July 28, 2019 | By Lee Spencer

NASCAR: Hamlin hopes rules change works in his favor

When Denny Hamlin and his 37 fellow Monster Energy NASCAR Cup competitors take the green flag and Pocono Raceway on Sunday, there’s one stick-and-ball call they won’t have to worry about anymore.

On Wednesday, NASCAR updated the description of rule 10.9.10.4.1.b under Tires and Wheels/Servicing and removed the line: "A crew member must remain within arm's reach and moving in the same direction as the tire/wheel when removing the tire/wheel from the outside of the pit box."

And in case there was any confusion with the new rule, NASCAR included a diagram to explain the resultant new criteria for a penalty, showing a tire that rolls within the quadrant closest to the wall and the pit box of the car being serviced would not result in an infraction. Should the tire roll in any of the other three quadrants of the adjacent pit boxes, a penalty will be assessed.

With the issues Hamlin has endured on pit road this season, the change could not have come soon enough. Six races remain before the Playoffs start, and happy he won't have to worry about the judgment call during the postseason.

In the first 20 races of the season, NASCAR penalized teams 45 times for tire violations in 18 races. Hamlin and the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team were penalized for tire violations at Martinsville, Texas, Charlotte and Kentucky. But when his crew was busted at Chicagoland Speedway, Hamlin said that’s when his race spiraled out of control. He voiced his concerns to NASCAR and suggested what might have been a more reasonable solution.

“I think they had been thinking about this for a very long time,” Hamlin said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Friday. “‘How can we get out of this business of making a judgment call?’ I mean, ‘arm’s length?’ That’s something you cannot measure. It’s different for every person. It’s not black and white. It’s not a line that you cross. But now they’ve created rules that you know where the lines are. It’s more black and white than it’s been.

“That’s all we can ask for.There’s probably not a person in the garage—or a crew chief—that isn’t relieved that we have more clarity on this rule, 'cause certainly, the call that was made on us, I don’t think that call ever gets made at Homestead. It was so questionable. I think they realized it’s not too late to make a right decision. They made the right decision and, unfortunately, they were victims of the language they used before. They wanted to get out of that box, and I praise them for making changes.”

Hamlin and his team have been penalized 10 times this season. At Chicagoland, Hamlin was also busted for having too many men over the wall on Lap 163 but recovered to finish 15th. Still, some of his penalties have been self-inflicted such as speeding at Fontana, Texas and Bristol.

Under the direction of crew chief Chris Gabehart, Hamlin’s average finish of 10.5 is the best of his 15-year career. He’s currently fourth in the standings and has his best shot of qualifying for the Championship 4 for the first time since 2014 if the team can keep mistakes to a minimum.

“Short of pit road, we've been pretty solid on the race track,” Hamlin said. “We’ve been really, really fast these last two months. We have speed that we’ve probably haven't had since 2012—somewhere in that range when we won five races.

“This is a really good time for us. We want to capitalize on winning as many races as we can—and sometimes penalties cost us our chance. Sometimes, I got in the wall and cost us our chance. We are really solid--right there right now. I’m pretty happy where our race team is. We’ve made a couple of changes on the pit crew, and they really knocked it out of the park last week. I’m really happy about our team.

"We’re quietly sitting here fourth in the standings, really close to third. We’re just knocking on these wins. Hopefully, we’ll get some more and put ourselves in position where we get enough bonus points to get us to Homestead.”