Additional changes to pit rules: There was a meeting this week between NASCAR and the sport's various pit crew coaches regarding the new pit road rules for 2015. The main story line we've seen emphasized this week is the fact that NASCAR is no longer going to enforce a lug nut rule. But that isn't the only thing to come out of that meeting. There are other new rules and ways of enforcement that could have much more drastic impacts on races.
The big move for next season is the removal of more officials from pit road. Starting at Daytona, a new video system will monitor pit road, and penalties will be called from a central video-review location. That means far fewer "judgement" calls by officials. Cut and dry video evidence will rule. And the one area that nobody in the media has mentioned that will be affected the most is crews jumping from the wall early. The rule for when crews can leave the wall goes like this: teams are allowed to be on the ground in their pit stall as soon as their car crosses the back line of the stall directly behind their own. You didn't see this rule enforced all that often, because it had to be fairly blatant for an official to even notice it. Now, if a crew member is down even a split second early, the penalty will be called. Supposedly once NASCAR started testing this video system late in 2014, they were hundreds of "jumping early" penalties flagged by the system. What this means, is that you could potentially see a lot of these penalties called early in the season until pit crews figure out what they can and can't get away with. All coaches are emphasizing this point to their teams this offseason, but it will be an issue in 2015.
Another rule that will be more actively enforced with this video system is the drivers rolling through too many pit boxes before their own on entry. Drivers are only allowed to drive through three (I think) pit boxes before they enter their own. This was also a judgement call in the past, but this new video system will catch more of these in the future.
Other smaller points of emphasis for NASCAR included the elimination of helping your neighbor on pit road gather up his tires by being over the wall. You would often see a member of another pit crew over the wall helping a team corral it's tires. Now, if a crewman wants to help, they have to stay behind the wall. NASCAR is also going to pay closer attention to tire control by the pit crews. If tires aren't in control of a crewman at least half way back to the wall, NASCAR will call a penalty. This rule isn't new, but will be more actively enforced.(NASCAR Insiders)(12-14-2014)
looks like for the first few races pit lane will be very interesting...