NASCAR Amends Pit Road Procedures for Atlanta

NASCAR has made another change to the pit road procedures ahead of the return to Atlanta Motor Speedway. The sanctioning body has changed the speed threshold as drivers head down onto the apron.

NASCAR revealed the updated procedures on July 6 with some straightforward info. If the race is in green flag conditions, the speed in Sections 1 and 2 will be 90 mph. It will drop to 45 mph in Sections 3 through 18. If the race is under caution, the speed in all sections will be 45 mph.

Sections 1 and 2 are in Turns 3 and 4, which is part of a change that NASCAR made for the spring race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The commitment line moved from Turn 4 to the apron on Turn 3, which meant that the drivers would exit Turn 2 and immediately begin trying to get down to 45 mph.

The change gives them more time to reach pit road speed. It also keeps them at a higher rate of speed for a longer amount of time, which could help prevent them from losing multiple laps.

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The New Pit Road Procedures Impacted 1 Spring Race

The introduction of the new pit road commitment line created questions heading toward the spring weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Would there be numerous drivers falling multiple laps down while making pit stops?

The answer was murky. The reason is that two of the three races did not have long enough green flag runs to truly test out the new pit road procedures.

The Craftsman Truck Series race had 11 cautions — nine for incidents. The longest green flag run was 24 laps and the second-longest was 17 laps. The majority of green flag runs were fewer than 10 laps.

The Xfinity Series race, for comparison, had 12 cautions that were all for on-track incidents. This led to only one green flag run that was longer than 10 laps (31). The rest were in single digits.

The Cup Series race was a different story. There were only five cautions — three for incidents — and there were multiple long runs. For example, the final 46 laps of Stage 1 were without incident, as were the final 44 laps of the race. The longest green flag run was 94 laps during Stage 2.

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Questions Still Remain About New Procedures

The Truck Series is at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on July 8, but the Xfinity Series and Cup Series drivers will be at Atlanta Motor Speedway for the weekend. They will have the opportunity to test out the new procedures.

Will a higher speed threshold keep the drivers from falling multiple laps behind the race leader? That remains unknown heading toward the Quaker State 400 weekend.

As Justin Allgaier told FOX Sports’ Bob Pockrass, the revised commitment line and the slower speeds were a detriment to the teams during the spring weekend. An ill-timed stop had the potential to make or break the weekend.

Allgaier explained that this 90 mph zone does not necessarily fix the problem, but it certainly makes it a little bit better. He added that NASCAR certainly needed to do something, especially considering that there could be some unscheduled green flag pit stops.

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