You may not realize it, but while the 2009 season still isn’t officially over yet, preparations for 2010 have already begun. One area that teams will spend the last few races working on, is changes to their pit crews.
To the untrained eye, it may appear to be business as usual for your favorite driver on pit road. The car comes in, four tires go on, the car leaves. But many teams take the opportunity to use these last couple of races to plug some new crew guys into their teams and see how they fare. Do they gel with the existing crew guys? Are they rattled by the pressure? Could they make it next year? These are all questions teams are trying to answer.
You won’t usually see this from the Chasers, but many teams outside the Chase will tinker. It is inevitable that some guys will stay with their current teams, while others are looking to move on. And some will be looking for a new spot involuntarily. Either way, the teams need to find new guys to fill those holes. These races can give them that chance to see what a guy, or guys, has.
Besides lateral movement within a series, these races also give teams a chance to see some younger guys in action. Maybe a guy is brought up from the Truck Series to the Nationwide Series, or from the Nationwide Series to the Cup Series. Crew chiefs and pit crew coaches can see first hand if a younger, inexperienced guy might be ready to move up the ranks. Some will thrive, while others will need more time to mature.
When you watch any of the races this weekend, the Cup race in particular, be on the lookout for helmets on pit crew guys that don’t match the rest of the crew. Often times, a gray helmet on a team means a new guy is involved. And if you really know your favorite driver’s team well, take a look at each crew member. Do you recognize every face? In many cases, I’ll bet you will be able to spot some fresh faces. It’s just another example of how teams are always working to be better for the future.
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on Nov 17th, 2009 at 1:05 am
very interesting, I will look for grey helmets this weekend. This is a tidbit only found here…thank you.
Of course we dont know who you are, but I hope no grey helmets replace you this week, but I am sure you and jounro will continue to do well, I wish you both the best of the best of skill ( luck too, but at your level, skill rules : )
good skill in the final race ,and have a great off season
on Nov 17th, 2009 at 11:11 am
Thanks! Rarely do we get media coverage of the fact that trucks and Busch are training grounds for crew as well as for drivers. In that vein, hasn’t Kyle Busch’s Busch crew chief taken over his Cup car?
on Nov 17th, 2009 at 11:15 am
Doug: No, Dave Rogers was the crew chief of the #20 NNS car at Gibbs. Jason Ratcliff is Kyle’s NNS crew chief.
on Nov 17th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Cool tidbit of information. I really do wish during the 3-4 hours of coverage, and the seemingly 50 hours of pre-race, they’d dedicate like 5-10 minutes to the crews. Not just the goofy helmet cam, where you see 10 seconds of lugnuts on/off… but real in-depth stuff.
on Nov 19th, 2009 at 11:25 am
Interesting post. Thanks. Never really knew they trained in the truck or nationwide series.