NASCAR alters penalty for lug nut and Laser Inspection violations

NASCAR announced Wednesday increased penalties, including not allowing a win to count toward advancement in the Chase, for teams that fail the Laser Inspection Station by a significant amount or do not have enough lug nuts secure at the end of the race.

The changes are effective immediately. Teams are scheduled to receive the bulletin on this at 4 p.m. ET. Only the Sprint Cup and Xfinity Series use the Laser Inspection Station after the race. The lug nut policy would be for all three national series.

If a winning team fails the Laser Inspection Station by a significant amount or has more than three of 20 lug nuts not secure after the race, it will still keep the win but be penalized so severely that it could hurt their chances of advancing in the Chase or making the Chase.

In such cases, NASCAR would declare an encumbered race finish.

An encumbered race finish has the following effects, as applicable:

If a win, that finish would not count when determining Chase eligibility, eligibility for advancement in the Chase, eligibility for non-championship events such as the Unlimited and All-Star Race.
Regardless of the finishing position, that finish does not count when determining the champion and three runners-up in the final race of the Chase; tie-breakers in Section 17 and as those tie-breakers may be applied relative to finishing positions elsewhere
An encumbered race finish is not a disqualification.
The finishing position is still shown on the Official Results
A team would face such penalties if more than three of the 20 lug nuts on its car were not secure at the end of the race. In such a case, a team also would face a $65,000 fine, loss of 35 driver and owner points and the crew chief will be suspended three races.

With the Laser Inspection Station, if the rear toe is equal to or greater than 0.86 on one side and equal to and greater than 0.56 on the opposite side, it would be a P4 penalty and the team would face a $65,000 fine, loss of 35 driver and owner points and the crew chief would be suspended three races.

“We want to ensure that everything was in check with the LIS and the lug nuts, which are both new rules for this year,’’ said Scott Miller, senior vice president of competition for NASCAR, on the increased penalties. “We wanted to make sure that the door wasn’t open for a team to really take advantage of the rules. The level of infraction that it takes to end up with an encumbered finish, we haven’t seen that. It would certainly be egregious from everything we’ve seen before. We want to get these things in place to ensure we have a level playing field and nobody tries to take advantage of the current rules.’’

One change NASCAR announced was a lessening of a penalty. Previously, a team’s crew chief was suspended for one race if the team had one lug nut not secure after the race. Now, a crew chief won’t be suspended unless there are two of the 20 lug nuts on the car not secure.

“That was kind of a one-tier approach to assure that the garage area complied with a pretty serious penalty for a crew chief suspension,’’ Miller said of the previous penalty. “As we looked at a more global approach and deeper, what we proposed here and what we enacted here is a lot more the penalty fitting the crime.’’

Rodney Childers on loose or missing lug nuts: ‘no way around it’

Shortly after the news that Kyle Busch‘s crew chief, Adam Stevens, was the first to be suspended for violating NASCAR’s revised lug nut rule, a peer chimed in on the rule.

Rodney Childers, crew chief for Kevin Harvick (the runner-up to Busch at Kansas Speedway), lamented the suspension of Stevens on Twitter. Childers said “there is no way around” a lug nut being loose or falling off at some point in a race.

NASCAR’s rule book states all five lug nuts on a wheel must be fastened in a “safe and secure manner at all times during the event.”

The revised lug nut rule was issued on April 25, prior to the race weekend at Talladega Superspeedway.

Stevens is the third Sprint Cup crew chief to be suspended this year. Cole Pearn, crew chief for Martin Truex Jr., was suspended for the race weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for a roof flap violation at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Nick Sandler, chew chief for Ricky Stenhouse Jr., was suspended for the Talladega race for an “improper steering wheel coupler” found during the prior race weekend at Richmond International Raceway.

NASCAR Chairman Brian France explains why Tony Stewart was fined

Tony Stewart said Sunday that he wasn’t sure why he was fined $35,000 last week by NASCAR after comments he made about officials not requiring teams to tighten all five lug nuts on each wheel.

NASCAR Chairman Brian France told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Monday that Stewart’s fine was based on what he said and how he said it.

“Tony has been very aware of how we approach from a criticism standpoint of the sport and the product of the racing itself and safety is paramount,’’ France told host Dave Moody. “Tony is very aware of how we look at that.’’

After a spate of loose wheels earlier this month, Stewart told reporters last week that “for all the work and everything, all the bulletins and all the new stuff we have to do to superspeedway cars and all these other things they want us to do for safety, we can’t even make sure we put five lug nuts on the wheel.

“It’s not even mandatory anymore. I mean, you don’t have to have but one on there if you don’t want. It’s however many you think you can get away with. So we’re putting the drivers in jeopardy to get track position. …  With all the crap we’re going through with all the safety stuff, and for them to sit there and sit on their hands on this one.”

France explained on “SiriusXM Speedway” how Stewart crossed the line.

“I think we have to make judgment calls and how we look at the tone of what someone says, how they’re saying it,’’ France said. “They have ample opportunities, particularly with safety, to deal with us directly on that. But to insinuate that we’re taking the sport down a road that doesn’t care about safety or we’re trying to hurt people, those kind of comments, that goes to the integrity of the sport and we’ll have to deal with that. We go way beyond what any other league would allow in terms of how far people can go in voicing their view.

“There’s just a little line out there that is a bright line and everybody is aware of. Every once in a while we’ll have a driver or somebody else that gets over that line and we’ll just have to deal with it. It’s not a big thing. We deal with it. They understand it and we move on. That’s how it goes.’’

NASCAR announced Monday it was updating its rules on lug nuts immediately.