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Chip Ganassi thinks this lug nut stuff is a bunch of silliness
Given one of his crew chiefs was suspended Wednesday by NASCAR, team owner Chip Ganassi may be a bit biased. But it's hard not to agree with his point about the absurdity of lug nuts being a dominant topic throughout the 2016 season.
Ganassi made the following comments on SiriusXM's NASCAR channel Wednesday evening. NASCAR suspended Kyle Larson's crew chief Chad Johnston for a race earlier in the day after the No. 42 car didn't have all of its 20 lug nuts tight in post-race lug nut checks.
“I just think the whole lug nut thing is a silly thing,’’ Ganassi said via NASCAR Talk. “We’re in a major sport that on any given weekend we have over 100,000 people that show up and watch and it’s the most-watched sport on television sometimes on the weekend and we’re sitting here talking about lug nuts. Are you kidding me? Please.
“They need to move the conversation. I’m saying NASCAR needs to move the conversation to something a little more relevant than lug nuts.’’
The conversation about lug nuts was started by Tony Stewart. NASCAR exacerbated the conversation by fining, and then subsequently agreeing with Stewart.
However, in agreeing with Stewart, and mandating that teams have all five lug nuts fastened on each wheel (after the race, so theoretically teams could still skimp in a race's early stages) NASCAR went from a lug nut policy that was fair to one that was non-existent and then to one that could be considered a bit extreme.
Before 2015, NASCAR had officials on pit road watching each pit stop. The officials watched all of the lug nuts and if a team didn't get all 20 fastened, it had to come back down pit road to fix the issue.
When the sanctioning body went to a camera-based system in 2015, the lug nut policy disappeared. Teams were on their own. And when Stewart asked NASCAR to essentially save teams from themselves, NASCAR overreacted.
One could argue NASCAR did so on purpose; it did fine Stewart after all. What better way to make a point than to take moderation to the extreme. But by taking lug nut penalties to the suspension extreme, NASCAR ensured that the hardware would continue to be a talking point throughout the season.
Johnston was the fourth crew chief in six weeks suspended for a lug nut violation.
The trend will likely continue. You don't need us to remind you how important pit stops are and how many spots can be lost on pit road with a slow stop. Why lose two seconds and a dozen spots on pit road to ensure that your crew chief won't be suspended for the next race when you can take your chances that the lug nuts will be tight after the race?
And besides, suspending a crew chief may simply be symbolic and not actually detrimental to a team's performance, at least according to Ganassi. But with every penalty announcement, the lug nut discussion gets to stay at the forefront of NASCAR.
“We have qualified people that will be there,’’ he said. “That’s the other thing is these suspensions, you can have the guy on the phone, you can have him on the computer, but he can’t be at the track. What’s the point of being suspended? You really could probably suspend everybody on the team except the pit crew. It’s silliness. It’s complete silliness.’’
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
