dpkimmel2001
Team Owner
It was tested last season.
Automated Pit Road Officiating Technology (APROT)
- Thread starter dpkimmel2001
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dpkimmel2001
Team Owner
The new hauler -- still awaiting a special graphics wrap -- that will house the eight pit-road officiating workstations will be a fixture at a trackside location in the TV compound for each weekend of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule starting in 2015.
Pit-road footage will be gathered from 45+ HD video cameras mounted on the grandstand side of each Sprint Cup track. Each camera will be assigned to focus on two pit stalls each, from green flag to checkered. In the event one camera were to fail, tech officials can rotate in a spare in just a few minutes.
The HD cameras train in on the pit road at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Each camera will see two full pit boxes appear in the viewfinder.
The array of workstations for pit-road officiating will be manned by eight officials at each Sprint Cup race. While the automated detection system for violations is being rolled out in the interest of fairness and making rulings more straightforward, the safety factor will eliminate the need for officials going over the wall during the high traffic of wholesale pit stops.
Each workstation will feature two screens for each official. On the lower screen seen on a laptop computer, officials will see the car approaching; on the top monitor, officials will see the designated pit stall. With the feeds synced up, officials will be able to confirm if crewmembers go over the wall too soon or if a car enters its pit-stall area correctly.
The new officiating system sends pit stop videos into the queue and flags pit-road violations in red. From there, an official can review the footage -- in double speed -- and confirm or disallow the automated ruling.
The eight officials can send pit-stop footage to the scoring tower for further review in certain circumstances. Similarly, race control can request to view specific stops if there is a question about a ruling.
John Darby, NASCAR's managing director of competition, tried out the new system in the foreground while David Green, the 1994 champion of what is now the NASCAR XFINITY Series, works beside him to check over pit stops. The voices of the eight officials working in the pit-road technology truck each weekend will be heard over the NASCAR Officials channel on race-day radio communications.
While the pit-road officiating process marks a huge step forward in NASCAR's initiative to leverage its access to cutting-edge technology, there remains a human component to making the new system a success. The ultimate human involvement that NASCAR innovation officials hope to achieve is putting all the data into usable race-day statistics for the benefit of its fans.
Pit-road footage will be gathered from 45+ HD video cameras mounted on the grandstand side of each Sprint Cup track. Each camera will be assigned to focus on two pit stalls each, from green flag to checkered. In the event one camera were to fail, tech officials can rotate in a spare in just a few minutes.
The HD cameras train in on the pit road at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Each camera will see two full pit boxes appear in the viewfinder.
The array of workstations for pit-road officiating will be manned by eight officials at each Sprint Cup race. While the automated detection system for violations is being rolled out in the interest of fairness and making rulings more straightforward, the safety factor will eliminate the need for officials going over the wall during the high traffic of wholesale pit stops.
Each workstation will feature two screens for each official. On the lower screen seen on a laptop computer, officials will see the car approaching; on the top monitor, officials will see the designated pit stall. With the feeds synced up, officials will be able to confirm if crewmembers go over the wall too soon or if a car enters its pit-stall area correctly.
The new officiating system sends pit stop videos into the queue and flags pit-road violations in red. From there, an official can review the footage -- in double speed -- and confirm or disallow the automated ruling.
The eight officials can send pit-stop footage to the scoring tower for further review in certain circumstances. Similarly, race control can request to view specific stops if there is a question about a ruling.
John Darby, NASCAR's managing director of competition, tried out the new system in the foreground while David Green, the 1994 champion of what is now the NASCAR XFINITY Series, works beside him to check over pit stops. The voices of the eight officials working in the pit-road technology truck each weekend will be heard over the NASCAR Officials channel on race-day radio communications.
While the pit-road officiating process marks a huge step forward in NASCAR's initiative to leverage its access to cutting-edge technology, there remains a human component to making the new system a success. The ultimate human involvement that NASCAR innovation officials hope to achieve is putting all the data into usable race-day statistics for the benefit of its fans.
dpkimmel2001
Team Owner
Even though it was tested I'm sure it's still a work in progress. Heck, what isn't these days. Anything new is almost always followed by a patch or upgrade. This will be no different. I think this is really going to be something to talk about this season. Seems like they are going to crack down big time on the too early over the wall and driving through too many pits on entrance or exit. Going to be a learning curve for the Cup drivers and crew for sure.
dpkimmel2001
Team Owner
If it wasn't mentioned earlier in one of those links this new system will not be in place on standalone weekends.
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AH- HA. I didn't know that.
FLRacingFan
Team Owner
I'm glad every box will have a camera on it now; hopefully they'll allow TV to make good use of that.
More often than not in other sports the booth makes the right call on reviews so I'm looking forward to this. Based on what we know so far I feel like I already trust the process more than I do one official walking around the box in real time, looking out for and making quick judgments on a bunch of different things at once. And I don't know what kind of statistics they plan on providing fans with from this but it sounds intriguing.
More often than not in other sports the booth makes the right call on reviews so I'm looking forward to this. Based on what we know so far I feel like I already trust the process more than I do one official walking around the box in real time, looking out for and making quick judgments on a bunch of different things at once. And I don't know what kind of statistics they plan on providing fans with from this but it sounds intriguing.
dpkimmel2001
Team Owner
As opposed to all of the male models that post on this forum.
Reck
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As opposed to all of the male models that post on this forum.
I like Cheetos, too.
Charlie Spencer
Road courses and short tracks.
The rule didn't say the lugnuts had to be tight. It said only that all five had to be on.
As to why they won't be enforcing it, I suspect the cameras don't have the resolution.
HEY NASCAR! STREAM THE FEEDS FROM THOSE CAMERAS!!!
Wingnutcnc
The faster I go the behinder I get.
No one can say they didn't spend enough money to research this new concept. Gonna feel like someone is always looking over your shoulder with that many cameras in use.
dpkimmel2001
Team Owner
Cameras will only see the left side of the pit stop.
Charlie Spencer
Road courses and short tracks.
Ah. Well, I guess that's all that's needed to see the pit entrance / exit, number of men over and when they go there, equipment and tires out of the box, etc. I guess missing lugs on the wall side would be all the cameras couldn't see. So you figure they dropped the lug nut rule because they couldn't police both sides equally?
dpkimmel2001
Team Owner
Probably the case.
SpeedPagan
The iRacing Guru
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So I just thought of something. If they're pulling the officials off of pit row, who's going to break up the fights that happens on pit row?
dpkimmel2001
Team Owner
They didn't remove all of the officials. Some will still be there.
Team Penske
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What fights?
SpeedPagan
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Well the fight at Texas of last year for one thing.
Team Penske
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When two men stand toe to toe and slug it out, I call it a fight. When a guy takes a shot at someone who was ambushed from behind
I call it bull****. Or when he runs to his trailer and has his team block for him, I call bull**** as well. Or when a driver comes back on the track to take out a driver in the chase for the championship, I call bull****.
Need I say more.
I call it bull****. Or when he runs to his trailer and has his team block for him, I call bull**** as well. Or when a driver comes back on the track to take out a driver in the chase for the championship, I call bull****.
Need I say more.
Greg
2014 RF YAHOO CHAMP Your leader
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No worries an air fighter can always find someone to hold him back. Just wait till some wide bodies are around before becoming overwhelmed with the rage an commencing to air fighting.
Switchback
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Isn't it funny how most folks can remain fairly calm in an altercation right up until the time someone gets between them? Suddenly they become a caged animal who wants to tear the other one apart, but alas, they conveniently can no longer get at each other.
dpkimmel2001
Team Owner
@nascarcasm
The inverse nature of 2015 pit stops: The fewer literal nuts you use, the more figurative nuts you have.
The inverse nature of 2015 pit stops: The fewer literal nuts you use, the more figurative nuts you have.
dpkimmel2001
Team Owner
I didn't catch who the NASCAR guest was that Moody had on his show earlier this week discussing this new technology but it was said that in testing this last season more than 150 pit road infractions were found. Per race. 150 per race. This is going to be interesting.
dpkimmel2001
Team Owner
Is NASCAR's automated pit road officiating system a game-changer?
For the 2015 season, NASCAR has unveiled a new automated pit road officiating system relying on multiple cameras and technology to take the implementation of rules out of the hands of officials in an effort to bring a level playing field and increase safety on pit road.
As part of the new system, no NASCAR officials will go over the wall during pit stops. By eliminating the official over the wall, NASCAR has also eliminated the penalty for missing lug nuts, leading many teams to figure out a way to take advantage.
In the past, when a driver felt a vibration was caused by a loose lug nut, he typically hit the radio and pleaded with his crew chief to come back to pit road while lambasting the tire changer who missed the lug.
However, in 2015 missing lug nuts and loose wheels may become more common, especially at the end of the race.
While it may seem like something teams would want to avoid, drivers, crew chiefs and pit crews are planning on possibly tweaking their strategy to take fewer lug nuts in an attempt to speed up pit stops and gain positions on their competition.
Although the penalty for missing lug nuts no longer remains, NASCAR has introduced a new P3 penalty for tires that fall off as a result of loose or missing lug nuts.
A P3 penalty in the Sprint Cup Series consists of losing 15 driver and owner points, a fine ranging from $20,000-$50,000, suspension of the crew chief and/or others for one or more races, plus probation for six months.
"It's an added penalty to the rule book to make the teams more accountable," said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's senior vice president of competition and racing development. "We want to use that (automated) system and capitalize on that system. We want to put more meat into parts of the pit stop that are really more important; the safety aspect and just keeping a level playing field."
So while the reward of gaining track position and beating the competition with a faster stop is there, the harsh penalties in place if it does not go according to plan are quite stiff. This has many crew chiefs weighing that risk versus reward balance as they look ahead to the 2015 season.
Entering his first full season as a Sprint Cup Series crew chief, Justin Alexander is not prepared to take the risk of taking fewer lug nuts to speed up a pit stops.
"We're not going to justify taking three (lug nuts). We're going to put five on the car," said Alexander, who took over the crew chief role on Paul Menard's No. 27 Chevrolet in October 2014. "Ultimately putting three on the car speeds the stops up, but you run the risk of having loose wheels and run the risk of having to come back down pit road under green. NASCAR's put stiff penalties in place if the wheel comes off on the racetrack -- one of the stiffest penalties I think there is. It's not something we want to flirt with. We're going to do like normal."
Alexander admits if other teams began to beat Menard off pit road by taking fewer lug nuts, the No. 27 team might have to reexamine its approach.
Menard, meanwhile, is already prepared for stops in which the team does not hit all five lugs.
"There will be times we put four on, for sure," said Menard. "The wheel's not going to fall off with four tight lug nuts. The guys train to put five on every time and if they miss one or have the fifth one loose, as long as they have the other ones tight, it won't be an issue. As a driver, I don't want my wheel to fall off, obviously, so there's a risk-reward there."
Much like Alexander, crew chief Chris Heroy anticipates putting five lug nuts on tight during each stop, with the possible exception of the "money stop" at the end of a race.
"You've got to finish to finish first. You've got to get to the end," said Heroy, crew chief for Kyle Larson at Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. "Chip's big mantra is do the obvious things right, so having the wheels fall off during an automobile race is not the right thing. You must keep the wheels on the auto."
Alan Gustafson, crew chief on Jeff Gordon's No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, compared sending a car out with three or four tight lug nuts to a part on the car that is made lighter than normal, but cannot last throughout the entire race.
"You have to have that balance, and we'll search it out," said Gustafson. "Our focus is to put a car on the track that performs at a high level, and a pit crew that can do five lug nuts faster than anyone else. That's what we'll focus on doing. If for some reason the sport goes in a different direction and we can't compete with doing five, we'll adjust."
Team Penske crew chief Todd Gordon believes the move toward hitting fewer lug nuts in is going to take place due to the competitive nature of the sport, but will not be a "game changer."
"If the (tire) changer feels like he's hit a good pattern, he may leave a nut early," said Gordon, crew chief for Joey Logano. "That's a choice he's got, but he could have done that last year. Really, the rule was you have to leave with lugs on all the studs, not lugs tight on all the studs. That piece isn't much different. The piece that is a big difference is that last year a changer may have run at 90 percent, because he didn't want to take the chance of knocking a nut off a stud. That penalty is no longer there. So he can go at 100 percent and if he knocks one off and hits the other four, he's good."
Gordon believes the lack of enforcement will speed up the pit stops just a little bit now that tire changers can go 100 percent all the time, but other aspects of the new pit road officiating rules are a bigger concern.
Yet when it comes down to the end of the race, Gordon believes hitting fewer lug nuts will become yet another strategy call made to try and beat the competition.
"It's a performance business, and we're trying to beat people," said Gordon. "You have to take every avenue you can to be more competitive."
NASCAR is a monkey-see, monkey-do business in nearly every aspect, and this new innovation seems to be no exception.
from here
For the 2015 season, NASCAR has unveiled a new automated pit road officiating system relying on multiple cameras and technology to take the implementation of rules out of the hands of officials in an effort to bring a level playing field and increase safety on pit road.
As part of the new system, no NASCAR officials will go over the wall during pit stops. By eliminating the official over the wall, NASCAR has also eliminated the penalty for missing lug nuts, leading many teams to figure out a way to take advantage.
In the past, when a driver felt a vibration was caused by a loose lug nut, he typically hit the radio and pleaded with his crew chief to come back to pit road while lambasting the tire changer who missed the lug.
However, in 2015 missing lug nuts and loose wheels may become more common, especially at the end of the race.
While it may seem like something teams would want to avoid, drivers, crew chiefs and pit crews are planning on possibly tweaking their strategy to take fewer lug nuts in an attempt to speed up pit stops and gain positions on their competition.
Although the penalty for missing lug nuts no longer remains, NASCAR has introduced a new P3 penalty for tires that fall off as a result of loose or missing lug nuts.
A P3 penalty in the Sprint Cup Series consists of losing 15 driver and owner points, a fine ranging from $20,000-$50,000, suspension of the crew chief and/or others for one or more races, plus probation for six months.
"It's an added penalty to the rule book to make the teams more accountable," said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's senior vice president of competition and racing development. "We want to use that (automated) system and capitalize on that system. We want to put more meat into parts of the pit stop that are really more important; the safety aspect and just keeping a level playing field."
So while the reward of gaining track position and beating the competition with a faster stop is there, the harsh penalties in place if it does not go according to plan are quite stiff. This has many crew chiefs weighing that risk versus reward balance as they look ahead to the 2015 season.
Entering his first full season as a Sprint Cup Series crew chief, Justin Alexander is not prepared to take the risk of taking fewer lug nuts to speed up a pit stops.
"We're not going to justify taking three (lug nuts). We're going to put five on the car," said Alexander, who took over the crew chief role on Paul Menard's No. 27 Chevrolet in October 2014. "Ultimately putting three on the car speeds the stops up, but you run the risk of having loose wheels and run the risk of having to come back down pit road under green. NASCAR's put stiff penalties in place if the wheel comes off on the racetrack -- one of the stiffest penalties I think there is. It's not something we want to flirt with. We're going to do like normal."
Alexander admits if other teams began to beat Menard off pit road by taking fewer lug nuts, the No. 27 team might have to reexamine its approach.
Menard, meanwhile, is already prepared for stops in which the team does not hit all five lugs.
"There will be times we put four on, for sure," said Menard. "The wheel's not going to fall off with four tight lug nuts. The guys train to put five on every time and if they miss one or have the fifth one loose, as long as they have the other ones tight, it won't be an issue. As a driver, I don't want my wheel to fall off, obviously, so there's a risk-reward there."
Much like Alexander, crew chief Chris Heroy anticipates putting five lug nuts on tight during each stop, with the possible exception of the "money stop" at the end of a race.
"You've got to finish to finish first. You've got to get to the end," said Heroy, crew chief for Kyle Larson at Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. "Chip's big mantra is do the obvious things right, so having the wheels fall off during an automobile race is not the right thing. You must keep the wheels on the auto."
Alan Gustafson, crew chief on Jeff Gordon's No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, compared sending a car out with three or four tight lug nuts to a part on the car that is made lighter than normal, but cannot last throughout the entire race.
"You have to have that balance, and we'll search it out," said Gustafson. "Our focus is to put a car on the track that performs at a high level, and a pit crew that can do five lug nuts faster than anyone else. That's what we'll focus on doing. If for some reason the sport goes in a different direction and we can't compete with doing five, we'll adjust."
Team Penske crew chief Todd Gordon believes the move toward hitting fewer lug nuts in is going to take place due to the competitive nature of the sport, but will not be a "game changer."
"If the (tire) changer feels like he's hit a good pattern, he may leave a nut early," said Gordon, crew chief for Joey Logano. "That's a choice he's got, but he could have done that last year. Really, the rule was you have to leave with lugs on all the studs, not lugs tight on all the studs. That piece isn't much different. The piece that is a big difference is that last year a changer may have run at 90 percent, because he didn't want to take the chance of knocking a nut off a stud. That penalty is no longer there. So he can go at 100 percent and if he knocks one off and hits the other four, he's good."
Gordon believes the lack of enforcement will speed up the pit stops just a little bit now that tire changers can go 100 percent all the time, but other aspects of the new pit road officiating rules are a bigger concern.
Yet when it comes down to the end of the race, Gordon believes hitting fewer lug nuts will become yet another strategy call made to try and beat the competition.
"It's a performance business, and we're trying to beat people," said Gordon. "You have to take every avenue you can to be more competitive."
NASCAR is a monkey-see, monkey-do business in nearly every aspect, and this new innovation seems to be no exception.
from here
StandOnIt
Farm Truck
After watching one race, I can say that I don't like it very much. The penalties were for pit people being over the wall too soon and a driver driving thru too many pits. Of course the viewers don't get to see just how little or big the accused broke the rule. Give me a break. Common sense says if there are nobody in the pits, steer in a bit sooner to set yourself up to leave, and the other, with nobody coming in but your driver, get out there and get set up. So now the monkeys in the trailer have their noses in the race and it looks like they will decide the outcome/fate thru out the year. I didn't see a great reduction of manpower with pit officials not being in the pits, the trailer was full of them. Some more techno B.S. IMO
K
Kyle18fan
Guest
Sometimes stuff just needs to be left alone, folks always messin with stuff that aint broke. Nuthin wrong with making something better but it gets old when they just complicate something for no reason
K
Kyle18fan
Guest
Penalty for tire falling off is pretty harsh from what I have heard, maybe better to put on 5 and not push the limits
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^^ Those rules haven't changed. Teams have been penalized in the past for the same infractions.
StandOnIt
Farm Truck
didn't say the rules have changed, common sense has been replaced by monkeys in a trailer.
FLRacingFan
Team Owner
I thought that was weird, I thought part of the point was to be able to show the viewers everything that happened. There weren't nearly enough cameras on pit road to be able to do that before.
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Your version of common sense has teams deciding for themselves how many pit stalls to drive through and when to go over the wall.
Nonsense is more like it.
StandOnIt
Farm Truck
it has worked just fine for years. just one race and Nascar's interference was evident.
StandOnIt
Farm Truck
my take was the penalties were so insignificant it would look ridiculous to show them. Without any visual proof, we had to take Nascar's opinion and they sent two good cars to the rear? Not good
K
Kyle18fan
Guest
Seemed to me that they had so many cameras at their disposal that they couldnt figure out what to show us next, pit road coverage was poor IMO and camera views jumping around on the track so much it made me dizzy, add the never ending commercials and missing half the race because of them and it got irritating. Supercross can show an entire main event or heat race without a commercial, I wish Nascar could try that approach
dpkimmel2001
Team Owner
Teams will get penalized and then they'll adjust as the season goes along. This new technology will be a huge story IMO the first part of the season and then it'll slowly become the norm. While many seem to not like it, NASCAR's being proactive on safety when it comes to those guys going over the wall. Nothing wrong with that that I can see. It's here to stay. Going to have to learn to live with it.
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^ this ...
StandOnIt
Farm Truck
Learn to live with it..typical sheep answer. baaa. 