NASCAR pit equipment rules adjusted

Cole Pearn: “Pretty much taking the piss out of everything these days”

In 2017, the five minute crash clock went into effect in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. No longer could teams gather crews from multiple cars and assemble the old 35 crew member repair session in the garage area.

Now, the repairs must be made at the pit stall of pit road. Repairs must also be made by members of the same car. A Stewart-Haas Racing crew member for Kevin Harvick cannot help or work over the wall on the #14 unless that member is listed on both crew rosters.

On top of the crash clock, the number of men over the wall was reduced. The number of crew members that could go over the wall to make repairs was reduced from 6 to 5 at the start of the 2018 racing season.

Last year, too many men over the wall resulted in immediate disqualification. That happened to Matt Kenseth at Kansas Speedway in 2017. This year, the penalty for the same infraction has been reduced to just a two-lap penalty.

NASCAR also helped the teams out by adding an additional minute to the crash clock for the 2018 season. It jumped from 5 minutes to 6 minutes in light of one less member being allowed over the wall.

All of those things combined require rapid fire pit work when it comes to fixing a car. If a car is crashed, they have 6 men and 6 minutes to fix it enough to meet minimum speed. If a car doesn’t meet minimum speed after the 6 minute clock expires then the team is disqualified.

Erik Jones skated off the bottom and across the nose of Jamie McMurray off turn 2 at Talladega Superspeedway. They collected Trevor Bayne who came shooting back across the track and into the right front of Martin Truex Jr.

Furniture Row Racing was prepared like we’ve haven’t seen before. From the pit box came a huge saw. Why use a little saw when the big one’s get the job done much quicker?

Well, now there’s a reason why not.

Section 21.2.a: “Teams may only use traditional battery powered equipment to repair a vehicle on the service side of the pit wall. Traditional battery powered equipment includes, but is not limited to, reciprocating saws, rivet guns, screw guns, and drills. Any other equipment may only be used at the discretion of the Series Managing Director.”

“Pretty much taking the piss out of everything these days,” Cole Pearn reacted to the new pit equipment rule.

NASCAR issued new rules regarding qualifying tires on Wednesday. In addition, there were also some new rules regarding pit equipment. Specifically, these rules were basically created to eliminate the type of equipment we saw Furniture Row Racing use at Talladega.

However, DeWalt does have a battery powered concrete saw. It’s called the DeWalt DCS690. It made it’s debut at the 2018 World of Concrete and is set to be in stores any day now with a Spring 2018 release.

This new pit equipment rule will be applied to the MENCS, NXS and NCWTS.

Watch the video below as Furniture Row Racing brought out what appeared to be a concrete saw at Talladega Superspeedway.

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Related: NASCAR updated rule regarding qualifying tires

Related: 2018 pit stop rules updated with team rosters

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Furniture Row Racing | NASCAR

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