Column: NASCAR’s revamped penalty structure is an improvement

NASCAR is on a roll lately with making good decisions.

Yes, I’m serious. No, I’m not feeling sick. So far, 2017 has been positive for NASCAR’s leaders (although the season hasn’t started yet).

The latest changes, revealed in a rules bulletin Thursday afternoon, completely revamp the penalty structure. You know those P3 penalties and all that mess? Gone.

NASCAR is appearing to try and move away from midweek penalty announcements (which generated poor publicity for officials, drivers, teams and sponsors alike) by implementing a system which will address bad behavior (also known as cheating) immediately.

For example: Something that might have been a Tuesday or Wednesday penalty in the past will now be dealt with through one of several “deterrents” during the actual race weekend.

Here are my three favorite deterrents, ranked:

1. The loss of hard cards

This one is so delicious. Hard cards — or season credentials — are a huge deal in the NASCAR garage. Those who work at the track either have a hard card — which makes life so much easier, as you can cruise in and out of the garage with minimal scrutiny — or a paper credential, which is a headache.

Paper credentials suck because:

— You have to stand in line to get them, one person at a time, often while waiting for the credential trailer to open. It’s a major inconvenience if you are going to the track every week.

— You either have to wear them around your neck in one of those oversized credential holders (which would be totally embarrassing for a crew guy) or try to stuff it into your pocket and pull it out (with ID!) every time you go into the garage or out to pit road. Security has an eagle eye for paper credentials.

So if an entire team loses hard cards because of a failed inspection or something, it’s going to be like wearing a dunce cap for goofing off in school. Crew guys are going to catch total crap from other teams for this, and this humiliation might feel worse than their car starting at the rear of the field (which is also still on the list of potential penalties).

2. Inspection go-around

In the past, teams could fail one station during pre-qualifying or pre-race inspection, pull out of line, tweak the car a bit and try again.

Welp, not anymore.

This year, if a car doesn’t pass one of the inspection stations, the team will have to take it back to the garage, fix the problem and start inspection all over again! That is going to be a massive time loss, and it will undoubtedly cause some cars to completely miss qualifying and possibly even the start of some races.

You do NOT want that to happen to your team, which is exactly why NASCAR is making the rule in the first place. It’s not going to be unfair or the fault of an unpredictable laser station or anything like that, so don’t pay attention if teams cry foul when this happens.

Want your car to pass inspection? Cool, then just make sure it’s legal. If pushing the limits causes it to fail a station, then deal with the consequences.

3. Stop and go under green

As I mentioned earlier, the changes appear to be about dealing with infractions immediately. So let’s say a car had an illegal part or something and it was discovered in pre-race inspection. Previously, it might not be public at the time and the team could get a 10-point penalty a few days later.

But now NASCAR is going to try to deal with it right then. One of the options is a stop-and-go penalty under the green flag (which means coming to pit road, stopping in the pit box and leaving again) and depending on the track, it could cause a car to go down multiple laps.

Now, is this going to totally eliminate all of the midweek penalty announcements and headlines? Of course not, and NASCAR surely knows teams aren’t going to just stop trying to sneak by with tricks to get an advantage. But this is a smart change overall, and it should be interesting to see if Penalty Wednesdays are a little quieter this season.