The two main issues that keep coming up this season are establishing the running order when NASCAR freezes the field for a caution flag and the opening and closing of pit road. On Friday NASCAR president Mike Helton announced rule changes that would hopefully help both of those situations.
One Rule Worked
The first change seems to have worked well. This was instead of NASCAR using video tape and eyewitness accounts to attempt to establish the running order the instant the yellow flag is displayed NASCAR scoring now reverts back to the last scoring loop that the driver passed over before the yellow flag came out.
These scoring loops are electronic devices that pick up the transponders that are attached to each car and transmits the exact moment that the car passed that line. There are typically a dozen or more of these scoring loops around the track. Computer software then compiles that data to compute the running order at any given moment in time. NASCAR has been testing this system for quite a while and now finally feels confident to entrust its timing and scoring decisions to it.
This means that when the yellow comes out the computer has already determined the correct running order based on the last time each driver crossed a loop. Given the number of loops around the track this data is never more than a second or two old. This system should help prevent long race delays caused by confusion in NASCAR timing and scoring like we saw in Dover a couple of weeks ago.
One Needs More Tweaking
The second change was an attempt to shorten the average length of the yellow flag periods. Previously the drivers would drive around just slightly above caution speed until they caught up with the pacecar and then pit road would be opened for the lead lap cars to pit. Starting with Pocono the pits were to be opened the second time that the leader came past the pit opening, regardless of when they caught up with the pace car. This rule change still needs some tweaks.
In Pocono this week apparently there was some confusion over where exactly then-leader Jimmie Johnson was on the track when the caution waved. He was near the entrance to pit road so apparently some officials thought that the pits would open the next time he came around while others thought that it would be the following lap.
There was a great deal of confusion even among NASCAR officials which resulted in most of the field pitting while leader Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth and a few others stayed on the track believing that pit road was not yet open. By pitting one lap later these drivers came out behind all of the cars that pitted before them.
After the race NASCAR admitted that there was a problem but did not have any way to correct it because they couldn't predict the correct running order after the pit stops. Just giving Johnson the lead isn't necessarily fair and how do you decide where he should be?
Fortunately Johnson restarted the race in sixth and managed to still win easily so the error had no direct effect on the outcome. However, this is still an issue that NASCAR will need to look at further.
An Evolution
NASCAR has said for a long time that the rules were an evolutionary process. They try something and see if it works. If it does then great, but if it doesn't then they tweak it until it does.
In general NASCAR does an excellent job of providing a fair playing field and ensuring that the rules are applied consistently and fairly. Mistakes will occur from time to time and that's only normal. The important thing, and you can always count on NASCAR for this, is that any mistake that they make only ever happens once and then they fix the problem.
So the tweaking will continue until they get it right.
