When will NASCAR meet with the truck series owners and drivers?

[DougS]

After watching what should have been a great short track race at the Milwaukee Mile, I'm left wondering why NASCAR is dragging it's feet in changing the pit rules in the CWTS. At Texas Ron Hornaday  got trapped by an un-timely caution in the middle of green flag stops (Ron was already one lap down fighting for the lucky dog due to a tire violation in the pits earlier) . This week it was Mike Skinner that got trapped by an un-timely caution.

Mike and Ron had the two trucks to beat in todays race. A testament to two drivers who have a long relationship with thier crew chiefs. For those of you that don't follow the trucks, Milwaukee was supposed to run last night and was rained out. Two practices (CWTS &NNS) were run before the truck race, but the track had made drastic changes from what crews were set up for on Friday night. the #33 and #5 hit set-ups today while the rest of the field struggled with trucks that were too tight.

When Skinner got trapped two laps down by the un-timely caution almost all of the excietment went out of this race. There was a little drama in the last 20 as the #8 and #16 trucks finally hit on thier set ups and started moving up the field eventually ending up in 2nd and 3rd respectively. A late caution for Chad McCumbee's engine failure bunched the field for the final 8 laps. But the #33 easily pulled away with Ron winning his 41st race on his 51st Birthday.

It will be an absolute disaster if the championship goes all the way to Homestead, as it has the past three years, and have the Championship determined by ridiculous pit road rules. NASCAR better wake up and realize that loosing fans in the other series will end up loosing fans in it's premire series.

[KurtBuschFan]

Honestly we could see the same situation of a good truck trapped off the lead lap under the old pit rules also.  The rules just changed this season, and I'm willing to bet that NASCAR is still going to give this rule change more of the season to see how it goes.  The changes were made before this season to help the teams save money, but frankly I'm not sold on them.

What I find interesting is that when NASCAR implemented double file restarts for the Sprint Cup Series, they said they would be coming "soon" for the Nationwide and Truck Series too, but we haven't heard anything more about that since then.  That's something that should really be considered because it would create even better racing on restarts.

I agree that it would be awful to see the championship determined by pit road rules, but that's really not that different than getting caught up in another driver's wreck or having a part failure (like Skinner saw in 07).  That's part of the racing game, and all of the drivers have to work with the same rules.

[DougS]

I agree that it would be awful to see the championship determined by pit road rules, but that's really not that different than getting caught up in another driver's wreck or having a part failure (like Skinner saw in 07).  That's part of the racing game, and all of the drivers have to work with the same rules.

I totally agree on the above except these teams have the full pit crew and there is no more in-herent danger on pit road in the trucks than any other series. With the pit crew there they get paid the same regardless if they pit once or pit twice.

You're right under the old rule a truck could get a lap down. The same in all of the series. With the lucky dog it's possible for a truck to recover. Because of the current rule and we were on a short track Mike Skinner was trapped down 2 laps. It was a detriment to the race as Ron was able to put 6 seconds on the second place truck.

I think the rule is a detriment to the "entertainment" factor it's happened to many times to multiple drivers. It's a quick fix and puts a better product on the track.

Under the old rules Skinner would have been the first truck one lap down and lined up inside of Ron (also in the lucky dog spot). But at two laps down that truck was out of contention in 20th place. We saw a couple of laps of Skinner trying to get one lap back the hard way but knew he was overdriving the truck.

A bad rule ruined a good race. 

[KurtBuschFan]

Yes under the old rules Skinner would have only been one lap down, but as long as all the teams are subjected to the same rules, that's just part of racing.  Skinner and team didn't have to make two stops, but they chose to, and sadly that's the way the cookie crumbles.  But don't get me wrong...I do agree that Texas and Milwaukee weren't as exciting as they should have been because there were great drivers stuck off the lead lap.