If you got to watch the races on Monday from Texas you may have heard the TV guys talking about the drivers who had to do double duty. Guys like Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Greg Biffle, and others got out of their Cup rides and had to immediately jump into their Nationwide cars for another 300 miles. It can be a tough thing to do as it requires the drivers be in top shape, and have the ability to re-focus their minds after 500 grueling miles. But what the TV folks probably didn’t talk about a lot, was all the crew guys who did the same exact thing.
Just like there are drivers who run in multiple series, there are also quite a few crew members who work in multiple series. Usually it’s not a problem to do, because the races aren’t on the same day, but Monday was different.
Following the Cup race at Texas, crew guys had to pack up their pit box and then run to their Cup haulers to strip off their firesuits. They then had to head over to their NNS haulers to put firesuits back on and proceed back to pit road to set up their NNS pit box. Teams had about an hour to work with following the first race to get changed and set up their pit stalls for the nightcap.
One example of what I’m talking about is the Furniture Row pit crew. Those five guys pit Regan Smith’s car on Sunday, but on Saturday they work for KHI and service Kevin Harvick’s Nationwide car. Some more examples include three of the five guys that work on Kyle Busch’s Cup car. Both front guys and the rear changer also work on Kyle’s pit crew on Saturdays. And there are certainly others.
What this really means for these crew guys is being 100% focused. It means doing 10 pit stops during the Cup race, then getting a quick break, followed by four more pit stops in the Nationwide race. Oh yeah, and don’t screw it up.
Another group that did double duty on Monday that I wanted to point out was the spotters. The double header for the Cup guys running in the Nationwide race also meant twice the work for their spotters. They had to work for 500 miles, take a quick break, then get ready to work 300 more.
What really sucks about double duty though, is having to do it again a week later. With the way the forecast is shaping up for Talladega, it may be deja vu all over again.
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