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Pit road has played a big roll in the outcome of races this season, and as the Cup and Nationwide Series search for their 2011 champions, an even bigger emphasis will be placed on the crews. Those drivers with the strongest pit crews will have a serious advantage as we come into the home stretch. Knowing that, some teams have made moves to strengthen their performance over the wall. Two recent pit crew shakeups have already paid dividends to their teams, and the moves could be crucial in the hopes of two contenders.
Saturday night in Richmond, Kevin Harvick re-emerged as a legitimate title contender. After spending much of the summer struggling to find some measure of mojo, Harvick and the 29 team showed they are ready to take a shot at unseating the 48. And what was a big key to Harvick’s fourth win of the season? A key pit stop late in the race. With 15 laps to go, a caution brought the field to pit road, and fast work by Harvick’s crew put the 29 ahead of Jeff Gordon on the ensuing restart. Harvick was then able to hold off Carl Edwards for the win, and secure his spot tied with Kyle Busch atop the standings heading to Chicago.
If you might remember, it’s only been a few weeks since Richard Childress Racing replaced it’s pit crew coach. And along with the coaching change came a new front changer for Harvick’s crew. Tim Sheets, who has spent the season changing for Elliott Sadler’s #2 team in the Nationwide Series, was brought up to help alleviate some of the pit stop issues Harvick has experienced this season. Needless to say, the move has worked.
In the Nationwide Series, the battle for the driver’s title is a tight one. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. only has a 16 point cushion between himself and second place Elliott Sadler with seven races remaining. In order to give Stenhouse the best possible chance to win the championship, Jack Roush has pulled out all the stops. After a tough night at Atlanta, Stenhouse’s entire pit crew was replaced with the #6 Cup crew of David Ragan. The change provided immediate results. With the double duty #6 guys servicing his race car at Richmond, Stenhouse never ran lower than seventh in the race, and finished a very strong third behind Kyle Busch and Edwards.
Because racing has become so tight out on the track, teams have discovered that it is often easier to make passes on pit road. And in order to do that, they need the quickest six guys they can put together. As the Chase gets ready to kick off this weekend, expect pit road to be a big factor in who takes home this season’s Cup.
As we get ready to head to Talladega this weekend, pit crew coaches across the sport will spend the week preaching to their crews about the importance of not making mistakes. Even if it means pit stops take a few extra seconds than normal, it’s more important to get things right, than it is to have quick stops. Why? Because pit stops in the new era of superspeedway racing really don’t matter.
In a world where races often have multiple leaders per lap, the importance of track position has been lowered. Cars can go from the back to the front, or front to the back, very quickly. Having blazing fast pit stops and picking up spots on pit road is really not worth the risk of possibly having dropped lugnuts, loose wheels, and other mistakes. Obviously crew chiefs don’t want slow stops, but there is less of a focus on being quick, and more of a focus on being mistake free.
Besides the nature of the racing, another reason why pit stops mean less has to do with the tires. Now that both Daytona and Talladega have new surfaces, tire wear over the course of a race has become a non-issue. Some even said that it may have been possible to run the entire Daytona 500 on one set of tires! In any case, crew chiefs want to spend the least amount of time on pit road possible, and if they don’t need to take tires, they won’t. At Daytona in February, this led to a lot of fuel only and two tire pit stops.
Something else to keep in mind when watching pit stops this weekend, is that some teams will set the cars up to maximize speed on track, and in turn sacrifice speed on pit road. What I am referring to specifically is the shock package that some teams use. We’ve seen in the past that the front tire changers and carriers will struggle with the right front. When the car is jacked up, the shock won’t bleed down and it causes the right front tire to stay up in the fender. It makes it very difficult for the changers to get the old tire off, and for the carriers to get the new tire in. Not every team has this problem, but it can significantly slow down pit stops for the teams that do.
Like I’ve said here before, races can’t necessarily be won on pit road, but they can certainly be lost there. This weekend, crews will be doing everything possible to ensure the race is decided on the track and not on pit road.
As a tire changer I have basically two jobs: take the lugnuts off and put the lugnuts on. Sounds simple enough right? Well don’t forget that during a pit stop there are 20 lugnuts to hit, that is 10 off and 10 back on. So in essence, that’s 20 chances to screw up. And trust me, there are a lot of ways to screw it up.
At Bristol, even though Jamie McMurray finished third, it was a tough night for his guys. After one round of pit stops under caution, McMurray had to bring his car back to pit road because the rear changer knocked off lugnuts. Meet tire changer deadly sin number one. When a new tire gets hung on the hub, the lugnuts sit on the end of the studs and wait for us to come back and tighten them up. On your way to getting them tight quickly, it only takes a small miss to knock one off. And sometimes the jackman is paying attention and sees you knock one off, so you can fix it without coming back to pit road. There are plenty of cases though, where a changer knocks one off, the official sees it, and the jackman sends the car. The team has just bought their driver a return trip to pit road. These situations aren’t exactly conducive to job security.
What’s interesting to note though, is that there are actually a lot of cases where a lugnut gets knocked off but the official doesn’t see it, and the car heads back to the race with only four. Things happen so quickly during a stop, that if a changer knocks one off, but is a good actor, the official won’t notice. Often times the official only knows a lug is missing because the changer was fumbling around.
The next deadly sin will also ruin a race for a team, and could cost the changer his job. This sin is usually predicated by a short radio message that goes like this: “I’ve got a vibration.” Those are words dreaded by every changer on pit road. Why? Because that can mean loose lugnuts. There are a ton of reasons why lugnuts could be left loose or come loose, but in any case, it’s really bad when they do. The vibration comes from the fact that the loose wheel is now wobbling on the hub, destroying both the wheel and the studs. And every changer has had those pit stops in his career where when he got done, he said a little prayer and thought “wow, I hope those are tight.” You then spend the next 60 laps praying that the car makes it to the next pit stop without hearing that dreaded message.
The other two sins I will mention here will kill pit stop times, but unless they are repeated over and over, probably won’t completely ruin a race. They are hanging lugnuts, and hitting more then 20 during a stop.
Hanging lugnuts means you hit all five off, but for whatever reason, one (or more) doesn’t come all the way off the stud. It’s a horrible feeling to grab a hold of the wheel to pull it off, only to be jarred by a stuck lugnut that won’t allow the wheel to come off. The next course of action is to either pick the gun back up and hit the offending nut off, or try and spin it with your fingers. And we will call attempting to spin the lug with your fingers deadly sin 3-B. Crew chiefs and pit crew coaches alike will chew some ass over that tactic because sometimes the lugnut might be stuck and your fingers aren’t strong enough to spin it off. Or maybe it took 10 turns to get the lug off. Either way, you just killed the stop.
In practices and at the races, we are always told to “just hit 20.” Only hitting 20 lugnuts is what we all strive for. Sometimes though, that just doesn’t happen. Instead of hitting five, it’s not uncommon for a changer to hit six, or seven, or eight off. There are again a million reasons why this could happen, but every extra hit means the pit stop is longer by two to three tenths of a second. So if I miss one time during each pattern, that’s four extra hits for the whole stop, which just cost my team one second in the pits.
These are all deadly sins because if done enough, they will all lead to a changers demise. And trust me, having to explain why you just screwed up a race is not exactly a fun conversation. No race can ever be won in the pits, but it certainly can be lost.
With the Nationwide Series and Truck Series moving to some non-companion events over the summer, it seems that I hear everyday about teams looking for quality crew members for upcoming races. It really makes me wonder if we aren’t almost facing a bit of a shortage of pit crew guys.
There are a good number of guys that have crew gigs all weekend. A crew guy may pit a Nationwide car on Saturday and a Cup car on Sunday. Some are even finding ways to not only double dip, but even add some Truck races! By freelancing themselves out, they can make some very good extra money, get more experience, and gain exposure. Some teams also use guys across the various series. Teams like Gibbs and Penske have guys that are on both their NNS and Cup teams.
When the series separate however, it creates holes for many teams. They are then left trying to put crews together last minute. With travel and license issues arising from these last minute hires, plus the uncertainty about a guy’s experience and abilities, it can make the whole situation very difficult.
With NASCAR imposing hard card limits on teams in the NNS and CWTS, I wonder if they have created an unintended effect. The rules were put in place to help the teams save money on salaries and travel, but they have limited the opportunities for younger guys trying to work their way up the ranks. Many of these kids that come through the various pit crew schools don’t often have the know-how to also be mechanics, so they miss out on opportunities. Teams are forced to find guys that not only work on the cars, but pit them too, so as to be compliant with the credential limits.
What then ends up happening, is that on weekends when holes are created by non-companion races, there just aren’t enough experienced guys available. There are plenty of kids available who “know” how to change tires, jack, and carry, but very few have a ton of experience. And crew chiefs don’t like bringing in some new guy who doesn’t have a ton of races under his belt. It takes time for a crew guy to understand what he needs to do to be successful at the track, and to be able to transfer his skills from practice to the race.
While the causes may be different, the problem is similar to that of many young drivers and the need for fresh talent. For example, the Nationwide Series has become Cup lite, and development drivers just don’t get the chances they used to. Crew guys are no different.
My advice to the young crew guys out there is this: network as much as you can and do as many races as you are able. That way, when a hole does open up somewhere, people will know who you are, and have faith that you can get the job done.
There is absolutely no doubt about how important pit stops are to a race. Like I’ve said here before, a team can’t win the race on pit road, but they certainly can lose it. A perfect example of this happened last weekend at Darlington. Jeff Burton brought the field to pit road as the leader with only a few laps remaining. His crew chief, Todd Berrier, called for the crew to bolt on two tires to keep their track position, and hopefully win the race. A mistake during the pit stop though, and the subsequent penalty, killed any chance for a win and saw Burton finish eighth.
In case you missed what I’m talking about, watch the doomed pit stop here. Front tire changer Dan Blizzard struggles just a touch with his on pattern (tightening the lugnuts) and the jackman drops the jack too early. If you watch very closely, you will see that jackman Adam North is watching Blizzard like a hawk. North is waiting for him to make his normal move showing that he’s finished with the lugnuts, which signals North to drop the jack. During his on pattern, Blizzard’s body makes just a small shift in position and North takes that shift as the sign that his front changer is finished. Blizzard isn’t done though and Burton, who is leaving on the drop of the jack, runs over the air hose which results in a penalty.
The normal rule they teach guys on two tire pit stops is for the jackman to drop the jack once the tire changer is at the right headlight. That gives the changer enough time to get out of the way of the car leaving the stall. As a crew works together and becomes more familiar with each other though, those tolerances become much smaller.
Let me show you an example of a very tight two tire stop. This video is of Kyle Busch’s crew, posted to Twitter by JGR Coach Mike Lepp (@mlepp). In the video you will see front changer Nick Odell hit his fifth nut, and make just a small move to leave before jackman Jeff Fender drops the jack. Odell is well short of the right headlight. And the result is Busch leaving the stall quickly, missing Odell by only a few inches.
As you can see from the two examples, the margin for error is very small. A normal two tire stop, which the #31 CAT guys have executed to perfection hundreds of times before, goes awry. Why? The answer lies in the familiarity among the crew.
The jackman sees his changers hit lugnuts everyday. And the majority of the time, they are very good. In this case, both front guys and the jackman were part of the winning crew from the 2009 Pit Crew Challenge. We aren’t talking about amateur or inexperienced guys here. They are among the best at what they do. What can happen though, is the jackman (or any other crew member for that matter) can get lulled into a false sense of security. He’s used to seeing the same thing, over and over, from his guys. This time, a small hiccup changed the normal rhythm. Add to that a little pressure with the race on the line, and you have a small mistake that costs a team the win.
So who’s ready to be a pit crew guy?
In case you don’t know what I do, I will take this opportunity to tell you. I’m on pit road every weekend changing tires for one of the many NASCAR teams. If you’ve watched a race live or seen one on TV, you have no doubt seen me work. You probably didn’t know it, but I was there. Working in racing is certainly a unique career choice, and sometimes I don’t know if people actually believe me when I tell them how I earn a living.
We’ve all been in those situations. You are talking to a friend whom you haven’t seen in years, or you are in one of many different social situations where you are meeting new people. At some point, the topic of what everyone does for a job comes up. When it comes to be my turn, it usually goes like this:
“Oh, you sell tractor parts, good deal. What do I do? I’m actually a tire changer in NASCAR. Yeah… Really.”
When I’m asked what I do, I’m already prepared for a lengthy explanation and the many questions to follow. Once they hear what it is that I do to earn money, they then want to know who I work for, how long I’ve been doing it, how I got into it, what I think about that one guy flipping the other guy at that one race, and so on and so forth. The questions always start out being centered around me specifically, and then they turn towards more general questions about NASCAR and racing.
For those of you who have friends who aren’t race fans, you probably know what I mean about the questions. When something big happens that they hear about, they come to you with questions because they know you are a NASCAR fan. But when they ask one question, you end up having to give a ten minute explanation, because they don’t know the back story and how it all works. And once you answer their question, they most likely have more. That is exactly how it goes for me in these situations.
But, I’ve been doing this long enough now that answering the questions is almost automatic. I’ve even got different versions of my explanation depending on how much I think this person knows about racing. Answering questions and talking with fans has probably helped me with this, as has doing this website.
I always wonder though, especially when I’m meeting new people, if after they find out what it is that I do, if they think I’m completely full of crap. Do they actually believe me, or do they maybe think I’m trying to impress them or screw with them? Or maybe they do actually believe me, but think I’m completely crazy for not having a “real” job.
Either way, I always get a kick out of the look on people’s faces when I say “tire changer.” You’d think I’d just told them that I play in traffic for a living or something crazy like that. Oh wait…
They don’t get any TV time and you have probably never heard most of their names, but a position within the race teams that continues to gain in importance is the pit crew coach. Many teams have full time coaches, while others have part time or contract coaches. But no matter the level of employment, these guys can really help set a team apart from the competition.
Since they don’t get much coverage, I will throw a few names at you of coaches at the bigger teams: Richard Childress Racing has Matt Clark; Mike Lepp coaches at Joe Gibbs Racing; Greg Morin, Mark Mauldin, and Walt Smith lead the Hendrick crews; Eric Wilson and Andy Ward lead the Petty/Roush conglomerate; Greg Miller is at Michael Waltrip Racing; Lance Munksgard coaches Red Bull; and Trent Cherry coaches at Penske.
During the week, coaches spend their time breaking down the film of the pit stops from the previous weekend and running practices. Some will also work with their pit crews in the gym, leading workouts and training sessions. At the race track, (if they don’t go over the wall themselves) they will be looking over the tape of recent pit stops and helping with advice or small adjustments during the race.
Coming up in your career, you encounter all different types of coaches. And just like any other sport, some coaches are really good, and some are not. Many come from athletic training backgrounds, while others are ex-changers, carriers, and/or jackmen.
As is the case in most sports, you learn to absorb as much as you can from the really good coaches, and try really hard to not let a bad coach screw you up completely. The good coaches are the guys that can watch just a few stops and be able to see the small things that either make you good or hold you back. They know when to step in with some coaching, and when to say nothing. The bad coaches are just the opposite. They could watch pit stops for days and never be able to tell you definitively what you are doing right or wrong. All these guys are good for, is holding the stop watch.
Coaches do have a tough job, because they are often the first person a crew chief or manager searches out when a stop goes wrong. They have to be able to take the flak from an angry crew chief and translate that into advice or adjustments that will help the crew be better. And like I said earlier, some are better with this stuff than others.
For me personally, it can be very difficult to listen to a coach who has never been over the wall (trust me, some haven’t). Racing is such a different sport, that the coaching means a lot more coming from a guy who knows what it’s like to step off the wall during a green flag stop, while your driver is leading. I’m not saying actual race experience is essential, because some coaches are good at what they do even without that knowledge, but it certainly helps.
As the Cup and Nationwide cars head to Bristol this weekend, I would encourage you to really watch the pit stops during the races. Bristol’s pit road can get interesting, because of the setup and small pit stalls, and pit stops will be very important to success at Thunder Valley. When your favorite driver’s team busts off a 12.60 stop and sends him out in the lead, don’t forget about the pit crew coach who helped them do it.
It’s happened before. And it will happen again. Something goes horribly wrong on pit road, and a guy gets hurt. Nobody wants to see it happen, but we all know it’s a possibility. In the event it does happen though, the teams have realized they need some sort of insurance policy.
For race teams, gone are the days when mechanics would be plucked out of the shop and thrown out onto pit road to service the car during the race. If you read us regularly, you’ve seen me talk about this topic before. Pit crew guys are becoming more specialized then ever before, with many coming from athletic backgrounds. Pit stop times continue to be cut down, and the margin for error grows smaller every year. And as such, many of the bigger teams are starting to invest in backup crew guys for those dreaded “what if” situations.
With the level of competition in the Cup Series what it is these days, it’s vital to an organization’s success that they are prepared for any situation. A team who is fighting for race wins and a championship can’t afford to lose their main guy after the first pit stop, throw some goober in to fill his spot, and then struggle on pit road for the remainder of the race. They need trained, capable guys waiting in the wings to jump in at a moment’s notice and perform.
It really is no different then other team sports. In baseball and basketball, you’ve got bench players; in football, a lengthy depth chart. These backup pit crews serve the same purpose.
In most cases, these crews train just like the first stringers, getting ample practice and gym time. In order for them to be plugged into an existing crew, there really isn’t any other way. The preparation must be the same.
Besides practice and workouts during the week, often times these backup pit crews have their own gigs during the weekend. Their teams will find them deals with Truck teams, NNS teams, or even other Cup teams to keep their race skills sharp.
One documented example we’ve seen of a backup crew this season, is that of Stewart-Haas Racing. The management at SHR put together a third pit crew and loaned them out to the #71 TRG team. The idea being that the team can stay sharp over the wall, but any member can be recalled at any moment to help one of the SHR teams.
Another example of a backup crew was seen last weekend at California. The rear tire changer for Juan Pablo Montoya’s team wasn’t able to go on Sunday, and since EGR doesn’t have their own backup crew guys, they borrowed one from Team Red Bull’s backup crew. If you watched the race, you may have noticed the change.
These backup guys are just another example of how teams continue to find ways to eliminate as many variables as possible. Like I said above, the margin for error grows ever smaller, and no team can afford to be left in the dust.
Working in racing is unlike anything I’ve ever done previously. It seems like all the rules that apply to normal jobs and job searching are completely irrelevant. Resumes aren’t as important as your reputation. There are no job boards or websites. Sometimes you can get hired without ever even meeting a crew chief. What your past experience and achievements are don’t matter as much as what you can do right now, today. And job offers are sometimes only valid for a few hours.
Movement and turnover happen in every business and industry in this country, and racing is no different. Some guys are able to find a home and stay there for many years, while others seem to work for a new team every season. But at some point, we all come to that crossroads.
As a young tire changer, all you are looking for is a chance. And if you are smart, you will pit anything and everything you can. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a Cup car or a go cart; or if you are making a few hundred bucks or doing it for free. The only way to advance is to learn on the fly and make a ton of connections. But as you move along in your career, the priorities change. Is winning more important then money? Can I have both? What is best for my family? Is there any semblance of job security with a new team (there never really is)?
And as we move along, we all get to that point where we’ve got to take a chance and make a move. Just like anything else, sometimes it works out, and sometimes it doesn’t. And it doesn’t matter whether you are working for a team currently and a better opportunity comes along, or if you lost your job and are mulling a few different options. In racing, you better not mull too long. Because if you wait and hope to maybe get more offers, or you aren’t sure what is the best path, you might get left behind.
I think for most folks, having somebody offer you a job out of the blue isn’t usually realistic. I know before I worked in racing, nobody ever called me up one day and said “hey, you want to come to work for me?” The only jobs I was ever offered were those I applied for. Racing is different though. All it takes is one phone call to change everything.
But just like every other decision in life, you’ve got to think on your feet, weigh your options, and make the best possible choice with the information you have to work with. Beyond that, all we can do is hope for a little luck.
2010 Just as a little side note, I want to say that I’ve been blessed and am really excited to be heading out for another year in racing. The season officially kicks off this weekend, and both myself and Journo are excited about bringing you along for the ride in 2010. We think we offer something you can’t find anywhere else in the NASCAR media, and we will keep bringing you the best in inside information and insight. Enjoy the races!