As pit crew members, we always have to be ready for anything. We’ve got to keep our eyes open for other cars (and our own) on pit road so as to not get hit during a stop. We have to be prepared to fix crash damage at a moment’s notice. We have to make spring rubber, track bar, wedge, and a myriad of other adjustments. And we have to be be ready to change up the play at any time.
On Saturday at Gateway, we saw just one of these instances. Towards the end of the Nationwide Series race, a caution brought most of the teams to pit road. With it being late in the race, teams were going to try different strategies to try and win the race. Justin Allgaier, who’d had a dominate car all day, was one of the cars on pit road.
As the car entered the stall, the crew was prepared to do a two tire pit stop. While the team worked on the right side however, crew chief Chad Walter changed his mind and decided they needed to get four tires. The crew made the adjustment on the fly, and sent Allgaier back onto the track with fresh rubber all the way around.
If you watched the race and this specific pit stop, you may have noticed the stop was a bit slower then usual. This is a symptom of the crew chief’s audible. When you step off the wall prepared to do one job, and end up having to do another, it will take a split second to make the change in your head. In this case though, the crew did the best they could with the situation they were presented with. Their left side tires were close (a sign of a well prepared team) and they completed the stop.
Allgaier went on to finish third in the race, and while it may appear that Walter screwed up, remember that it’s easy to be a Monday morning quarterback. He made a quick assessment of what the other teams were doing during their pit stops (Allgaier was the #1 pit stall, so Walter had time to see the other strategies) and tried to make the best call to help Allgaier win. He took a shot, and in this case it didn’t work out.
This situation was a perfect example of why crews have to be ready for anything. Sometimes we may not know what work we have to do until the car is a stall or two away. And sometimes changes are made mid-stop. But these are the types of stops that always separate the good from the bad.
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Filed under: Carl Edwards, Sprint Cup
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After a couple of days of what I’m sure was intense hand wringing and some serious questions, NASCAR announced Wednesday the punishment for Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski after their last lap melee at Gateway. As I’m sure most of you saw, NASCAR docked Edwards 60 driver points and fined him $25,000 and docked Jack Roush 60 owner points. Both Edwards and Keselowski were placed on probation until the end of the year.
After the announcement Twitter was a buzz with speculation about what this would mean for NASCAR’s ‘boys, have at it’ policy. Many decried this as inconsistency, others said it would have a chilling effect, and still some applauded it.
Wherever you stand on the penalty, I thought the insistence by some that this would kill the new, more open policy was interesting – especially after the intense discussion on the matter leading up to NASCAR’s Wednesday afternoon announcement.
I personally tend to think this penalty won’t have a great affect on the current atmosphere. Certainly I think Carl’s penalty will make guys think twice about paying somebody back on track, but in the heat of the moment I believe we’re still going to see retribution.
Perhaps if this had been the first penalty issued after NASCAR instituted the policy it would have not changed the way things operated. Guys would have seen that NASCAR wasn’t serious about the change. Consider though what NASCAR has allowed drivers to do this season.
Denny Hamlin was wrecked under caution after Clint Bowyer returned to the track – Bowyer got probation. Carl Edwards returned to the track after getting repaired at Atlanta and wrecked Brad Keselowski – Keselowski ended up on his top in the fence and Edwards got parked and put on probation.
Drivers have seen what NASCAR has allowed others to get away with. The key lesson to all of this is, if you have spoken with John Darby, Mike Helton or both already regarding an incident with a fellow competitor and they’ve told you to cool it, you better cool it. If something blatant goes down on track you’re probably going to have a harsher penalty as a result.
Still NASCAR knows what a success this policy has been, and how good the racing has been this season. The last thing they want to do is murder the thing that has helped them get to this point – and I think most drivers know that.
Some More Penalty Thoughts
I think it’s important to remember Carl is a repeat offender – and these two have a long history. Was this weekend’s wreck any more or less blatant than anything anyone else has done this season? I don’t really think so. I do think though at some point NASCAR was going to have to draw a line and say “enough is enough.” This just happened to be the point.
Was it inconsistent? Maybe in the sense that they’ve chosen not to punish offenders quite so harshly this season (Carl among those). It’s unfair to compare this to previous seasons though as NASCAR was operating under a different policy. That said, NASCAR could stand to use some consistency. At times they’re definitely making up penalties as they go.
It hurts the credibility of the sport when the sanctioning body isn’t consistently enforcing things, or drawing clear distinctions ahead of time for what is and is not OK.
I know we and everyone else has spent a lot of time talking about this, this week (and generally we hate to have two posts of similar topics on the same week), but we like to be able to foster and facilitate discussion. Overall I think this week has been interesting in the development of this new doctrine – though I honestly don’t believe anything will change.
“Boys, have at it” may have finally reached its limit.
In the final lap of the Nationwide race at Gateway this weekend, familiar foes Brad Keselowski and Carl Edwards went at it…again. Each driver took a shot at the other, beginning with Keselowski into Edwards, and ending with Edwards into Keselowski (and Keselowski into the wall and Shelby Howard into him). The controversial end to the race is just the latest in a series of incidents since NASCAR loosened its grip on driver confrontations.
Overall, I think we can all agree the policy shift has been successful. Drivers are now settling their disputes between each other, and NASCAR is not affecting points or relationships. Like all good things though, there comes a time when too much of a good thing becomes a bad thing – we may have seen that Saturday night.
Perhaps the goal of these two is to see which can kill the other first – I don’t know. That said, I can’t necessarily blame either for their individual actions. Brad was utilizing the bump and run (it didn’t work), and Carl wasn’t happy about it (given their relationship that’s no surprise). What transpired just short of the start/finish line though should be yet another warning for all those considering ending a fellow competitors day on track.
Did you see how hard Shelby Howard hit Keselowski? The front stretch at such a small track is dangerous with the checkered flag in the air. Again, I don’t necessarily blame Carl for doing what he did, but I think we’re nearing the point when NASCAR needs to draw a line in the sand, and say “this is not acceptable.”
The problem with NASCAR issuing damaging penalties though is that it could have a chilling effect on the policy. If drivers see that there are limits, they might be more apt to keep their mouths shut and their frustration private – something NASCAR desperately wants to avoid.
NASCAR has to walk a very fine line with this (especially under the circumstances). Too much of a penalty they risk alienating a positive policy change. Not enough, they enhance the environment for something more serious to occur.
So far we’ve just seen probation given to those who have actively engaged in on-track retaliation this season. Could that change on Tuesday (NASCAR’s usual penalty announcement day)? I honestly don’t know, but I wouldn’t be surprised either way.
What do you think? Was the payback justified? Should Carl be penalized? What’s the limit for ‘boys, have at it’? Talk amongst yourselves.
What started out as a tension filled weekend between the likes of Kevin Harvick Inc. and Thorsport Racing ended up turning into a bizarre display of teammate on teammate crime. Hey Harvick, if there is one driver that you can be damn sure isn’t going to pull over for you, it’s Ron Hornaday.
After Thorsport driver Matt Crafton was involved in an incident at Gateway the weekend before that ended with point leader Hornaday in the garage with a destroyed truck, rumors began to circulate about possible payback at New Hampshire. Harvick entered himself into the race in a third truck and proceeded to harass Crafton in both practice and the race. But the big hit never came.
Instead, Harvick and Hornaday battled over the final laps while Kyle Busch ran away with the win. After the race, Harvick expressed his anger over Hornaday not letting him by. Harvick’s rationale was that his truck was faster, as he was on fresher tires, and if he could get by Hornaday he might have something for Busch. But Hornaday stood his ground and Harvick was not able to complete the pass. Harvick couldn’t understand why Hornaday’s spotter (Rick Carelli) and crew chief (Rick Ren) didn’t inform the veteran driver that Harvick wanted by.
You want to know why they didn’t say anything Kevin? Because Hornaday is racing for a championship. Isn’t that what you hired him to do? Win championships? You certainly don’t do that by letting people by.
Team orders don’t normally bear their ugly head in NASCAR, and are more often seen as part of the strategy in series such as Formula One (see Renault). In those cases though, teams have a clear number one driver. In this case, one would think that Hornaday is the number one driver for KHI. Apparently Harvick doesn’t see things that way.
What really shocks me about this whole situation though, is that Harvick really thought Hornaday should pull over for him. But if you know anything about Hornaday, you know that isn’t going to happen. This is a guy that has built his career on rootin’ and gougin’ his way to the front. He would just as soon wreck you as let you pass. He came up on the short tracks of the west and isn’t the most successful Truck Series driver ever for nothing. And Harvick, who followed a very similar path, should understand that better then anyone.
I’m sure the weekend recap meeting at KHI this week was probably an interesting affair. Hopefully though Harvick realized his error in judgement and apologized to Hornaday. But if he didn’t, and I was Ron Hornaday, I would politely (or not so politely) tell my boss to go pound sand.