Pressure, What Pressure?

The struggles of some teams on pit road this season have been well documented, as have some of the problems facing the crews this season with regard to some different rules and a shift in the competition.  With that you will often hear the TV people talking about all the pressure that is on the crews to get the job done on pit road.  The funny thing is, while it is important for us to perform on a high level all the time, actual “pressure” is an illusion.

Let me give you two scenarios to illustrate my point. 

In the first one, my team is running 35th on the track and we are four laps down.  There are 30 laps to go in the race, and a caution comes out that forces everyone to pit road.  We come down with the lap down cars for four tires and fuel.  There is no chance we are going to even get back on the lead lap, let alone be a contender.  The car hits the pit, we do our deal, and send our driver back to the race.

In scenario number two, our team is in the lead of the Daytona 500 and there are 25 laps to go.  The cycle of green flag stops start, and teams start coming to pit road.  We are going to come down with a few other cars to get four tires and fuel to make the run to the finish.  We need a good stop to not only maintain the lead, but also to stay with the group of cars we are pitting with for the draft.  Our driver steers the car into the stall, we throw on four new skins, and he’s down and away.

Now, look at both of those scenarios and tell me what is different about my job (as a tire changer) between those two pit stops. 

How about nothing?

In each case, my job as a changer is to hit 20 lugnuts and make sure everything is tight.  Just because we are leading the  Daytona 500 doesn’t mean my job changes, or becomes more difficult.  My gun, the lugnuts, the tires, the jack, and the race car all remain the same regardless of the situation on track.

When things go wrong for pit crews in these situations, it is because the approach and mindset of the individual changes.  If one starts thinking about not screwing up or needing to go faster, they are putting unneeded pressure on themselves.  And usually when this happens, mistakes will occur.

Another misconception that you will hear fronted by some, is that races can be won or lost on pit road.  That sounds great, but it is only half true.  What they should really say, is that races can’t be won on pit road, but they certainly can be lost.

The last time I checked, NASCAR doesn’t decide who wins the race by who has the fastest pit stop, or even who gets off pit road first.  There is no flag stand at the end of pit road.  But if my driver comes to pit road leading with 10 laps to go, and we make a mistake and leave a lugnut off or let a tire get away that causes us to have a penalty, then our driver isn’t going to win.  I don’t care how good he is.

When we get hired by a team at these highest levels of NASCAR, it means that we’ve demonstrated that we know how to do our jobs.  At that point, all that is asked of us by our drivers and crew chiefs is to do that job.  They are not asking us to do more than that.

I once had a coach tell me that if there was ever a pit crew that never gained a single spot on pit road during a season, but on the flip side, never lost a spot either, they would be famous.  You know why?  Because at that point the crew and pit stops become a non-factor and the race is left in the hands of the driver and crew chief.

The guys and crews who are really successful in this business are those that can stay focused, and still remain loose and relaxed.  At that point, there really is no pressure.

Related posts:

• Pit Crew Coaches: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
• More On The Truck Series Rule Changes
• NASCAR Pit Crews Rule
• Teams Already Tweaking Crews For Next Season
• The Anatomy of a Pit Stop

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