NASCAR.com’s Kenny Bruce reported on Tuesday that starting this weekend in Texas, technology will be available that will allow the sanctioning body to quickly send videos of pit infractions directly to the pit boxes in the Sprint Cup Series. Such a move would allow teams to be able to figure out their mistakes more quickly. In addition, bandwidth will be made available starting at Charlotte next month for teams to get access to said videos in their garage stalls.
The video will now be sent to the laptop at the crew chief’s disposal nearly as soon as the penalty occurs. No mention was made of similar technology being made available on Xfinity and Camping World Truck series pit boxes. However, since both of those series are using the new electronic Pit Road Officiating system as well as Sprint Cup, such a system could be instituted in those series in the future.
The benefit of such a move is that it evens up the playing field, especially with some teams not having the unlimited funds of the super teams.
“It’s leveling the playing field for all of pit road, which we’ve seen is a good thing,” said Richard Buck, Managing Director for the Sprint Cup Series. “We’re getting a lot of kudos in the garage area for the use of it and how it operates.”
Previously, the videos were sent to the team’s haulers. Some of the teams have the ability to forward said videos to their pit box, but not all of them. As a result, those teams who cannot forward said videos directly to the pit box would have to send someone back to the hauler to view the video or videos. However, pit road is a very busy place even when no pit stops are taking place. There might not be time to sprint back to the hauler, especially for smaller teams. Instead, teams would either be dependent on FOX airing footage from the roof-mounted cameras showing the infraction on the live broadcast, or grilling NASCAR officials to find out what got them penalized. The officials posted behind the wall today may not have information about individual penalties like they did under the old system when the pit officials called the penalties themselves.
In addition to the immediate crew chief videos for this weekend, more bandwidth will be made available starting at Charlotte next month for teams to get access to said videos in their garage stalls as well. The goal is to eliminate questions about why teams are being penalized.
About the author
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.
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