Should NASCAR Enact New Rules To Avoid Car, Crew Contact After Sonoma Incident?

Bob Pockrass

FOX Motorsports Insider

The Ty Gibbs pit road incident with Brad Keselowski’s crew at Sonoma has been compared to brushback pitch, as Gibbs hit a tire being carried by a member of Keselowski’s crew when coming in for his pit stop.

Except when a race car is involved, even if the concept is the same, the optics are worse and the consequences have a higher percentage of resulting in injury.

Gibbs drove through the Keselowski pit box, as he is allowed to do since Keselowski wasn’t in his pit. A driver can drive through three empty pit boxes on the way to their own pit stall.

The tire carrier, Telvin McClurkin, was carrying two tires and standing in his pit box, which he is allowed to do. Anyone carrying two tires or one tire plus a jack or pit gun is considered a dual-purpose crew member.

The rule reads: “The dual-purpose crew member must be positioned close to the pit wall until the vehicle is one pit box away from its assigned pit box.”

There is no definition of what close means. That’s ultimately a NASCAR judgment call. And my guess is that if you got 10 people in a room and asked them to draw a line of where close is, there would be more than a few lines.

So McClurkin didn’t do anything wrong. Did he hug the wall? No. Was he as far out as other tire carriers have been on stops? Not by a long shot.

But there is also a rule on interference: “Any crew member, equipment or tire/wheel interfering with another crew’s pit stop, causing the other team to incur a penalty or not, may incur a penalty.”

Did McClurkin interfere with Gibbs? Did Gibbs interfere with McClurkin, considering Keselowski was about to come in?

They both, according to the rules, pretty much had a right to be where they were. NASCAR didn’t call any penalties.

Ty Gibbs during the NASCAR Cup Series Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway

It isn’t rare for tire carriers and tire changers to do what they can to mess up another driver’s stop, whether it is swinging wide and daring the driver to hit them or the tire they are carrying. And it isn’t rare for a driver who feels a pit crew member is trying to take up too much space to get as close as possible to them.

Drivers have an incredible responsibility. But crew members also know that cars are coming. And when they do a pit stop with their own cars, they are instructed that they had better be out of the way when the driver is told to go or else they will get run over.

It appears both sides could have given a little more room. Did they have to?

No.

“There’s a lot of gamesmanship in how things work,” three-time Cup champion Joey Logano said. “I can only talk from my personal experiences. You don’t want to put someone in danger of hurting you. With that said, [I’m] guilty, been there. We’ve all made mistakes.

“We’ve all done maybe the wrong thing at times, but I think when you look at these pit crew guys, it’s not only their life but it’s their livelihood on top of that. It’s how they make money for their family and the last thing you want to do is hurt one of them. Everyone’s got to work together a little bit on pit road, especially when it’s tight scenarios like that.”

Brad Keselowski drives during the NASCAR Cup Series Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma

Maybe there is a simple answer. There are lines on the track to which a driver must adhere if there is a car in the box so they don’t hit any crew members. Should there be a line that limits how far a dual-purpose crew member can go beyond the wall before their car comes into the pit?

Except that isn’t a simple answer.

If there’s a line, it would have to be officiated by the pit road camera system. And would that line be for feet or for any equipment/tires the crew member has? And is that line only in play if there is a car coming in to pit using their box as one of the three boxes on the way to their stall?

This is one area where NASCAR likely hopes the teams and crew members can police themselves. Which has been fine and will be fine … until a crew member gets hurt and NASCAR is forced into action.

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.