Teams will now be required to have all five lug nuts “installed in a safe and secure manner” or have the driver risk being called back into the pits during the race. Teams that fail to tighten all of their lugnuts could face a mandatory minimum suspension of four races for the crew chief, tire changer, and tire carrier.
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Five days after Stewart railed against NASCAR’s lack of a lug nut policy and accused the sanctioning body of being lax on safety, NASCAR sent a memo to crew chiefs Monday afternoon and changed the rule. That spotlight on the issue may have played a role in the timing of the new rule, but it is just as likely that the series wants to insure all wheels stay on the auto entering Talladega SuperSpeedway.
NASCAR issued a memo to teams outlining severe penalties should all five lug nuts not be properly secured beginning this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway. “I would be perfectly content if they just lined us up and started another 400-lap race right now”, Stewart said while standing by his auto on pit road.
Rodney Childers – who is crew chief for Kevin Harvick’s No. 4 Chevrolet, part of the Stewart-Haas Racing stable – tweeted ‘All the years of hitting 5, and hardly ever was all 20 on post race. Childers noted that rarely does his vehicle end a race with all 20 lug nuts still attached. Safety is an area we do not take lightly, as our record has clearly indicated.
The rule also applies to the Camping World Truck Series and XFINITY Series. “It’s as simple as that”.
Ironically, Stewart was fined $35,000 for his comments but now days later NASCAR, after opening dialogue with teams in the last few days, has chose to amend the rule.
“Since the drivers are now questioning it, it’s time for us to kind of re-evaluate our position and work with the community on looking at possibly different ways to enforce the pit road rules”, Miller said. If we can make an adjustment to make things safer, we just simply will.
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“They’re just trying to get it right and we’re trying to get it right”, France said. We have for 60 years and we will always sort out â especially when it comes to safety. “That’s job one for us”.
