NASCAR not requiring drivers to use access road entering pits at Homestead

By Bob Pockrass - Associate Editor

Sunday, November 22, 2009

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HOMESTEAD, Fla. – NASCAR drivers have been getting used to a slightly new Homestead-Miami Speedway rule this weekend – the way they enter pit road.

Drivers in the past had to use the access road (which serves mostly as a deceleration lane) between turns 3 and 4 but now they enter pit road as they do on most tracks when they come off of Turn 4.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Director John Darby said Sunday that a pass-through penalty in the past would cost a driver two laps because he would have to slow down on the access road. He noted that in the Truck series race Friday, a pass-through for Kyle Busch resulted in him losing one lap, much like it would at most other tracks.

“Part of it is trying to create a more fair environment for the competitors,” Darby said in the Homestead-Miami Speedway garage prior to the Ford 400. “There’s some tracks that a trip down pit road is going to be a two- or three-lap penalty – your Martinsvilles, your Bristols – but if we have the opportunity to make a change at a bigger track to make it more in line with the other tracks we race at, we should do that for the competitors.”

NASCAR never had a speed limit on that access road.

“If you drive slow [on it], it’s not a problem, but our competitors aren’t used to driving slow,” Darby said. “If you force them to use the access road, like we have in the past, then you get into situations where there is no speed limit on that portion – if you go too fast, you slide off, you wind up in the grass and you end up creating a bigger mess.”

Drivers can still use the access road entering the pits if they have a problem and they will still use the access road between turns 1 and 2 when exiting pit road.