Another Nascar Question?

Question

Why can't drivers pit whenever they want? I guess what I am saying is why is pit road closed sometimes?

Answer 1

binky got it right. if a caution comes out and the leader is in turn 1, he would have to go all the way around the track before getting on pit road, where as let's say the 4th place guy might be in turn 4 when the caution comes out, he would just be able to duck down onto pit road, so he would get to pit before the leader, see? kinda like what kurt busch tried to do at watkins glen a few weeks ago. that would be an unfair advantage, so pit road is closed as soon as a caution comes out until the pace car can gather the field so everyone has an opportunity to pit at the same time.

Answer 2

They can pit whenever they want, but this is a team effort so it has to be a team decision. But, they can pit pretty much any time during a race It is all stragity when to pit. Pit road is usually only closed 1 lap when a caution first comes out. Other than that they would only close pit road due to debris or an accident.

Answer 3

pit road is closed when a caution flies for mainly one reason. it is for safety reasons. if they are cleaning stuff up after an accident they allow the safety crews and damaged cars to get behind the wall safely w/o 40 some cars and teams trying to change 4 tires and fill up in 14 second in there.. pit road is small and crazy enough with evryone coming in and out at the same time that having a safety team try to get in and out will only make things worse..

but other than that.. teams can pretty much pit when they want...based on all of there analyis and whatnot of when they need to.. however, a few weeks ago at indy the restricted the pits b/c they had competition yellow's and wanted to even out the field a bit more..

Answer 4

When the caution comes out, they close pit road to allow all of the cars to stack up behind the pace car. This is to prevent a mad dash into the pits, which is more likely to cause a wreck or injury to the drivers or crewmembers.

If you are already in the pits when they become closed, then there is no penalty imposed.

Answer 5

Safety, and entertainment are the biggest part, but also if you are going to have 35+ cars going to pit road all at once you need to give the NASCAR officals and pit crews a lap or two to get in position so no one can do anything shady. Just my opinion though.

Answer 6

They can. They try not to pit until everyone else does so they don't go one lap down. Pit road is closed when an accident or debris is in the way of the pit road entrance.

Answer 7

Safety has to be only real reason. Part of the reason, too, is that NASCAR likes the entertainment of the pit stops after the field gets bunched up.

To be honest, it doesn't make sense to me why the yellow flag pit stops have to be such a factor in a race. It only takes contact between two cars while bunched in the pits to ruin a team's day.

Answer 8

Because it's too dangerous for one or a few cars to drive into pit row while a race is going on.

Especially in Indianapolis or other tracks where pit row is located on a hairpin turn !

Also, it could possibly give advantage to certain drivers who stop any time they want.

Answer 9

it is usually only closed for safety reasons, like if there was a caution because someone wrecked near the entrance to pit road or something.

Answer 10

it is a safety issue when the caution is out it also lets all the car's group up on the first lap of the caution. plus the fan's like the action on pit road.