The best pit crew in NASCAR? Place your bets, and sit back for the annual pit crew challenge
Last season it was the Nextel Cup pit crew challenge, this season it’s the Sprint Cup pit crew challenge
(Photo by Davis Turner/Getty Images for NASCAR)
By Mike Mulhern
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CHARLOTTE
So who’s the best right-front tire guy on the NASCAR tour? Who’s the best jack man?
What driver has the best pit crew?
On Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons, in the clutch on race day, the answers may vary. Matt Kenseth for the past few years, it is generally accepted, has had the best crew chief; but perhaps not this season. If the answer comes with wins, check out Kyle Busch’s bunch, and Carl Edwards’ guys.
But here Thursday night the best of the over-the-wall guys will match up mano a mano, with $10,000 to $20,000 apiece on the line, in a made-for-TV venture, the annual NASCAR Sprint Pit Crew Challenge, at Time Warner Arena.
All teams in Saturday night’s Sprint All-Star race are qualified here, for what may seem – to insiders and outsiders alike – as something rather gimmicky, with literally buzzers and bells and guys pushing their cars the length of the arena to a finish line.
But the guys on the floor Thursday night will be taking it all flat seriously.
And their drivers – though they don’t get to play a role in this thing, unlike the old pit crew championships at Rockingham – will be here cheering them on.
Okay, so pushing the car across the finish line is, well, rather odd....but all the drivers have to do in the pit crew championship is sit back and watch.
(Photo by Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Then Friday the All-star action gets underway just up the road at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. That’s been known as ‘Jimmie’s House,’ because Jimmie Johnson has dominated there the past several years.
However this season Johnson and teammate Jeff Gordon, and a number of others, have all struggled with this new NASCAR winged car at the stock car tour’s mid-sized tracks.
Thus the betting action is likely on the tour’s two hottest men, Busch and Edwards.
Johnson, who’s had some hot streaks of his own, says it’s sometimes difficult to understand just why things are going your way: “The thing you can never gauge—or predict, or really understand—is why you are on a hot streak…and why, when you’re not.
“Our team feels like we’re primed, and would love to be on that tear…but it’s not there for us.
“We were there the last couple of years. But our sport is cyclical.
When it’s All-star week, forget the rules. Just enjoy the ambience and drama
(Photo by Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)
“So when I look at the cycle of racing, Joe Gibbs, and especially Toyota, are maximizing it, and really hitting their stride.
“We’re kind of rebuilding some.”
What happens this week, of course, might have little to do with what’s been going on around the tour the past three months, because the All-star race is sometimes quite wacky.
The All-star race, though it’s been run at Charlotte since the late T. Wayne Robertson created it more than 20 years ago, is still sometimes hard to figure out, the dynamic, the reasoning, the thinking….and certainly the rules, which seem ever-changing.
But one thing this All-star even does create is an unusual energy for drivers and teams: “The All-Star race, you try to come in and say ‘It’s no big deal…it’s just for some money…it’s not a points race,” Johnson says.
“Then they have the introductions (typically with fireworks and hoopla), and the crews are out there and the fans are there, and before you know it your heart rate is at 120 and you’re not even sitting in a car yet. You’re just jacked-up and ready to go.
Thursday night it’s the annual NASCAR Sprint Cup pit crew challenge
(Photo by Davis Turner/Getty Images for NASCAR)
“Now in the 600 (next week’s grind here), everybody is in the mindset of taking care of their equipment and making a long 600-mile race…and there is a different energy around that event.
“So when I think about this All-star race, what really pops up in my mind is the energy of the event that gets into my head and helps me adapt to whatever is going to take place.”
Of course this season things have been rather wacky anyway. Who would have predicted Johnson crashing twice at Darlington last weekend?
“Well,” Johnson says somewhat sheepishly, “I knew we were fast.
“All I needed was the confidence entering qualifying. And I down the best lap I could.
“Unfortunately I was too aggressive in those two practice sessions and tore up some cars.
“It’s uncharacteristic for me to tear up cars like that. But at least we were going fast.”
Uh, seeding? Scoring? Let me get back to you on all that
(A view of last year’s pit crew scoreboard)
(Photo by Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Chad Knaus, Johnson’s crew chief, clearly didn’t take it very well. “Physically and emotionally it was quite a ride,” Johnson concedes.
Also on tap this All-star weekend is a special ‘burnout challenge’ for drivers, to see who can pull off the best – and most accurate – ‘victory’ burnout.
Johnson, though not known for his burnout prowess, will take a shot at it: “It’s just something different, something cool.
“We sit around all Saturday and really don’t do much, so we might as well do something.
“I’ll just see what the car will do. I’m not sure how much horsepower we’ll have, or what the tire situation will be. But I’ll watch the other guys.
“Hopefully I’m not the first.”
NASCAR All-star week kicks off Thursday with the annual pit crew championship
(Here, Darrell Waltrip, left, and Rusty Wallace tangle in the 1989 classic, Wallace winning the controversial finish).
(Photo Credit: Lowe’s Motor Speedway Archives)
Humpy Wheeler’s Lowe’s track won’t have a monopoly on racing action these next few days. Indianapolis Motor Speedway will again be vying for headlines, and Danica Patrick, now an Indy-car winner, is a star to be reckoned with, in more ways than one.
Johnson says he’s surprised women still haven’t made much of a dent in NASCAR.
“I’ve watched women soccer players and ladies in the Olympics. From a physical standpoint it’s certainly challenging, but it’s do-able,” Johnson says.
“I’ve watched some very talented women come along, with great opportunities. Look at Erin Crocker with Ray Evernham. Sarah Fisher came on the scene hard in the Indy-car series.
“I guess it just takes time to develop.
“I’m not sure that all little girls growing up think they are going to be a race driver and dedicate their lives to it.
“To be at the top level it doesn’t matter about gender. You just have to commit at a young age. And I’m not sure that’s the first thing that pops up in a young lady’s mind.
“But as NASCAR racing becomes more popular, I would definitely see the opposite of that growing more and more. And there is no reason that it can’t happen.”
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Things tend to get wacky during all-star week in Charlotte
(Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)