Following an eventful race week at Circuit of the Americas, NASCAR has decided to bring in more stipulations. But don’t get your hopes high. Well, this is not regarding a ruling for road courses considering the sanctioning body’s issue of penalties across all three nationwide series—the Cup, Xfinity, and Truck Series in COTA.

Bob Pockrass updated the community on NASCAR’s new amendment for the team in their pit lane. The senior reporter shared an image of the new ruling along with a brief description of the same on his “X.” This new reform comes after multiple teams tried to make use of adhesives on pit roads to gain an advantage.

A new rule change for pit boxes

In the high-stakes environment inside the track, teams, and drivers make use of anything and everything to gain an upper hand over the competition. This may sometimes get out of hand as they try to go around the rule book in search of loopholes. This is where NASCAR draws the line. In fact, the sanctioning body must ensure the smooth running of its race without any hiccups, ensuring all teams and drivers stay within their regulations.

After COTA, where the competition officials had to work twice as hard, issuing penalties to drivers for cutting the course, another thing has also come to notice, and that is the usage of adhesive in pit boxes. Adhesives are often sprayed on pit boxes so that they give drivers better traction when leaving the pits. Too much throttle on a slick, concrete surface creates a lot of wheelspin, translating to longer times for cars to get out of the pit stall. While seemingly minor details, losing a few tenths of a second in the pits could mean a position or two on track.

According to the new rule change, NASCAR is now putting limits on where teams can put adhesive chemicals in their pit box. This move was brought in after noticing that teams tend to use these chemical compounds well beyond their assigned pit boxes to avoid wheelspin. NASCAR has also restricted the use of any chemical that can potentially damage the surface of the pit box or cause discoloration.

The organization has also revealed that it will review how it enforces track limits at the Circuit of the Americas after a spree of penalties.

NASCAR to review the race at COTA

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One driver who had the most brutal fall in COTA due to the organization’s ruling was 3-time Supercars champion, Shane van Gisbergen. The Kaulig Racing driver, who was at the front for the most time, battled it out with his teammate AJ Allmendinger and the eventual race winner, Kyle Larson, who dropped from the second spot to the 27th spot after the sanctioning body found the driver cutting the course in the final lap.

This, however, raises questions about NASCAR’s discretion and how they go about regulating the rule. Unlike Formula One, NASCAR is selective in its enforcement of track limits, so much so that only parts of the 3.41-mile track are no-go zones, namely the insides of the esses.

Speaking to SiriusXM NASCAR, Elton Sawyer, the senior vice president of competitions, said, “We’re calling balls and strikes on every lap and that’s not really where we want to be,” he told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. I commend our team and the tower. I thought they did a good job, but it’s way too much about us and not enough about the athletes and our teams and our pit stops and strategy and things of that nature.

The senior official, on a closing note, mentioned that there is more to be done, saying, “Some work to be done.”

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