LONG POND, Pa. - NASCAR has made changes after an embarrassing scoring delay marred the MBNA 400 on Sunday. In that race, a caution period stretched to 24 laps as officials sorted out the scoring and argued with competitors.
Yesterday at Pocono Raceway, where the Nextel Cup series is preparing for tomorrow's Pocono 500, NASCAR president Mike Helton said the sanctioning body will immediately begin using an electronic scoring system.
"The ultimate point that we would like to get across is that the 24-lap caution that occurred is unacceptable," Helton said. "We all agree on that. We'll do whatever we can to hopefully avoid that ever happening again."
During the offseason, NASCAR spent more than $1 million to install electronic equipment at its tracks to use a scoring system produced by a timing and scoring company called AMB.
Every car in the field has a transponder on it that will be read by wire antennas buried under each track at intervals determined by a track's length and the speeds cars reach on its racing surface.
Here at Pocono, where rookie Kasey Kahne earned his fourth pole of the season yesterday with a track-record speed of 172.533 mph in his No. 9 Dodge, there are 14 such antennas under the 2.5-mile track.
At Daytona and Talladega, which are also 2.5 miles, there are 18.
Until now, NASCAR has used some variation of a manual system, with each team providing its own scorer and NASCAR officials observing from a tower, overlooking the track. While team scorers have their input, it is Helton, competition director John Darby and managing event director David Hoots who make the final calls.
"What we have done over the past 50-plus years is try to operate with a certain amount of benevolence to explain our decisions and our processes and procedures," Helton said. "But if there's a little bit here or there that you can't explain, it's just like your dad saying, `Look, it is because I said so ...' There has to be a final authority, and in NASCAR it's us."
NASCAR's job got considerably harder last season when it made the decision to freeze the field when a caution comes out. That decision was made to protect drivers who could find themselves in jeopardy when other drivers raced back to the start/finish line with little regard to accidents on the track ahead of them.
The new rule added caution laps, as the pits were kept closed for an extra lap while the humans sorted out who was where. Those laps will be eliminated by the instantaneous work of the computer.
NASCAR also will no longer set aside an extra lap under caution to bring around the car receiving a free "Lucky Dog" pass. The pass, which allows the first car a lap down to get onto the lead lap, will be enforced during the normal reshuffling of the field during pit stops under caution.
"I think it's a good idea if it eliminates the down time," said car owner Jack Roush, whose driver, Mark Martin, won at Dover last weekend. "People want to see exciting racing, not cars touring under yellow."
NASCAR has tested the system in the previous 12 races, and Darby said it has performed "with very, very few and very small" glitches.
"We have gained enough confidence internally that we feel we can eliminate the human element that in part led to the extended caution last weekend," Helton said.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
At a glance
What: NASCAR Nextel Cup Pocono 500
Where: Pocono Raceway, Long Pond, Pa.
When: Tomorrow, 1 p.m.
TV: Ch. 45
2003 winner: Tony Stewart
Pocono 500 Qualifying
Race tomorrow at Long Pond, Pa. Race distance: 500 miles, 200 laps
(Car number in parentheses)
1. (9) Kasey Kahne, Dodge, 172.533 mph. 2. (25) Brian Vickers, Chevrolet, 172.308. 3. (01) Joe Nemechek, Chevrolet, 172.183. 4. (6) Mark Martin, Ford, 171.887. 5. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 171.825. 6. (24) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 171.785. 7. (19) Jeremy Mayfield, Dodge, 171.736. 8. (20) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 171.671. 9. (16) Greg Biffle, Ford, 171.481. 10. (88) Dale Jarrett, Ford, 171.259.
11. (12) Ryan Newman, Dodge, 171.243. 12. (38) Elliott Sadler, Ford, 171.077. 13. (31) Robby Gordon, Chevrolet, 171.041. 14. (42) Jamie McMurray, Dodge, 170.934. 15. (17) Matt Kenseth, Ford, 170.865. 16. (8) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 170.390. 17. (18) Bobby Labonte, Chevrolet, 170.380. 18. (49) Ken Schrader, Dodge, 170.367. 19. (5) Terry Labonte, Chevrolet, 170.296. 20. (40) Sterling Marlin, Dodge, 170.264.
21. (41) Casey Mears, Dodge, 170.129. 22. (15) Michael Waltrip, Chevrolet, 169.940. 23. (29) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 169.898. 24. (22) Scott Wimmer, Dodge, 169.590. 25. (45) Kyle Petty, Dodge, 169.571. 26. (0) Ward Burton, Chevrolet, 169.488. 27. (97) Kurt Busch, Ford, 169.428. 28. (137) Todd Bodine, Pontiac, 169.342. 29. (30) Dave Blaney, Chevrolet, 169.157. 30. (2) Rusty Wallace, Dodge, 168.837.
31. (77) Brendan Gaughan, Dodge, 168.798. 32. (43) Jeff Green, Dodge, 168.482. 33. (4) Jimmy Spencer, Chevrolet, 167.986. 34. (32) Ricky Craven, Chevrolet, 167.738. 35. (21) Ricky Rudd, Ford, 167.701. 36. (251) Kevin Lepage, Chevrolet, 167.320. 37. (50) PJ Jones, Dodge, 166.211. 38. (200) Carl Long, Chevrolet, 165.721.
Provisionals
39. (99) Jeff Burton, Ford 40. (10) Scott Riggs, Chevrolet 41. (89) Morgan Shepherd, Dodge 42. (172) Kirk Shelmerdine, Ford 43. (198) Geoffrey Bodine, Ford
Did not qualify
44. (194) Stanton Barrett, Chevrolet 45. (280) Andy Hillenburg, Ford
