Penalties likely for JR Motorsports and Hendrick
Quote selected text Published November 3rd, 2007 in NASCAR News
NASCAR likely will levy additional penalties to the JR Motorsports and Hendrick Motorsports teams sent to the back at the start of the Busch Series race Saturday for lug nuts that did not meet specifications at Texas Motor Speedway.
The No. 88 team with driver Brad Keselowski and the No. 24 team with driver Casey Mears had to replace all of the lug nuts on the tires on the car as well as the on the tires in the pits after NASCAR had an issue with them.
Further penalties are anticipated, said NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp.
- Hendrick responds to penalties given to his team, considers appeal
- Hendrick drops plans to appeal Sonoma penalties
- Kyle Busch, Johnny Sauter: cars fail post-race inspection
- Hendrick says they have picked Jr’s sponsor
- Hendrick ready to leave the No 25 behind
LUG NUTS?
what can possibly be out of tolerance for lug nuts?
1 thread too few per inch? They weren’t yellow?
good greif.
That’s what I want to know… How the heck do you get lug nuts out of spec? Maybe they fabbed their own out of something other than what they were supposed to be? I seriously don’t get it!
steve wrote:
HAHA. That is interesting. I mean what advantage could they
possibly be? I really don’t think they would impact the
pit crew’s performance in changing/removing them.
I hope they state what the problem was.
They said some teams shave down the threads on lug nuts to make them eaiser to come off less roations, NASCAR probably finds that they did it to much and had to much of an advantage..
STIll dumb if you ask me.
That is awesome! LOL
omg, its the special lug nuts that deflate the tires!!!!!
It’s Hendrick! Those must be cheater lug nuts lol!
could it be a material difference? just speculation, but shaving weight on the wheels does much more than shaving weight on the body. if you made the lug nuts out of some light weight alloy, i suppose you could take several ounces of each wheel, with the wheels turning so fast, that loss in rotational inertia could certainly be an advantage.
Ounces dude ounces! The only possible difference they could make with a lug is just if it took a mila-second less to take one off. Making the pit stop faster but come on thats a stupid rule. Its almost like saying yes were going to penalize jr motorsports and hendrick for not wearing the right color gloves. Come on
You are all over looking something here. Did they meet safety regulations? It might not be a “cheating” thing, but a Safety thing.
Also NASCAR has rules saying the nuts have to be painted a bright color, and they have to weigh a certain weight. Belive it or not 5 lugnuts could have an effect on the inertia. 1 Ounce = 1/16 of a pound. Now each lugnut should way around 5 ounces. So 5 ounces per nut X 5 nuts per wheel = 1 pound 4 ounces per wheel. Now on 4 wheels that adds up to 5 pounds of MOVING weight. If they can get that 5 pounds down to even 4 pounds the car will handle diffrently.
yep the weight difference, especially being that it is rotational mass can make a huge difference when the cars run this closely
If it was safety regs, back off the feild and a warning. They’re just getting too nitpicky.
Fisha695 wrote:
This is the “right on answer folks”
It’s called unsprung weight and in racing it is a LOT. Its the same reason sports car racers use the extra light rims and lug nuts to remove as many lbs. & ounces as possible outside the backing plate.
Many years ago NASCAR put a spec wheel on to eliminate this for safety reasons. Car chiefs would run the lightest rims they could to cut down the weight but steel is the rule so lug nuts is the only area they can try to cut back on.
Sounds like a nitpicker fine but it will send a message that the inspectors are watching for safety as well as mechanical violations.
Funny this was never a problem on the 88 car till JR hooked up with Hendricks and learned some bad habits from them. His Busch car is faster now but at what cost ?? Thanks for the tip Mr. Hendrick.
Ok here is one for you.. My fiance worked on a pit crew for an Arca series team and he said
all lug nuts are the same for Nascar and Acra. You have to get them threw BSR products and
they are all regulated by Nascar and Arca. They are right in the garage area for you to be
able to get them and they also have a shop right in Mooresville. Those are the lugnuts that
they want you to use and maybe Jr Motorsports and Hendrick Motorsports just didn’t get them
from BSR Products and just used there own for some reason.
Here is the link to BSR’s website that show’s the correct lugnut and size.
http://www.bsrproducts.com/product_info.php?cPath=40&products_id=203
Wendy from Michigan
If you read the full story on Scene Daily its was Eury’s idea Bob
ok so they have to get regulated lug nuts and they get them from BSR Products they are
located at the track for the teams to get them from they also have a shop in Mooresville, NC
So maybe for some reason they didn’t get there lug nuts from BSR and thought they could use
there own I’m not sure why. Here is a link that show’s the regulation Lug Nuts that
NASCAR requires.
http://www.bsrproducts.com/product_info.php?cPath=40&products_id=203
I have no clue what the advantage would be to be honest I don’t think there would be.
So I guess we will find out in the coming days what was the big deal on the lug nuts.
Wendy
Think about it…. onces make pounds + less rotating weight = speed =wins=money / Racing= cheaters or losers
EVER HEAR OF TITANIUM LUG NUTS ? AND AXELS/ DIG DEEPER CHEAT TO EAT
Ok so never mind my last post I found this online..
“We had some lug nuts that had a thread turned out of them, just trying to make pit stops faster,” said JR Motorsports director of competition Tony Eury Sr. “We’ve got a Busch crew here against all these Cup crews it’s hard to compete against them. We just stepped over the line a little bit trying to be even.”
I just did a copy and paste on what I found.
Wendy
Brandon wrote:
Tony SR. is a stand up guy and if he says he used them so be it. I stand corrected.
Bob
sorry one of my post came up 2 times sorry.
wendy
Nascar has officially gone down hill.
I bet it had something to do with safety
as I remember jeff Gordon had a
titanium wheel hub one year
that offered no performance advantage
but was deemed unsafe by NASCAR
If they were filing down the lugs nuts to have less thread, so they can gain on pit stops, then that is a safety issue and that would constitute for a big penalty. The three major “no-no’s” to mess with in NASCAR: Restrictor plates, wheels/tires and fuel.
Yeah shaving down the threads may save you a few miliseconds on the stop, but when that nut works loose its also a few less threads holding the wheel on.
lug nuts?? i’m glad the rule maker isin’t my dad… life would suck
THIS IS ALL CRAZY! WELL HAVE YOU CHECKED THE BUSH BROTHERS CARS LATELY?? I THINK THEY CHEATING SOMETHINGS ODD ABOUT KYLE BUSH ALWAYS IN THE TOP 5 EVERY SEASON ,EVERY RACE,
don’t they do pre qualification inspections? don’t they do pre race inspctions? sounds like the officals missedthem then. whose going to penalize them???
observant bystander wrote:
They might not have had them on during qualifying. And they were caught pre-race. If you would’ve read the full article at the link you would’ve known that.
So I guess your not really that Observant of a bystander.
no, i didn’t read the article, but it was said they were on ALL wheels. they had them all in the pits, so somebody messed up.
The No. 88 team with driver Brad Keselowski and the No. 24 team with driver Casey Mears had to replace all of the lug nuts on the tires on the car as well as the on the tires in the pits after NASCAR had an issue with them.
observant bystander wrote:
During Pre-race they only tech whats on the car, if they have a problem with that then they look at the rest of the teams EQ. NASCAR Does Not check all the wheels that are sitting in the pits unless they have a reason.
guess jr is learning the hendrick “secrets” to the “gray” area early. unfortunately, they both got caught
Unapproved hose clamps and improperly displayed STP stickers are next!!