Racing is a tough game.  Sometimes, despite the best laid plans, everything goes wrong.  The saying “sometimes its better to be lucky then good” seems to apply a lot in racing.  And I think this distinguishes racing from most other sports.  Being the best team, or having the fastest car doesn’t guarantee anything. 

Each week, crew chiefs are in the unenviable position of sitting atop the pit box attempting to set a strategy that will put their driver in the best position to win.  And, at times, it can seem like crew chiefs can see the future, but in truth they are just trying to make the best possible calls with the information available to them.  Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t.

We saw a graphic example this weekend with Tony Stewart and Greg Zipadelli at Loudon.  Zipadelli called Stewart to pit road while leading with 30 laps to go for right side tires and fuel.  Many drivers behind Stewart elected to stay on the track, which pinned the #20 car deep in the field.  Thirteen laps later, the race was called for rain and Kurt Busch and his Penske team were the ones celebrating in victory lane, while Stewart’s team was left wondering what could have been.  Pat Tryson (Kurt Busch’s crew chief) became the hero, while Zippy was now the zero.

I’ve been apart of a few situations like this during my career, and saying its very tough to deal with is an understatement.  Knowing your team was the best all day long, and then watching someone else celebrating the win hurts.  And once the race is over, you want to go back and say we should have done this, or should have done that, but none of it really matters.  Its easy to be that so called “Monday Morning Quarterback.”

I think an important lesson I’ve learned when it comes to being a part of a team in this business is that you can only do your own job.  All I can do is show up, be the best tire changer possible and hope it works out.  I’m certainly not a crew chief and I cannot make the strategy calls for him, no matter how wrong I might think he is at the time.  And this really applies to any situation.  Besides not being the crew chief, I can’t drive the car, carry tires, jack, be the spotter, etc.

Back to this weekend, in Zippy’s case, you never know what might have happened.  If he would have left Stewart out on the track, maybe everyone behind them comes in, the rain never comes, and then Stewart is left to fend off a full field of drivers with fresher tires.  Zipadelli was probably screwed either way.

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