#14-Tony Stewart is ‘beyond mad’ with NASCAR over the sanctioning body’s lack of lug nut enforcement on pit road, the driver/team owner said Wednesday. NASCAR stopped requiring teams to put all five lug nuts on its wheels at the start of last season, part of a new pit road technology initiative that also saw a reduction of its officiating force. With officials no longer in every pit box, NASCAR said it was up to the teams whether they should put all five lug nuts on the wheel or not. But teams have been pushing the limit by only securing as few as three lug nuts, creating an epidemic of loose wheels in the sport. And Stewart said it’s only a matter of time before that ends badly. ‘I guarantee you that envelope is going to keep getting pushed until somebody gets hurt,’ Stewart said. ‘You will not have heard a rant that’s going to be as bad as what’s going to come out of my mouth if a driver gets hurt because of a loose wheel that hurts one of them. With all the crap we’re going through with all the safety stuff, and for them to sit there and sit on their hands on this one ‘¦ this is not a game you play with safety and that’s exactly the way I feel like NASCAR is treating this. This is not the way to do this.’ Stewart said NASCAR overall has done a fine job on safety ‘ such as mandating safety changes to superspeedway cars in technical bulletins ‘ but said ‘in this one particular area, they are totally dropping the ball and I feel like really made a grossly bad decision on.’(USA Today)
