Dale Earnhardt Jr discusses NASCAR’s standardized crew limits

Dale Earnhardt Jr: “It’s weird. I don’t know how they’re going to police this.”

NASCAR made a big announcement last week. They have standardized the road crews. Meaning, teams will no longer be able to bring an unlimited number of crew members to the race track.

2018 NASCAR Road Crews: MENCS (12); NXS (7); NCWTS (6)

In addition, the over the wall crews have been reduced. Instead of 6 guys of the wall, it will be reduced to 5.

Related: NASCAR standardizes road crews, pit stop rule adjustments

Dale Earnhardt Jr has retired as a full time NASCAR Cup Series driver. However, he’s still owner of JR Motorsports. He fields the multi-car team in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

Road Crew

“Yeah, this is a big deal,” Dale Earnhardt Jr states via the Dale Jr download.

“I don’t know how they really plan to regulate how big your road crew is. I mean, there’s a lot of freakin’ people that fly to the race track for HMS.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr press conference
Dale Earnhardt Jr

Beyond road crews, teams have a full stack of people that come to the race track. Beyond crew members, there are employee’s that handle PR, sponsorship and host of other responsibilities.

“It’s weird. I don’t know how they’re going to police this.”

Each road crew roster will need to be submitted a week ahead of the event. Those crew members will then be required to wear a number throughout the duration of the weekend.

The number will be displayed both on uniforms as well as on NASCAR issued arm bands to “identify their duties.”

“Yeah, I wonder if this will last very long. It’s strange. I wonder where this really came from? Is this something that the owners wanted to try to control costs?”

“It effects a lot of things. The main thing’s salaries. It takes a lot of salaries off the table. Also, travel, airfare, hotels. Those things are major expenses for the teams. Across the industry, this saves a ton of money.”

If teams have the money their going to spend it.

-Dale Earnhardt Jr

“I won’t be surprised if the road crew, as far as the roster becomes a non-story on into the season. I think this will be confusing and difficult and forgotten. If teams have the money their going to spend it.”

Related: Dale Earnhardt Jr on NASCAR Rules, ““I think you maybe just leave them alone for awhile”

Elliott Sadler - JR Motorsports pit stop
Elliott Sadler – JR Motorsports pit stop

Pit Crew

“The pit crew thing, it’s here to stay,” Dale Earnhardt Jr states.

“There is a guy on every team, that is not happy about this. That’s his livelihood and his job and he’s losing it.”

“But, it will make the pit stops a little more interesting to watch. The guys will have to find ways to make those stops faster.”

“I think they’ll find ways to cut that speed back down.”

Related: Getting fired led to a NASCAR career for Dale Jr

William Byron - JR Motorsports pit stop
William Byron – JR Motorsports pit stop
Standard Gun

“The standard gun will be quite a bit slower than the guns they’ve been developing.”

“The standardized guns are also going to cost the teams several thousand dollars, per year. Not every team in the garage is spending millions of dollars developing these guns.”

We weren’t spending money on guns.

-Dale Earnhardt Jr

“Now, they’re going to be asked to buy this standardized gun and use it. [For JR Motorsports], we weren’t spending money on guns. Now we’re gunna have to spend money on guns.”

“Does this create a level playing field? Where your not getting beat, by a gun.”

“We’ll always find ways to get into the technology side of the story. This maybe draws it back, a little bit. Toward, putting it in the hands of the actual tire guys. It comes down to the individuals themselves.”

Related: NASCAR pit stop guns could become standardized (October 2017)

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