FWIW, I learn something new EVERY TIME I read the CCRs. For example - while inspecting cars @ COTA, I took notice of Mr Patterson's lack of rollbar padding on his FIA bar, and said he needed to fix that before Sunday's race. He said he has a hard time seeing with the padding in place, and races without the padding. I responded with, "if your hands, legs, head can contact a bar, you gotta have padding".

Well.....while standing there, I decided to double check the CCRs, just to make certain. NASA CCRs, , subsection section #15.6.4 says:

Quote Originally Posted by NASA v2018.6 CCRs, section 15.6.4
All roll cage surfaces that may come in contact with the driver’s head, knees, and elbows must be padded with high-density padding such as Ethafoam or Ensolite or other material labeled “high density padding” and manufactured for road racing use.
Surprisingly, it says NOTHING about hands. The 2006 version (the oldest version I still have a copy of) says,
Quote Originally Posted by NASA 2006 CCRs, section 15.6.4
All roll cage surfaces that may come in contact with the driver shall be padded with high-density padding such as Ethafoam or Ensolite. It is recommended that padding meeting SFI specification 45.1 be used.
The same v2006 wording follows thru until 2017, when it changed to the version we now see in the 2018 CCRs.

After dealing with Covini for so many years, I've learned to constantly go back and check what's in black and white.

Michael - regarding your info about the 5lb leeway.....we used this CCR section for a driver that ended up being EXACTLY 5lbs light after the Friday morning qual session, and hadn't yet been officially weighed. It gave that driver the benefit of the doubt, no DQ, all within the rules.

Knowing the CCRs is valuable for EVERY driver.