through the first seven races? Yes.

DennyHamlin

-1

Hamlin has won two of the previous three Coors Light Pole awards at Bristol, riding his prime starting spot to a sixth-place finish in last season’s version of this event.

Jeffgordon

-1

Gordon now has four straight top-10 finishes and appears to be fully back on track, but one thing is still slightly concerning: laps led. Despite having fast cars, the veteran has led more than three laps in just two races this year.

Kaseykahne

Two years ago, Kahne had a stout car that led 109 laps on its way to a 1.700-second margin of victory, the largest at the track since the 2008 August race.

DaleEarnhardt Jr.

Looking for the last win by Junior at Bristol? You’ll need to track back over a decade to 2004, when he led 295 laps in the August race. The Hendrick Motorsports driver has led just 83 in 20 races since.

Ryannewman

-3

Interestingly enough, Newman’s 2014 average start and average finish numbers have thus far flip-flopped in 2015, going from 13.3 and 12.7 to 8.4 and 14.0, respectively. He needs to start taking better advantage of his solid starting spots and convert them into strong finishes.

Jamiemcmurray

McMurray is on pace for the best season of his career, currently matching his 11th-place finish of 2004. He can thank successful strategy gambles like we saw at Texas for this.

Carledwards

Edwards just picked up his first top-10 of the season and is heading to Bristol as the defending race-winner. Things are finally trending upward for the new Joe Gibbs Racing driver.

Kurtbusch

-1

Busch has cooled considerably since his scorching start after his reinstatement, following a pair of top-fives with a pair of 14th-place finishes. He’s won two Coors Light Pole awards in just four races, however, so we know the speed is there.

Mattkenseth

-3

Matt Kenseth hasn’t been higher than 10th in the standings all season. That feels weird, right? His average start (15.6) and average finish (17.6) thus far are the worst we’ve seen from him in years.

Davidragan

It’s a little surprising that Ragan has converted his time behind the wheel of Kyle Busch’s ride to just one top-10 finish, but the numbers don’t lie: he’s enjoying his best season since 2008, by far. His 16.3 average finish (compared to 29.4 in the No. 34 last season) is close to matching his career best of 15.6.

Paulmenard

-3

Slowly, but surely, Menard is falling out of contention and making his fourth-place finish (and only top-10 of the season) at Fontana look like more of a fluke than something to be considered seriously.

Kylelarson

Through this point last year – Larson’s rookie season – the Chip Ganassi Racing driver already had a pair of top-fives. He doesn’t have any right now, but now that we know his health shouldn’t be an issue moving forward, we can expect that to change.

DanicaPatrick

The season is still early, but Patrick’s improvement in 2015 in undeniable. She’s just one spot out of Chase contention and is averaging better finishes than the likes of Clint Bowyer, Greg Biffle, AJ Allmendinger, Kyle Larson, Austin Dillon and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

ClintBowyer

Clint Bowyer has led one lap this year. One. You know who else has? Brett Moffitt, his part-time Michael Waltrip Racing teammate, who has been behind the wheel of the No. 55 Toyota in only four races.

Greg Biffle

Biffle’s only start and finish inside the top 10 both came at Daytona. So there’s a good chance the Roush Fenway Racing driver may be looking ahead a few weeks to the next superspeedway race at Talladega, especially considering he’s winless in his career at Bristol and Richmond.

Posted on April 14, 2015 by Brad Norman

Driver of No. 88 says Letarte’s cheerleading style let him off the hook a bit

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RELATED: Dale Jr., Greg Ives ‘are just getting started’

Separating your work life from your personal life? Like anything else, that works for some people and doesn’t work for others.

It definitely doesn’t work for Dale Earnhardt Jr.

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Junior is quick to credit last year’s remarkable success — four wins, including the Daytona 500, his best showing in a decade — to his relationship with crew chief Steve Letarte. Letarte, now at NBC Sports, was known as one of the best strategists in the garage. More importantly, he became a trusted confidante to Earnhardt Jr. as their driver-crew chief relationship deepened and developed over four years.

Earnhardt Jr. doesn’t have that relationship yet with first-year crew chief Greg Ives — after seven races together, how could he? — but thinks continuing to develop a friendship is key to the No. 88 team’s title hopes.

"He’s not Steve," Earnhardt said of Ives following a third-place finish at Texas. "They don’t have the same personality, not that one is better than the other. Me and Steve became such great friends, so it was like working with your best friend every day. Me and Greg are working on that relationship.

"I need that relationship. That’s a relationship I want to have with my crew chief. I want to be best friends. I want to be good pals. … I’ve got a lot of respect for (Greg). He’s a great family man and I trust his judgment."

Ives’ judgment, particularly when it comes to making race cars go fast, has proven to be exceptional at any level. He was a race engineer during Jimmie Johnson‘s five straight title runs from 2006 to 2010, then won the NASCAR XFINITY Series championship last year with driver Chase Elliott.

Earnhardt pointed out after Texas that his cars are fast this year, and they may be faster than the cars he had to open last season. His average starting position through seven races this year (12.6) is better than it was at this point last year (14.6). Eliminating races in which the No. 88 wrecked or had mechanical trouble, his average finishing position this year is 3.8 (and 14.0 in all seven starts).

"He’s putting together some great cars," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I know he’s doing that. He’s doing some great things and I’m glad to have the opportunity to work with him early in his career. He’s one of the best crew chiefs, I think, in the garage."

Although Ives can be a little more cerebral on the radio, not having Letarte as the always-upbeat "cheerleader" has forced Earnhardt to do a certain amount of growing as a driver and a leader.

"Greg obviously isn’t the cheerleader that Steve was, and I thought about it in the offseason," Earnhardt said. "What I wanted to do was try to take it upon myself to be a better motivator. I used to just sit there and let Steve motivate me, motivate the team, and I thought, you know, I can’t always depend or count on that, and maybe I need to step up and just have a better attitude.

"The cheerleader that Steve was, it was really, really good, but it also let me off the hook a lot. And now working with Greg, I’ve got to be more accountable for carrying my own emotions and taking care of myself."

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