NASCAR Hands Down Cost-Cutting Measures To Help Truck Series Owners

NASCAR official announced the following rule changes to the Camping World Truck Series for the 2009 season.

The first change is with the pit crews. Only five crew members instead of the normal seven will be allowed over the wall.

Teams will not be able to fuel and change tires in the same pit stop. They'll have to make two separate stops for one regular pit stop like in the past.

While I like the move, it doesn't eliminate the competitiveness on pit road or the gambles crew chief's like to call and I like watching the pit stops so it still holds the excitement for me. Maybe a cheaper engine like a crate, which I believe costs maybe $4,000 to $5,000 range.

The other change is related to engines. Teams can't run three engines in three consecutive events, both Daytona and Talladega are excluded from this rule.

Once a team uses a engine, they have to declare it's use in a future event and NASCAR will seal the engine.

Teams will have run the same engine in two events out of three.

Should an engine expire, teams can replace it and they'll have to start at the rear of the field like in the past.

With all the part-time teams in the series, the rule will apply to them this way. It's based on three consecutive events the team will run, not just three consecutive races on the schedule and run the same engine in two events out of three.

Which doesn't change much since teams already run the same engine in multiple events, before they start repairing and replace parts.

Now why not just switch to a crate motor or the Camping World East & West Series spec engine. This way the drivers from both series could enter truck races if they choose to get their feet wet in advancing in NASCAR.

The last change is that crew chief's must provide NASCAR each race week it's twelve active crew members for the race.

This includes the crew chief, crew members, the spotter and driver that will be entering the truck serving area on pit road during any given race.

Guess this is similar to what Major League Baseball managers do with their starting lineup cards.