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Arm's length? Whose arm? A tire sitting still is "uncontrolled"?? In what way?

Hamlin angling to change to NASCAR's uncontrolled tire rules

Image by Kinrade/LAT


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By: Kelly Crandall | July 4, 2019 11:49 AM


Denny Hamlin said Joe Gibbs Racing team officials will be meeting with NASCAR at some point today to discuss uncontrolled tire penalties.

Hamlin was penalized for the infraction last weekend in Chicago. After having to go to the rear of the field, Hamlin said he endure the challenge of trying to fight through the pack with the new aero package and also damaged his car while battling for position. He finished 15th.

“I think the team officials, they’ve showed me emails that they have prepared of multiple pit stops, just from last week, that are identical or more egregious than ours, and nothing gets called,” said Hamlin. “Is it just because they just so happen to be looking at you (that) you get judged, or whatever it may be. It’s hard for me to believe that inside the system it flags you when a tire is not moving.

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“It just seems like wherever their eyeballs are at on that particular stop is who gets especially looked at. But we have multiple video evidence of other pit stops from other race teams that are identical. You cannot draw a difference between them and no penalty. So, that’s my compliant… it is a judgement call. It’s not black-and-white. There is no line. It’s not a line that gets crossed.”

Hamlin would like to see the penalties changed this season, and argued it doesn’t just affect his team. To the Cup Series veteran, an uncontrolled tire is when the tire rolls across pit road, and not when it is sitting inside the pit box.

A tire is considered to be uncontrolled when a crew member is not within arm’s length of the tire. A tire also cannot roll into another pit box. Pit road violations are monitored through the officiating trailer, with each pit stall watched via high-definition cameras.

“I don’t know what they can change, but certainly would like to see a change,” said Hamlin. “I think rules have to evolve, and this is not about us in particular. I made a comment (on Twitter) and it’s got 3,000 likes, 500 retweets, 300 comments, so it touches the fan base. These are people that aren’t Denny fans; they just don’t get it. If they don’t get it at home, then it’s probably not a rule that needs to be in place in the Cup series, because you can’t explain it to them.

“It’s hard to explain when a tire is just sitting there that it’s uncontrolled. It’s not moving. It is controlled. I don’t know the answer, and I don’t know how to fix it. They’re pretty smart, and I’m sure they can make adjustments to fix it to make it a little more simple.

“But overall, everyone’s arms are a different length. So, what is an arm’s length? Do they have some kind of technology that says ‘OK this distance from the tire changer to the tire is more than an arm’s length ,and they can pull a measuring out and they can measure it?’ I don’t know, but that’s just too much rules. Too many things that can change the outcome of a race. We had earned our spot up front.

“That’s the crappy part about it – we earned our position up there and then you have to go to the back and in today’s racing, it’s harder than that ever to be able to come back. It’s virtually impossible to be able to come back now, no matter how fast your car is because everyone is running so much wide-open throttle. It changes your race; it changes how you are going to finish.

“It’s up to us to play by the rules that have been given to us, let’s be clear about that, but we think we are doing that. Sometimes, that judgement call doesn’t go your way and it’s been multiple times this year, that we don’t know what we could have done differently, and we are going to need that explanation so that we don’t do it again.”

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NASCAR tweaks tire change rules

Image by Gavin Baker/LAT


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By: RACER Staff | 4 hours ago


NASCAR has made a pair of rule changes affecting tire handling during pit stops.

The first change, effective this weekend at Pocono Raceway, relates to “uncontrolled tires” during stops. Crew members will no longer required to be within an arm’s length when controlling tires. Tires will be considered uncontrolled and the related car subject to a penalty if they create a safety issue or interfere/impede another competitor’s pit stop.

• Safety issues include but are not limited to tires rolling into the traffic lane of pit road.
• Tires may not be bounced or thrown at any time.
• Tires may be rolled from the outside half of the pit box to the pit wall, providing they do not create a safety issue or interfere/impede another competitor’s pit stop.
• Once tires are returned to the inside half of the pit box they may not roll back to the outside half of the pit box.
• Tires, servicing equipment and crew members may not interfere or impede with another team’s pit stop. Tires contacting a vehicle while being carried to the outside half of the pit box may be considered a no call.
• The penalty for an uncontrolled tire under green flag conditions will be a pass through, with the associated car starting at the tail end of the field under caution conditions.

The tires must still be returned from the outside half of the pit box in a controlled manner before the vehicle exits the pit box. This adjustment focuses enforcement on preventing a safety hazard rather than the subjective “arm’s length” criteria.

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Meanwhile, starting at the following weekend’s race at Watkins Glen, when teams perform a four-tire stop, they will be required to change the outside tires first. If a team mistakenly changes the inside tires first and subsequently changes the outside tires during the same pit stop, they will be subject to a penalty.

The penalty for changing inside tires first during a four-tire stop will be a pass through under green-flag conditions and dropping to the tail end of the field for the restart under caution.




NASCAR, Rule Changes, Tire Changes, NASCAR

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Hamlin pleased by NASCAR's tire change rule tweaks

Image by Nigel Kinrade/LAT


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By: Kelly Crandall | 14 hours ago


Denny Hamlin said he’s “really happy” with NASCAR getting back to the basics by eliminating the arm’s length requirement for uncontrolled tires.

NASCAR officials announced the change on Wednesday. It had been a hotly debated rule that often led to multiple penalties on race weekends — and one Hamlin and his team met with officials about earlier this month to voice concerns about.

“I think they knew with this whole arm’s length rule they were putting themselves in a box, and it was a very subjective box,” Hamlin told RACER during a round of media calls Friday morning to promote his FedEx paint scheme for Watkins Glen. “It had to do with who makes the call and what’s the opinion of that person who is making the call. It is not a black and white, here’s the line, you’re over the line. It was an opinion, judgment call. And they did not want to be in that box.

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“Every one of our issues has been uncontrolled tires, to speak in terms of penalties, which those are the real killers,” he said. “One second, two second slow (pit) stops, those aren’t fun, but they don’t absolutely cripple you the way a penalty does when you have to come back down pit road. So as far as that stuff goes, I think a couple of the uncontrolled tire calls were really close ones and certainly under the new letter of the law would go away, if not all of them.

So from that point of view, I think all the crew chiefs will rest a little bit easier as our car comes down pit road knowing it won’t be such a tight judgment call determining whether or not a tire gets away, because often times those are the penalties we’re talking about.

“As far as our pit crew speed, they have really been improving a lot over the last several races. I’m really excited about that. The group is working really hard, they gel really well together, so I actually look for good things to come out of them.”

(As long as NASCAR doesn't screw you over with time penalties like the sports car guys.)
https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/p...ml#post9422952



Denny Hamlin, Penalty, Tire Changes, NASCAR