Pit road penalties played a massive part in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 in Las Vegas, as Kyle Busch was denied the chance at a weekend sweep after being caught speeding on pit road.
Earlier in the race, Kyle Larson and Austin Dillon were both penalized for having too many men over the wall during their pit stops in the first stage.
NASCAR limits the amount of of crew members each team is allowed to have in the pit box at any given time during a stop, and Larson exceeded the number by one because a crew member…. touched the ground with his hand.
Austin Dillon was hit with the same penalty, though footage revealed that the No. 3 crew actually did have too many men over the wall, if only accidentally.
In both of these cases, however, the respective driver gained no discernible advantage on the field, yet was hit with a massive penalty. As a result of the infraction, both drivers passed through the pits again, lost two laps on the field, and rejoined near the back of the field.
Larson was able to escape Las Vegas with another 12th-place finish, an impressive rebound given the situation, but he never should have been in that spot to begin with.
The restriction on the number of men over the wall is in place for good reasons, but officials should also have the leeway to determine on a case-by-case whether a “violation” is actually worthy of a draconian penalty. In Larson’s case, there was no safety concern, and clearly no advantage gained by having a crew member merely swipe the pavement. Many fans on Twitter argued that Larson’s team knew the rules and that there was no reason for the crew member to touch the ground, and that’s all true – but it’s also not justification for an unreasonably harsh system.
It’s fine if NASCAR wants to enforce the rules strictly, but it might be time to hand out different penalties based on the degree of the violation. If Larson’s team uses an extra tire changer to complete a pit stop a second faster than anyone else, then sure, give him a two-lap penalty. If an unrelated crew member touches the ground? Maybe that’s only worth a pass-through, or a drop to the end of the longest line.
