Comments on: A Thin Line Between Love and Hate

By: Neon

Neon — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 20:23:33 +0000

Unless the #20 crew messed up on previous stops, I cannot see, for the life of me, where the crew did anything slow or wrong on the last stop. If anything, the car was angled in/out a bit much and the car in the next stall didn’t give Tony a straight shot out. Seriuosly, did the crew have any negative impact? Na! He probably saw that afterwards. After all, we have the luxury of replays and slow-mo. All he had to do was simply pass JJ back w/ plenty of laps left to do it.

By: cvt

cvt — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:06:20 +0000

I’m not going to comment on the Stewart radio transmission, but I will add that unless you’ve driven a racecar,especially a hot & heavy one like a Cup car, you’ve no idea the level of aggression you need to get it up on the competitive edge.

I know you can turn that around and say unless you been on pit road etc etc, but pit crews work on short,intense bursts of precision, not sustained battle.

If you meet a driver who is anything but a self-centered, arrogant, PITA, odds are he runs at the back of the field.

By: Zieke

Zieke — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:56:29 +0000

I’m kind of surprised that Petty is one of the crew bashers. I know he always speaks his mind, but he should probably take a share of the blame for their screw ups as well as them just being behind with their program. I think Mikey is 1st on that list, as he ALWAYS blames someone else for his misfortunes. I suppose someday he will say that Toyota has given him so much money that they don’t know where to spend it.

By: Steve C

Steve C — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 13:32:25 +0000

Emotion, every driver deals with their emotions differently. Some air them during the race, some afer the race. It’s all part of racing. been there done it.

By: Lin Hunnicutt

Lin Hunnicutt — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:00:04 +0000

If Stewart wants to blame onyone, he needs to blame himself for getting out of the pit so slowly. He just beat himself and the master of Jimmy Johnson beat him, so he needs to quit his whining. I love listening to people like Jummy Johnson or even Dale, Jr. on the radio because they might get a little aggravated with the crew chief, but they always pump the crew up.

By: Kenn Fong

Kenn Fong — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 08:38:03 +0000

TC,

Ever since I got Hot Pass from DirecTV, I have been watching the Dale Junior channel. (Since he is one of the endorsers of Hot Pass, he has a channel almost every week.) I find it interesting to hear him argue with his cousin, Tony Eury, Jr. about pit stop strategy.

One of the things I’ve noticed is whenever something goes wrong in the pits, Junior turns on his charm. No matter what place he’s in, he always tells his crew, “Don’t worry, I’ll get it back!” and he always means it. TC, if you get a chance to talk someone on his pit crew, I’ll bet they tell you they love working for him.

By the way, you might add Denny Hamlin to your list of less than fully supportive drivers.

Left Coast Kenny
Alameda, California

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 06:38:02 +0000

I often wonder if most drivers even know the names of the people on their crew.