BRISTOL, Tenn. — Denny Hamlin says that if NASCAR continues to require teams to use standardized pit guns, “it’s going to cost somebody a race or the championship by the end of the year.’’
Hamlin is the latest driver to express his frustration with the pit guns all teams are required to use after he suffered a loose wheel and had to pit from the lead on Lap 266 of Monday’s Cup race at Bristol Motor Speedway. He finished 14th, one lap down.
Hamlin was upset with the inconsistency of the pit gun, an issue others have expressed this season. Hamlin told NBC Sports that the team’s pit guns were at 12,000 RPMs on previous stops but at 8,000 RPMs on the stop where he had a loose wheel. Less RPMs can make it more likely that not all the lug nuts are tight and result in a loose wheel.
“It’s just inconsistencies,’’ Hamlin told NBC Sports after the race. “My frustration is that in absolutely no other professional sport does the league give you faulty equipment to play with and that’s what we have here.’’
A NASCAR spokesperson said the sanctioning body had no comment.
“The solution is to let the teams do what they are good at and that is providing reliable equipment,’’ Hamlin told NBC Sports. “It’s going to cost somebody a race or the championship by the end of the year. There’s no question, no doubt it’s going to cost somebody from making another round or something. NASCAR doesn’t have to answer to that. It’s the teams that have to answer to the sponsors when they don’t make the next round.’’
Hamlin said changes could be made.
“Teams have all the equipment ready to go,’’ he told NBC Sports. “JGR has said if you think our stuff is better we’ll supply it for everybody. I can assure it’s better than the junk we’re running.’’
Car owner Joe Gibbs wasn’t quite ready to offer to build pit guns for every team Monday but shared Hamlin’s concerns for what is taking place on pit road.
“We had two loose wheels today that put us down multiple laps,’’ Gibbs said, referring to Hamlin and Erik Jones. “For our sponsors and everybody, I’m calling trying to explain it and it’s hard to explain.
“We all work together. Our teams. NASCAR has been very good about working with us, and when we come up with a problem, we’ve been good at working hard to solve it.
“I think we have a number of meetings this week with NASCAR, and I think we’ll be working on this and hopefully work toward a solution. I think it would be hard for us to build the guns for everybody, that would be tough, but I think we need to come up with a solution for sure.’’
Asked if he agreed with Hamlin that pit guns could cost someone a race or even the championship, Gibbs said:
“I think when you get something like this going on and it’s happened to multiple teams each week, I think you’ve got to find a way to fix it, to address it. I think that’s what we’ll be talking about this week. I feel good that NASCAR is on board. Obviously, they don’t want issues. I think we’ll all work together and come up with a solution.’’
Last week, Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR’s chief racing development officer, responded to Harvick’s comments, telling NBC Sports:
“I think you’ve got to take a step back and look at safety as part of the narrative in NASCAR. I would say if you put us up against any motorsport, we feel pretty good there. When you start looking at pit stops in general, are pit guns part of that? Absolutely, but it’s the entire pit stop. To put something all on a gun, I think, is a bit premature without the facts.
“So our job is to look at each stop and look at each race, what happens with those races and put all those facts together and then make changes if necessary. I’m confident in the partner that we have and the work that we’re doing in the industry that directionally we’re in the right spot. Certainly some improvements we can make … but we feel like we’re in a good spot in continuing to work through this to get to the best place.’’
Complaints about the pit gun have been made public since early in the season. Martin Truex Jr. and crew chief Cole Pearn were both upset with the pit guns at Atlanta in the season’s second race.
Truex forewarned in February what could happen if problems with the pit guns persisted.
“We have no control over it, so if it costs you a race win or it costs you a spot in the playoffs or a spot in the championship four or something like that, somebody’s going to be really, really, really upset, and there’s nothing you can do about it because you can’t go home and say, ‘Well, it’s your fault,’ Truex said. “We need to tighten it up here and figure it out and make sure it doesn’t happen again.’’
