NBS Daytona: Good Race, Awful Pitting

[lepage71]

First of all, I would like to thank every driver for good on-track racing. Despite the Daytona start/finish line, overall we had a good clean race. Even better, 15 of 17 cars finished the race.

Now...pitting was another animal. The pit stops that I saw are simply unacceptable. We will not be penalizing anyone this first race for pit infractions, so I want everyone to learn from these mistakes.

You are supposed to be at the track's pit lane speed BEFORE entering pit road. Daytona was 55 MPH.

Lap 3 - viagra6car...entrance at 87 MPH

Lap 14 - Scrooluice...entrance at 107 MPH

Lap 14 - Haulinace...entrance at 102 MPH

Lap 14 - camry...entrance at 68 MPH, the main problem here was that you mowed down half of the grass on the entrance...very poor entrance

Lap 14 - TommyW...entrance at 89 MPH...this was another terrible stop where you got more grass than pavement, as well as going way over speed limit

Lap 17 - Proverb flew off apron on to track

Lap 28 - the worst pit of the race...Scrooluice came down way too fast onto apron and took himself out, flying back onto the front stretch...fortunately did not hit anyone on the track...spoiled a solid top-5 run here

Lap 28 - Haulinace....101 MPH

Lap 30 - camry...157 MPH...I was really scratching my head over this one, 88...it did not even look like you had any intention of hitting the brakes, you roared on to pit road wide open...a ridiculous infraction, you know better (if we were penalizing this might have been a 25-pointer)

Lap 42 - Haulinace...86 MPH...third time you have sped in this race

Another bad thing is that I probably missed 5 or 6 violations.

We will be penalizing all violations at Rockingham. I really want to see the pitting cleaned up, big time.

kyle4445, chipperj, guru23, BBFF_Johnny, efgordon, Vermonstar, razerback, and Ramrock41 were very good on their pit stops. Good job guys! It is no coincidence that the race winner (kyle) was one who was careful going in to the pits. Most of the pitting violators messed themselves up by illegally pitting.

Consider this a warning for next race...pit legally or face the penalties.

[sledge4]

Yeah, the 2nd stop was stupid on my part.

I thought i was depressing the brake, but I was actually pushing between the brake and gas....oops. LOL!!!! I need to run some more practice with the pedals today before tonights race.

There was no intention there.

Am I wrong or can't there be black flags for speeders? I thought there was when we did some testing with it last season. This way a penalty is handed down then, instead of later.

Again sorry!!!
See you guys tonight.
Will

[IMDEDXX]

good race kyle! you are the man on the plate tracks! good luck to you all and have a great season. alot of heavy hitters in this league so it should be another great points race. cyas.

ded

[kyle4445]

well i;ve taken some days to think about this ...and you didn;t penalize people for daytona for speeding to pitroad ..1. these people are not rookie they have raced here before they know about the penalty for speeding..2. they were warned before the race what the speedlimit was..3. the people that did pit correctly are basically being penalized cause points are so important for the championship..for instance rookie pitted correctly all nite but he overran his pit he finished 11th by others getting points deducted ..he now is closer in points to some others ..also bbff johnny who had misfortunes but pitted correctly and finished 17 th he would also be closer in points ...if this were a new league and no-one had raced in it before thats one thing but these are guys who all knew going into this the rules ..and were told at beginning of the race..i think penaltys should be given out that could be the difference of someone winning the championship or finishing in the top 5

[lepage71]

I understand your concern, kyle. But we decided to give everyone the benefit of the doubt here because this was a bit of a warpy environment and the cars were a little wobbly getting to pit road.

In most cases, we did not see the illegal speeding gain anyone much of an advantage. On other tracks, though, you would see quite an advantage. For instance, Rookiesrock finished in 11th (which is not all that bad out of 19) because he ran out of gas, which killed his top-3 run. On other cases, drivers were going 20 mph over the limit, which only saves you about 5 tenths or so. Most of the time the draft just made up any lost or gained time.

And like we said above, pitting seemed to mess everyone up rather than help them. A lot of cars spun out on pit road because the pit road speed pulls you down 30 mph and often causes loss of control or traction.

As far as championship points are concerned, the field was very spread out, except for the top-4. In most cases drivers were 10-15 seconds apart. So any speeding they did probably did not gain them all that much as far as the finishing order is concerned.

[TommyW 21 and 28]

I would like to say on the time I was speeding cause I didnt slow down fast enough on lap 14 or 15, which ever it was. I didn't have a pit crew so I had to go all the way back around the track and come back in the pits to make my stop. LUCKLY I didnt run out of gas, if that would of happened I would have been in the same position as rookie. I admit I screwed up one time but mistakes happen and that is racin....................................................................

Tommy

#21 Air Force Taurus
#28 Havoline Ram

[efgordon]

in the future will the penalties for speeding on pit road only apply when it "could have" effected the finishing order? or is it like figuring out what a major league strike zone is on any given night depending on the mood of the ump? seems to me one could eliminate ALL the SPECULATION and take himself completely OUT of the proccess and protect himself from ANY drivers opinion by simply turning on the black flag and making the whole deal black and white. sure it will take a few to drive home the point, and yea it might ruin someones good run (just ask biffle) but in the long run, it would produce a level of consistancy that humans just dont have. he he thats just my 2 cents.

efgordon.

[efgordon]

i know it sounds crazy, but what would happen if someone in the cup series read this thread here in the busch forum and figures he didnt need to follow the speed limit for daytona because either it wouldent make much difference in the finishing order, or the abuses would be so wide spread that you would issue a "final warning"? i am not trying to sound like a jack*** here, but i am just being honest when i say that exact thing crossed my mind when i was thinking i would be available to sub. i can only hope my concious would have kept me from speeding. he he ok sry, so i had 3 cents to add.

I WONT SPEED ON PIT ROAD, AND IF I DO, I EXPECT TO BE PENALIZED.

[lepage71]

Never said I was giving CUP allowance to speed...

All I can really say is that penalties will be issued for all speeding from here on out. I am not sure what is here to debate, but go ahead lol.

Bottom line, just follow the rules.

[kyle4445]

sorry wasn;t trying to start a big debate my point was ...if someone scores lets say 130 points but sped 2 times on pit road no matter where he finished for sake of arguement ...and someone scored 120 ...but pitted correctly he would then get the same amount of points even though he finished behind that other person ..in which then puts him the same amount of points behind the leader or the next place ...like i said before these are not rookies they;ve been here before ..so if i have a bad race at nc ..that puts them guys that much closer where had they been penalized they may not be so close ..just my thoughts ..so if only a couple people did it they would have been penalized ,but since so many did now they won;t hmmmmm

[Haulinace007]

I guess we all know who runs the league and who makes all the decisions about penalties. I sped and I would expect to be penalized for it. But lepage didn't penalize anyone so thats his decision. I'm not going to worry about what anyone else did, just me. Good Luck at THE ROCK GUYS!!!!!!!!!

[rookiesrock8]

Kinda early for this but I think a group hug is in order.

BBFF member