I’m going to start this off by saying that this post is just speculation on my part. We haven’t heard this is happening, but I wanted to explore it anyway because I think it’s a real possibility. Even though Jimmie Johnson came back to finish fifth on Sunday at New Hampshire, he was clearly not happy after the race. He took the time to voice his disdain for Juan Pablo Montoya’s driving (a topic for another day), but he also expressed his frustration with their pit crew issues. With the Chase only a few short races away, and Chad Knaus’ recent history, I’m wondering if another crew swap might be coming.
Late in Sunday’s race, Johnson was forced to pit twice under caution after a lugnut was left off during his initial pit stop. In his post race interviews, Johnson told reporters:
“If there is anything major that has to change, we need to do it before the Chase starts. I have no clue what that means. And obviously I’m speaking from frustration with a bad day. We’ve been working, we’ve been patient as a group trying to mature some guys and get stuff ready. But we can’t have these mistakes anymore. We are way to close to the Chase, and we need to be right.”
Johnson’s 48 team is in the situation they are with the pit crew, because following a rough end to the 2010 season, Knaus cleaned house. They brought in a group of younger guys and basically make them tryout for their jobs every week. I wasn’t convinced early in the year about Knaus’ plan, and as I wrote a couple weeks ago, things haven’t gone well all season. Sunday’s race was just another example of their struggles.
So what options does Knaus have? Barring a drastic turn around in the coming races before the Chase, it appears he has two. The first would be to try and find even more new guys to plug into the crew. I have heard they are looking for more guys, but I’m not sure there are really talented, experienced guys just out there floating around. And even if they were to bring in some new pieces, it would take a few races for everyone to gel.
The second option would be another crew swap. We saw last season at Texas that Hendrick didn’t have a problem swapping the 24 and 48 crews, and we may be on the brink of seeing that again. This time though, it won’t be the 24 and 48 swapping.
Since the 48, 24, and 88 are all (at least currently) in the Chase, it would appear to me that the 5 crew might be ripe for poaching. Mark Martin currently sits 20th in the points, and it would take a dramatic turn around to make up the 70 points that he is currently out of the Chase. Martin’s pit crew would be exactly what Knaus needs to get Johnson his sixth straight title; very solid and experienced. The current 48 crew would be sufficient enough to get the 5 through the remainder of the season, and then Knaus could form a new plan heading into 2012.
Now again, remember this is all speculation on my part. But don’t be surprised if something like this happens if the 48 crew continues to struggle.
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By now, I’m sure you know by heart the story behind Jimmie Johnson’s pit crew. The team struggles at Texas, gets replaced by Jeff Gordon’s crew for the remainder of the Chase, and all but a few are gone at season’s end. Coming into 2011, Chad Knaus decided to go in a different direction with his pit crews. Over the off season, the team held a ton of tryouts and brought in a big group of younger guys. His plan was to send the fastest six guys from the week’s practices over the wall during that week’s race. It would be the ultimate earn your spot crew. I told you in January that I thought it was a bad idea, and I’m being proven correct.
Before this last week’s race at Michigan, Johnson had a few quotes and comments about the situation and how it’s going. To hear him and Knaus talk, you’d think things were going well. In reality though, race fans have watched the team struggle at times this season. There have certainly been some bright spots, but there have also been some missteps. And those missteps have led to Knaus making changes. The front changer and front carrier were swapped out a few races back, but we’ve seen the new tandem make some mistakes recently. If that continues, expect more changes.
Like I said in my post back in January, the really good pit crews are those that have worked together for a while. Really tight pit stops only happen when guys know each other really well, and can anticipate each other’s every move. If a mistake happens, the team rallies, makes a correction, and keeps digging. Teamwork like that only comes from continuity. Knaus has dismissed this completely.
What every smart pit crew coach and crew chief understands is that mistakes are going to happen on pit road. There is just too much happening very quickly, and in very tight spaces for things to go right all the time. The guys who stick around on pit road for many years are those who are able to quickly forget about mistakes and get right back to business. A guy who is constantly worried about making one small mistake and getting replaced won’t be at the top of his game. He’s too focused on not screwing up, when he should be focused on staying loose and doing things right.
The pit crew situation at Hendrick Motorsports is really an interesting dichotomy. On one hand we’ve got Knaus with his brilliant plan, and on the other we’ve got the rest of the teams using the traditional method. The 88 and 5 pit crews consist of veteran guys who’ve been together for some time. The 24 crew has a mix of veteran and younger guys, but they have been kept together. You know the result.
At the end of the day, I feel bad for those six who strap up and don Lowe’s firesuits each week. In some sense, they are behind before they even start. They are already responsible for servicing the race car for the reigning five-time champ, but because of their leader’s plan, they are subject to an extra helping of pressure. Instead of hearing “hey, we’ve got your back and we support you,” they get “hey, don’t screw up or you’re out.” Not a great message. And everyone in the garage sees it, except for Chad Knaus.
The recently announced Farmers-to-Hendrick deal for Kasey Kahne has spawned some discussion and speculation about the future of UPS’ NASCAR sponsorship. Apparently some felt that UPS was a candidate to adorn the hood of Kahne’s future ride at HMS, but the Farmers deal seems to signal that that now won’t happen. UPS’ current deal with Roush Fenway and David Ragan is up at the end of this season, and you can be sure they will be exploring all options.
The first time – and so far only time – we saw Kahne and UPS mentioned in the same sentence publicly was in a recent post from Scene Daily’s Bob Pockrass. Pockrass speculated about where UPS could end up, and mentioned Carl Edwards and Clint Bowyer as possible candidates if they decide to leave Ragan’s #6 car. But as we saw back in 2008, drivers of that caliber may be out of reach for UPS.
It is believed that the current UPS deal with RFR pays somewhere around $17-$18 million per season, and the reason the shipper ended up with Ragan back in ’08 was because that wasn’t enough to lock down a big name like Edwards for a full season. Barring a major shift in strategy and budget from UPS, numbers in that neighborhood don’t appear to be enough this time around either. Sports Business Journal’s Tripp Mickle says Farmers is paying HMS $17.6 million a season for partial sponsorship of Kahne’s car, and that might be a big sign that UPS could again be priced out of the game for upper tier drivers.
Pockrass does mention that a partial deal with UPS and Edwards might be a way for Roush to keep Big Brown. For that to happen though, UPS would have to agree to share a driver with another sponsor(s), which is something we haven’t seen them do in the past. I’m not saying it can’t or won’t happen, but it would certainly be a departure from their past deals.
With Ragan much improved this season, UPS may just end up re-signing. But there is still so much up in the air for RFR, it may be some time before we know anything definitive. If 2008 was any indication though, expect UPS to be linked with everyone and their dog for the duration of the summer.
The business end of NASCAR is finally starting to turn around, and we saw proof of it this last week. On Tuesday, Farmers Insurance announced a three year deal to sponsor Kasey Kahne’s #5 Chevrolets at Hendrick Motorsports. Farmers will be the primary sponsor for 22 races each season, and will get “prominent brand placement” in all other events. While Hendrick still has races to fill for the #5, Farmers represents new money into NASCAR, and that’s a good sign for everyone.
It seems that over the last few seasons, we’ve seen many sponsors move from one team to another, but we haven’t seen a ton of new sponsors coming in. The downturn in the economy and NASCAR’s attendance and ratings struggles have been the main reasons. It’s certainly not a bad thing when sponsors move teams, just as long as they stay involved in the sport. But over time, it’s unrealistic to think that all current sponsors will stay involved. Agendas will change and companies will leave. It’s important to the future health of the sport that teams are able to attract sponsors that have never been involved in NASCAR before.
Farmers’ deal with Hendrick is part of a broader plan by the insurance provider to increase consumer awareness. They’ve also signed recent deals with the PGA Tour and the proposed NFL stadium in Los Angeles. (If you’re a Sports Business Journal subscriber, see recent article about Farmers here.)
Along with the good news from HMS, we heard from FOX this week that the overall TV ratings for their 13 events were up 9% over 2010. As NASCAR rights deals edge closer to expiring, numbers like this will be very important in the renegotiation process. They also help teams in selling sponsorship deals like Hendrick did with Farmers.
As the year progresses, hopefully we will see a few more deals like this one emerge. There are plenty of teams still looking to lock down sponsorship for 2012 and beyond, including RCR’s #33, and maybe Farmers will help open up a flow of new money.
This was a tough weekend for Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the #88 team. For the second time this season they came just short of a win; oddly enough, to the same guy – Kevin Harvick. On top of that, the conspiracy mill was in full force this week over the caution that didn’t get called at the end of the race. It was a disappointing way to end what had been a good a day.
Even with that bad day it’s hard to feel too bad for Earnhardt Jr. Consider these stats from NASCAR:
Those are stats to be proud of considering the difficulty of the last few seasons. Remember this is a guy who is on his fourth crew chief since 2005, and though he has 18 Cup wins in 12 full seasons, he has just three wins since 2005. The success of the DEI years have yet to be replicated at Hendrick.
Chemistry has clearly been important for Earnhardt Jr.’s success (as it is for most teams) and it was a key thing missing with Tony Eury Jr., and Lance McGrew. He needed someone to support him, to serve as a cheerleader and to achieve on the box – I think he’s found all that in Steve Letarte.
In interviews and on the track he just seems to be a happier guy. His worst finish of the year was at Daytona – a 24th – and he’s finished on the lead lap in all but two races. Last year, at this same point, he had three sub-29th place finishes and sat 16th in the points.
Without a doubt, Hendrick is providing Earnhardt Jr. with the equipment he needs to get things done. That key chemistry has been missing for a while though and I think they may just have found it. There is still two-thirds of the season remaining, but Junior looks to be on track for his first Chase appearance since 2008. And you never know when they could end up in victory lane.
All in all, things could be worse.
fleet·ing ex·ple·tive a non-scripted verbal profanity or obscenity expressed and broadcast during a live television broadcast or radio broadcast. The term appears primarily in discussions of United States broadcasting law.
Yep, he did. If you watched the Coca-Cola 600 all the way through Sunday night, you were treated to a little fleeting expletive courtesy of Chad Knaus. As Jimmie Johnson’s engine expired with about five to go the Fox production crew cut to the team’s radio traffic. In that brief moment Knaus is clearly heard saying, “You’ve got to be f$*#ing kidding me.” (Fair warning - video here).
Fox’s Mike Joy promptly apologized for the profanity. But unfortunately, what was done, was done.
This isn’t the first time this season (not even this month) we’ve talked about profanities and the sanctity of radio chatter. Interestingly enough, Kurt Busch (the topic of our first radio traffic post of the season) took time during his media availability on Thursday to criticize the way the media has handled language on the radio. He said:
“I always laugh and sit there and listen to you guys contradict yourselves, saying you want us to be more colorful,” [Busch] said. “But also what you want to do to a driver is just thrash him when he shows personality. That’s what I’m going through with this radio.”
No doubt, interesting bookends to the weekend.
Obviously this wasn’t a moment that should have found its way to network television. That said, it was an understandable ‘fleeting expletive’ given the situation – a frustrating end to what had been a pretty good day. I can’t say I would have reacted much differently.
One has to wonder though the logic behind putting, what I assume was live radio traffic on the air. Fox, as far as I know, isn’t using any kind of a delay, despite several past incidents. The potential for getting burned is quite large.
We’ll see Tuesday if NASCAR does anything about this incident, but it would be very unfortunate if Knaus does get fined. Other than not using the radio to vent frustration, there wasn’t anything he could do about this being broadcast to millions of people. Perhaps we’ve come to a place where that should be the expectation any time the radio is keyed.
Every time this becomes an issue, I find it unfortunate for the fans who enjoy listening to the radio. The access is truly one of the great things in NASCAR and these moments can have a chilling effect on what does and does not get said over open channels (i.e. emotion). We’ll see if there’s any fallout.
Weekend Fun Fact
Did anyone else notice in both the Indy 500 and the Coke 600 this weekend both National Guard sponsored cars lost the race by literally hundreds of feet on the last lap? Strange coincidence.
It’s always nice for the teams when we get to this part of the schedule, because with all three series racing in Charlotte, it means most get to sleep in their own beds. But a crowded weekend schedule, along with a trip to Iowa for the Nationwide cars, means some will have a very busy couple of days.
As we’ve talked about here many times before, there are some individuals and some full crews that pit race cars across multiple series. A few do it within their own companies, and others pit cars for many different race teams. You’d think Charlotte races would make for an easier weekend, but that isn’t necessarily the case.
Consider this example. The five guys that pit Trevor Bayne’s Cup car are also the same guys that pit Carl Edwards’ NNS ride. With their commitments between both cars, they will be pitting race cars four straight days. The Daytona 500 win made Bayne eligible for the All Star race, and his crew eligible for the Pit Crew Challenge. So his guys will spend Thursday at Time Warner Cable Arena for the Challenge. Then, they will head out to Charlotte Motor Speedway on Friday because qualifying for the All Star race includes that all important pit stop. On Saturday, the team will be busy working the All Star race. And they will close out their weekend with a nice short trip out to Iowa to pit Edwards’ Mustang on Sunday. Whew, I’m tired for them.
Besides this group, there are other guys and crews who will work Friday night’s Truck race, Saturday’s All Star race or Showdown, and then fly out to Iowa for the NNS race. The backup teams for the likes of Red Bull Racing and Hendrick Motorsports will have weekends similar to this. And many of these guys will be right back to their shop or other jobs on Monday morning.
Thanks to weekends like this, it isn’t uncommon for some guys to pit race cars in 70+ races a year. It can be extremely grueling and tough on the body over the course of a 10 month season. But for those that are willing to hustle, there is experience to be had and some nice money to be made.
Seven races into the season and all those questions we got in the off-season are starting to be answered, namely what off-season changes have worked, and in some cases haven’t so far in 2011.
One of the biggest changes that came after Homestead last season (and the topic for this particular follow up) was the crew chief swap at Hendrick Motorsports. Alan Gustafson was moved from the #5 to the #24; Lance McGrew was moved from the #88 to the #5, and Steve Letarte was moved from the #24 to the #88. And the results so far? Well, it’s a mixed bag.
After struggling through much of last season, Mark Martin’s fortunes have not turned around with new crew chief Lance McGrew. Through the first seven races of last season Martin averaged a finish of 16.1 including three top-fives – this year, he’s averaging 17th place finish with just two top-ten finishes. He finds himself 15th in points.
How about Jeff Gordon? He was able to finally overcome that winless streak and head to victory lane at Phoenix, but he’s had some struggles elsewhere. A wreck at Las Vegas and sub-20th place finishes at Texas and Daytona have pushed Gordon’s average finish to 17.9 – compare that to an average finish of 12.2 after the first seven races of last season. In points, he sits next to teammate Mark Martin in 14th.
The biggest winner of this shift appears to be Dale Earnhardt Jr. who struggled through his first three seasons at Hendrick with crew chiefs Tony Eury Jr., and Lance McGrew. With Steve Letarte at the helm Junior hasn’t finished worse than 12th since Daytona and was in position to win at Martinsville. With an average finish of 10.9 he sits sixth in the points right now. Not too shabby for a guy who, just a few short months ago, finished an abysmal 21st in points. Consider though through the first seven last year he was averaging a 14th place finish and sat 10th in the points. Can his strong start be maintained?
With 29 races still remaining in the season there is a ton of time for the slow starters to start making some headway. Still it’s interesting to see where they stand right now. What do you think of the swap? Has it been a success? A flop? Talk amongst yourselves.
Caught beneath all the hustle and bustle of last week’s Sprint Media Tour was a very interesting bit about Hendrick Motorsports and their pit crew situation for 2011 (see articles here and here). Specifically, that Chad Knaus and his shop mate Steve Letarte had yet to really solidify their starting pit crew lineups for the season. In an attempt to build depth for their over-the-wall crews, no doubt in response to last season’s debacle at Texas, Knaus and Letarte have put together the equivalent of three full crews. Supposedly this will allow them to have capable guys available at the track in the event of injuries or performance issues. Does this sound like trouble to anyone else?
Having backup pit crew guys is not a new phenomenon. I actually wrote about it early last year (see post here). There is too much at stake during these races to not have some sort of a contingency plan. But it appears to me that Knaus and Letarte may have taken this too far.
What I see here, is two race teams with three pit crews. And you have Knaus saying he has yet to settle on a lineup (let me remind you that the Budweiser Shootout is 11 days away). With all the changes coming to the Cup Series this season in regards to the new fuel cans and procedures, these guys need all the time they can get to work through the difficulties of the new system. The fact that Knaus can’t point to six guys and say “yup, that’s my pit crew” should worry 48 fans.
I also question whether having a third pit crew looking over your shoulder at all times is really good for morale. I’m all for competition and having to earn your spot, but having another starting lineup hanging around will screw with your head. Doing what we do can be a big head game as it is, without adding the extra pressure.
It’s also important to note that the really good pit crews are those that have had continuity, and have had ample time to work together and get to know each other. I don’t know how you build any of that when you are constantly plugging in guys and facing the possibility of a different six every week.
I realize that I probably shouldn’t question the guy who’s been the man in charge of the team that’s won the last five straight championships. Don’t get me wrong, I think Knaus is a really smart guy. You don’t get to where he is unless you know a thing or two about people and race cars. I just wonder if maybe he has over thought this situation because of his team’s issues last season.
Only time will tell if Knaus’ plan will pay dividends, but on initial inspection, I’m not sold.
Filed under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin, Crew Chiefs, Pit Crews, Sprint Cup, Hendrick Motorsports, NASCAR
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