NASCAR: Officials respond to lugnut issue

NASCAR Vice President of Competition Scott Miller announced that the sanctioning body will soon re-examine how it enforces the application of lugnuts during pit stops in the aftermath of a tumultuous week full of safety concerns from the Sprint Cup garage.

"Since the drivers are now questioning it, it's time for us to re-evaluate our position and work with the community on looking at possibly different ways to enforce the pit road rules," Miller said during a media session on Friday at Richmond. "The teams are obviously pushing harder than they ever have in this area, and it's time for us to take a look at it. But we'll do that as an industry.

"The open dialogue is very good right now between NASCAR and the teams, so we'll work internally and with them to move forward here."

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Despite the current rules existing prior to the start of the 2015 season, it has become a topic of conversation this month with teams starting to take advantage of the lack of enforcement. NASCAR moved to a video review system last season, which resulted in a reduction of officials on pit road.

As a result, teams often take three or four lugs in order to gain track position during pit stops, with several drivers publicly stating a concern over the practice. The most recent critic of the tactic was Tony Stewart, who was fined $35,000 on Thursday for questioning NASCAR's commitment to safety for not enforcing the rules.

"Obviously, one of the stories this week has been some concern about safety from one of our drivers and obviously NASCAR has worked very, very hard in the area of safety," Miller said. "That's certainly a topic that we take very seriously."

Stewart was not the only driver to bring up the lug nut issue. Greg Biffle called the situation "a ticking time bomb" on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Thursday morning.

Miller said NASCAR does not believe the current environment is a dangerous one but also acknowledged the importance of listening to its competitors.

"Throughout the history of the sport, there have been loose wheels," Miller said. "We've seen it since I've been in the sport for over 20 years – from time to time there are loose wheels.

"It hadn't risen, in our opinion, to the point where we thought that loose wheels currently were becoming an unsafe thing out there and on the racetrack. But obviously others have, and we'll do our best to make sure that we satisfy the industry on this one."

Miller also did not count out eventually adopting a single-nut wheel hub but conceded that it would require a complete overhaul of the front and rear suspension of NASCAR racecars.