Cam Hill was released from his pit bay following his second compulsory pit stop with a fuel churn still coupled to the #4 Camaro.
Hill subsequently stopped at pit exit, where a nearby Triple Eight crew member removed the churn, allowing the MSR driver to rejoin the race and finish 21st.
MSR has subsequently been slugged the standard penalty for such pit stop infringements; a $3000 fine and the loss of 30 teams’ championship points.
Team owner Stone told Speedcafe he asked for leniency given the fuel churns were in use for the first time this weekend.
The churns have been introduced for the Sprint Cup to avoid the need for teams to set up the labour-intensive rigs that are still required for the endurance events.
“We’re disappointed that it happened. We did a lot of practice and thought we were pretty onto it,” Stone told Speedcafe.
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“Given it was new equipment and slightly controversial equipment being fuel churns, I asked for a bit of leniency on those grounds, but we got the standard fine.
“It’s a safety issue and we did have the car leave with that in there, so we’ve owned it.
“But obviously with new fuel churns that weigh 30 kilos when they’re full, it’s a tough job to manage and unfortunately we just got it wrong.”
The churns carry 25 litres of fuel and appear awkward to handle.
When you need a full tank but only have time for a quick top up 😅
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“As it pulled out it just got onto a little bit of a misalignment and wedged and jammed,” Stone explained.
“Then he had another go at it and at that point the spike guy saw him three quarters of the way out and dropped the car.
“Unfortunately, it was just that last quarter where it jammed in, then it all happened so quickly, there was not much you could do about it.
“It’s something to learn from, we’ll try and tune up our procedures to cover for that sort of thing, but it’s a very heavy piece of equipment that can be difficult to manage.”
A tough weekend for MSR drivers Hill and Nick Percat had already left MSR at the bottom of the team’s standings.
Its reduced tally of 143 points places the team 32 behind the 11th placed Blanchard Racing Team.
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