Sneaking a peek at the NASCAR rule book

Well,it's more than a peak. This is my copy of the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup rule book. So, yes they do exist. Also for Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series. Yes, the ink is real. My secret decoder shows no invisible ink in there but still checking. LOL (Also, Jr. Motorsports announces Danica Patrick's Nationwide sked -- that's at the bottom of this blog)

Anyway, NASCAR had some media folks over at its R&D Center to go over the pit road rules for this season.

I'll go over a few things that were interesting.

# A change this season is that NASCAR is going to enforce speeding on pit road more. Remember when a wrecked car would come to pit road, the crew would furiously make repairs and the car would fire down pit road faster than the speed limit to stay on the lead lap? Speeding penalty was no big deal because it only put the driver at the rear of the field. He still got to stay on the lead lap. NEW THIS YEAR is that speeding is speeding. NASCAR will not allow such action again. What that means is that crews will have to complete their work sooner knowing they can't speed on pit road to stay on the lead lap.

# As in the past, teams are allowed a 4.99 mph allowance before being penalized for speeding on pit road. Thus, if pit road speed is 55 mph, they can go 59.99 mph without being penalized. Go 60 mph and it's a penalty.

# Another change this year is if a car is entering pit road or just entered pit road when the caution comes out (thus closing pit road), the driver can go down pit road (without stopping in his stall) while maintaining pit road speed and NASCAR will put the driver back in his spot when he entered pit road. There have been times guys entered pit road just as it closed because of a caution and never had a chance to react and all but had their day (or a good part of it) ruined with losing a lap. This is NASCAR's way of trying to help the drivers in those difficult situations.

# You know how sometimes guys have to come back to the pits for lugnut issues? Well, it's never because they're loose. The rule book says nothing about loose lug nuts (how could it? There's no way to check if they're tight or not). No, the rule book says that all 5 lug nuts must be installed (i.e. on the wheel) before the car takes out of its pit stall. So as long as 5 are on there, that's all it takes.

# You know how there are times when a NASCAR official in the pits will kick a tire back toward the pit wall and other times they don't? I often hear after that how NASCAR is favoring one team over the other. Here is what NASCAR tells its officials on those situations: If you (the official) don't have to move out of the way to knock the tire back, that is fine. If an official has to move out of position to do so, then let it go. The reasoning to allow officials to even knock the tire back is a safety issue. If an official can do so without getting out of position, then it prevents the tire from getting hit by a car and knocked back into that offficial or others on pit road. Plus, if an official moves out of position to get the tire, they may actually be putting themselves in greater harm by making the move.

# NASCAR penalizes drivers for running over air hoses, yet there are cases when a driver won't be penalized for doing so. Huh? Well, think of it this way: On a four-tire pit stop wher ethe front tire changer comes over to the left side, the air hose might not flip over completley away from the car. If the car runs over a small portion (small the key) then NASCAR more than likely will let it go. Now if, it's a two-tire stop and the car runs completely over the air hose as its stretched from the pit wall to the right side of the car, that's a penalty.

Those were a few of the things that stood out in the meeting.

As for Danica, here's here Nationwide schedule. It's 12 races but no decision has been made on Daytona. A car is entered for her should she feel comfortable to race it after her ARCA race.

Here's Danica Patrick's Nationwide schedule:

Feb. 20 -- Auto Club Speedway (California)

Feb. 27 -- Las Vegas Motor Speedway

June 26 -- New Hampshire Motor Speedway

July 9 -- Chicagoland Speedway

Aug. 14 -- Michigan International Speedway

Sept. 25 -- Dover International Speedway

Oct. 9 -- Auto Club Speedway (California)

Oct. 15 -- Charlotte Motor Speedway

Oct. 23 -- Gateway International Raceway

Nov. 6 -- Texas Motor Speedway

Nov. 13 -- Phoenix International Raceway

Nov. 20 -- Homestead-Miami Speedway

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