Changes put pressure on crew chiefs to adapt

Changes put pressure on crew chiefs to adapt


With the use of a new closed delivery system to fuel the cars this year, NASCAR has eliminated the catch-can man, reducing the number of over-the-wall pit crew members from seven to six. That presents a problem for crew chiefs, given that the catch-can man typically made wedge and track-bar adjustments to the car during pit stops.
That's not all crew chiefs have to worry about. Qualifying order is now set according to practice speeds—the fastest cars will qualify last—and with several tracks moving time trials from Friday afternoon to Saturday morning, teams must re-evaluate their approach to the weekend.

Sporting News asked three Cup crew chiefs what these changes really mean.
1. Slower pit stops

Tony Gibson, crew chief for Ryan Newman: "It's quite a bit slower putting the fuel in the cars. Just standing there plugging it in, you're talking at least 2 seconds slower. Now that you have one fuel guy, he's got to run back and get the other can, so now it's like your stop is going to go from 12 seconds to 14 or 15 seconds. Trying to figure out how we maneuver our guys around so we lose the least amount of time is going to be crucial."

2. A bigger playbook
Kevin Manion, crew chief for Jamie McMurray: "It may be two gas men over the wall and one (tire) carrier for the right side. I don't believe there is a specific rule on how many gas men you can have—it's the set amount of people over the wall. I don't think there's any rule that you have to have two tire carriers, so maybe we just have one on a two-tire stop with the two gas guys back there. You're always thinking, and our pit crews and trainers are going through different scenarios and coming up with different plans."

3. Sandbagging for Saturday?
Dave Rogers, crew chief for Kyle Busch: "Now your qualifying order is determined by your practice speed, so it's going to be really important to post that speed to get that preferred qualifying time. There are some tracks where you don't want to qualify last. When qualifying is at 9 o'clock in the morning, you want to be first out and not 43rd. So do you sandbag a little bit? The rules are definitely going to change our strategy."
By Reid Spencer

Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service