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.
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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.
Sunday’s Cup Series race at Dover was the perfect example of good strategy overcoming speed and handling shortcomings. Matt Kenseth did not have the best race car over the course of the race, but the right call by his crew chief at the right moment put him in position to win. And Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson are left wondering “what if.”
When the cars come to pit road following a shorter than normal run, crew guys know that anything is possible. Crew chiefs can call for anything from four tires, to fuel only. And often times you won’t get more than a few seconds warning. The crew chief will start counting the driver into the stall, and then make a last minute audible. For many teams on Sunday, that’s exactly what happened. Guys like Johnson, Edwards, and Clint Bowyer who had been the cars to beat all day, were neutralized by two tire stops.
Besides the winning Kenseth, good pit strategy was the key to good finishes for Mark Martin, Marcos Ambrose, and Brian Vickers. Martin stayed out, and Ambrose and Vickers both got two tires.
Along with the late race pit strategy, another surprising element of Sunday’s race was the lack of cautions. Dover isn’t referred to as the “Monster Mile” for nothing, but there were shockingly few on track incidents. Compared to both the CWTS and NNS races the previous two days, the Cup race was tame. Especially on a day when track conditions were treacherous (see track rubber issues).
Finally, I was really disappointed to see how sparsely attended the weekend’s races were. I know a constant threat of rain probably turned off some fans, but to see entire sections of grandstands completely devoid of spectators was sad. Dover always puts on great shows, and there are plenty of largely populated areas nearby to draw from. Hopefully TV ratings were up.
Now it’s your turn. Feel free to weigh in with your thoughts on the weekend’s action. I heard a late race move by FOX to show commercials in a split screen was quite the hit…
If there is one thing you can always be sure of, it’s that no matter what changes with the cars and drivers, the short tracks will always provide a good show. Saturday night’s race at Richmond was no exception, and it gave us everything we’ve come to love about short track racing: beating and banging, tight battles, and flared tempers.
Montoya v. Newman Whether you believe it was warranted or not, Juan Pablo Montoya predictably retaliated against Ryan Newman because of the incident between the two earlier in the race. Montoya has shown in many previous cases that when he feels he’s been wrecked, he will retaliate. Denny Hamlin’s post race comments made it clear that every driver knows it too. And as part of NASCAR’s “have at it” policy, neither driver was penalized or called into a post race meeting with NASCAR. Both drivers were clearly still upset after the race, and with no penalty coming from NASCAR, don’t be surprised if Newman and Montoya tangle again in the future. Both drivers felt wronged, and it’s hard to blame either side.
Martin Truex Jr. The troubles for MTJ continued at Richmond, when his race was effectively ended by a bad pit stop. Truex had to come back to pit road after the front changer had lugnut issues (clearly a loose wheel), and his frustrations exploded into a tirade over the radio in which he “fired” his entire pit crew. This comes only a few weeks after Truex was angry with his team over a hung throttle that ended his day at Martinsville. I wrote a couple years ago about drivers and their love/hate relationship with pit crews, and in this case the hate was on full display. Hopefully front changer Corey Quick doesn’t lose his job over the incident, but if he does, he won’t be the first to be replaced this season (see Denny Hamlin).
Jimmie Johnson On a night when he didn’t have a particularly stellar run, somehow 4-time 5-time again found a way to finish in the top ten. You really have to hand it to this bunch because they never give up. But what I really wanted to say about Jimmie, is that he proved on Sunday that social media is a beautiful thing (and entertaining too). When a fan thanked him for “running over the 20″ on Twitter, Johnson responded with “he ran me across the apron. I’m sure it looks easy from the couch.” Nice.
Now it’s on to Darlington, where the “Lady in Black” will make sure 2011′s drama continues.
Coming off of a season that saw a pot hole mar the opening race and then rain and other issues combine to make for a less than stellar start, 2011 has been nothing short of a breath of fresh air in the Cup Series. And consider this, with Jimmie Johnson’s come from behind win Sunday in Talladega this season has produced seven different winners in eight different races – not a bad start to the season.
Add to that solid start four different championship points leaders and six different lead changes and you’ve got a season that hasn’t really had a stand out driver or team through the first portion.
Our current top-ten in points have had some good stats to back them up – all have at least four top-tens, and with the exception of Kurt Busch, all have at least two top-fives. Half of them have wins. All – with the exception of Kurt Busch – hold the distinction though of having at least one finish of 24th or worse. Some have finishes a lot worse.
The only guy to score repeat wins? Well so far, Kevin Harvick has a DNF at Daytona and two sub-17th place finishes on top of that. His season has so far been a bit of a roller coaster.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the only drivers to have any measure of consistency are the top-three. Carl Edwards is averaging a finish of 8.2 (with blemishes at Phoenix and Martinsville); Jimmie Johnson is averaging a finish of 8.9 with one bad run at Daytona; and Dale Earnhardt Jr., though he is winless, is channeling that classic Steve Letarte consistency, averaging a 10th place finish with just one DNF (a 24th place finish) at Daytona.
Even with the brighter spots in the top-ten, the points are still close enough for drivers to have big swings in and out. Both Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth jumped five spots (in opposite directions) this past weekend.
The fact is, and I think this speaks to the level of competition we have right now in the sport, there just isn’t a dominate team. Going into race nine, it gets harder to turn seven out of eight into eight out of nine, but with the way this season has gone, anything could happen.
So what do you think? Has anybody stood out to you? Who’s most likely to make an early run?
During Sunday’s Jeff Byrd 500 at Bristol, there was a sequence of pit stops in which it was shown on TV that Jimmie Johnson was actually passing cars on pit road. There was some question and discussion about how it could be possible that he would be able to pass cars and not get caught for speeding. In accordance to NASCAR’s rules though, what Johnson and a ton of other drivers do is totally legal. They’ve found a loophole in the system that allows them to legally speed on pit road.
I’m going to attempt to explain how this works, so try and follow along. If you get lost at any point, leave your question in the comment section below and I’ll answer. Here goes…
NASCAR measures the speed of the cars on pit road by segment times. Each pit road is broken into several timing segments. The car’s transponder along with timing & scoring sensors at the beginning and ending of each segment determine segment times. At legal speeds, it takes a certain amount of time (X) to complete a segment. If a car completes a segment in less time than it should legally take to do so, then that car is guilty of speeding. Follow so far?
Okay, now that we’ve established how it works, here’s how they can legally speed. The smart drivers and crew chiefs have figured out at each track where the segments are. They then pick a pit stall in between two timing lines. This means a driver must maintain legal speed until he crosses the timing line before his pit stall. Once over that line, he can hit the throttle and drive into his pit stall over the legal speed limit. Once the pit stop is complete, he can then race out of his stall at a speed over the legal limit, until he reaches the next timing mark, where he then must be at legal speed. What allows for the speeding? The pit stop.
Because a four tire pit stop takes 13ish seconds, it screws up the time for that specific segment. When you take the time it takes for the driver to complete that segment, and add to it the time it takes to complete a pit stop, you’ve got an amount of time that will be way over the legal segment time. Still follow?
I’ll give you an example with some ridiculously hypothetical numbers. Let’s say we are at California, where pit road is 2200 feet. And for our example, let’s say there are ten timing segments (I don’t know how many there are exactly). That means each segment is 220 feet. If pit road speed is 45mph, that means a car can travel 66 feet a second. At 45mph, a car will complete a legal segment in about 3.3 seconds. Now add to that a pit stop that takes 13 seconds. That means a car will be in that specific segment for over 16 seconds. There is no way to illegally “speed” in that segment now. A driver could technically do 200mph into and out of his pit stall and not be guilty of speeding. Crazy right?
So, because pit road speeds are based on these timing segments, and not what a car’s actual speed is at any point on pit road, one can actually legally speed. That’s why Jimmie Johnson was not busted for speeding at Bristol, and why any number of other drivers who do it regularly don’t get busted either. It’s actually quite an art form, although it can be a little unnerving as a pit crew guy to see the car accelerate right before it enters the pit stall.
There are a ton of really smart people who work in this sport, and no matter the rule, somebody will always find a way around it. Welcome to NASCAR.
Filed under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, Reed Sorenson, Daytona Int'l Speedway, NASCAR Fans, Sprint Cup, NASCAR
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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: Jamie McMurray, Jimmie Johnson, Daytona Int'l Speedway, Other Racing Series, NASCAR
Filed under: Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Sprint Cup, Hendrick Motorsports, NASCAR