Should NASCAR look at changing the uncontrolled tire penalty for 2019?

The uncontrolled tire penalty is so confusing that NASCAR almost always has to jump through hoops to explain it, so maybe it should be changed for next season.

No one is, or should be anyway, opposed to NASCAR rules made with safety in mind. This is especially true with regulations governing what goes on during pit stops, where the pressure-packed dances of man and machine always carry with them the possibility of calamity.

The problem is that not all penalties are created equal. On Sunday at Kansas, Kevin Harvick was called for speeding on pit road. Despite having what appeared to be the fastest car all afternoon, he was never able to recover and race for the win. No one really complained about it, because pit road speeding is pretty cut and dry. There’s a speed limit in the pits and you get sanctioned if you’re going too fast. No judgment calls are involved.

That wasn’t the case for his Stewart-Haas Racing teammates, Kurt Busch and Clint Bowyer. Busch was called for an uncontrolled tire penalty during green flag pit stops in the middle of stage 2. He never recovered, finishing the race a lap down, and even though he advanced to the Round of 8, some pundits believe he’s already on shaky ground heading to Martinsville.

Bowyer was much more fortunate. Though he also had a pit stop with his 14 team that seemed like it could be nailed for an uncontrolled tire penalty, no call was made, and though he ended up 13th anyway (one spot behind Harvick, ironically), it was still much better than where he would have likely landed if forced to come back to the pits for a pass-through.

NASCAR issued an explanation for the no-call that was … a bit convoluted, to say the least:

The problem here isn’t with the explanation, it’s with the role itself. Actual, honest to goodness uncontrolled tires are bad things, because when people go chasing after them, that’s when pit road accidents happen.

But the rule as it stands now is way too gray and requires someone to decide if there should be a penalty or not every time a tire is more than about a foot away from a crew member. That’s ridiculous, and we’re not the only ones who think so. Here’s what Tom Bowles of Frontstretch had to say on the subject:

"I understand the safety push behind the rule, but there’s a difference between out of arm’s reach and rolling across pit road hitting other drivers. The more you over-regulate, the more you get officials involved, creating subjective calls subject to fan debate and criticism. That’s never a good thing in any sport and NASCAR needs to stop the madness of expanding a rulebook not everyone can access in the first place."

The lack of transparency is a legitimate criticism that has been leveled at NASCAR for years, but the fact remains that if the rule was simple enough for me to explain to my 9-year-old son or my non-racing fan parents, it wouldn’t matter if we could read the rulebook or not. It’s kind of like the NFL’s much maligned catch rule (fortunately relaxed a bit this year): It should be common sense if there is an uncontrolled tire or not, or at the very least easy to see and describe markings so there’s no human element involved in making a penalty call.

NASCAR has already shown a willingness to make big changes to its rules for the 2019 season with the aero and engine packages that are in the works. It should really consider modifying the uncontrolled tire penalty, something that won’t have nearly the impact across the board but could definitely make things clearer for both teams and fans going forward.