June 14th, 2010 
T.C. Every track we go to has unique challenges on pit road. At short tracks like Martinsville, the stalls are very small; Phoenix and Darlington have curved pit roads; Kentucky has the world’s thinnest pit wall; and at Watkins Glen we pit backwards. Until only a few short years ago however, nobody had a pit road situation like Infineon Raceway.
Before 2002, Infineon Raceway (then Sears Point Raceway) actually had two pit roads. As it is today, the entrance for the main pit road was entered on driver’s left as they came down the straight before turn 11. This pit road however, only had 34 pit stalls. The remaining drivers who qualified in positions 35-43 had to pit on what was referred to as “Gilligan’s Island.” This smaller pit road was on driver’s right as they exited turn 11.
I found a video on YouTube from the 1998 Savemart 350 at Sears Point that shows a great view of the Island. Scroll ahead to the 6:53 mark, and you will see Robert Pressley make an unscheduled stop for a flat tire. As you can see, on “Gilligan’s Island,” teams had to do pit stops backwards. On top of that, since the stretch was so much shorter, NASCAR would actually hold teams in their stalls for as many as 15 seconds after their stop was completed, before they would allow them to leave. This, in NASCAR’s view, equalized any advantage a team would gain by using the much shorter pit road.
Besides creating unique pit stop situations, the Island offered up other problems. First, being out there meant teams were really on an island. Once the race started, there was no way to get back across the track. This required teams to have any spare pieces in their stalls that they may need in case of a crash or other problem. There would be no running back to the hauler for that spare battery.
Also, if a team did happen to crash out or blow an engine, they had to stay on “Gilligan’s Island” until the race was complete. There would have been no early exit for you start-and-parkers either!
Thankfully, along with many other improvements, the track was reconfigured in 2002 to allow for all 43 cars to have space on pit road. The Island was thus gone forever, and that area inside the hairpin at turn 11 was turned into runoff.
Who’s ready for some road course racing?!
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At least you’d have had until after Saturday second-round qualifying to determine how to route fuel tank hoses and catch can vents before Sunday. Ah, good times!
I was only 3 when this race was live on TV so I do not remember it. However after watching part 5 and looking at the pit stops I noticed something else besides Gilligan’s Island. When you look at the pit crews it is amazing. Not only is a 16-17 sec. pit stop fast they are wearing (at least on the 43 car) jeans and a pit shirt and then team headphones. No helmet, AT ALL! Coming from modern day NASCAR I was amazed. I dont know if any one alse is as amazed as me but I just thought it was cool and interesting. Also Bobby Labonte ran good in that race. Go Bobby!
Thank goodness for the $50 Million Bruton Smith spent to isolate the dragstrip during the improvement project. That ‘Gilligan’s Island’ was actually on the dragstrip launch pad.
As for the road racing, the pit lane at Road America is similar to Watkins Glen. And the start of the race and subsequent restatrts will be fun to see the turn in to turn one, as will the 90 degree left-hander turn 5. Turn 12 will be interesting, as a number of scary high-speed incidents have occured back there. Also, we’ll have to see if any cars take flight coming over the rise on the main straight before the cars reach start-finish.
Thankfully, there are 2 practice sessions on Thursday, as only Jacques Villeneuve and Ron Fellows to my knowledge are the only drivers to have any Road America experience. The drivers doing Infineon, as well, better take advantage of both practice sessions and get every lap possible. Should be fun.
This is gonna be a great weekend of racing. Road America and Infineon back to back. It’s always fun to see the cars on road courses; I wish they’d add a couple more to the schedule.
I wish the cup cars would also go to Road America to add one more road course to the schedule. We have enough of the cookie cutter 1.5 mile tracks throw in some right handers to shake things up some.
Interesting note about Infineon / Sears Point. Thanks for the education!
Road courses are my favorite type of track so I’m super excited about 1st NNS Road America visit, and of course Cup at Infineon.
I would also prefer any new additions to the Cup sked be a road course rather than another 1.5er. Need a road course in the Chase.
I do remember “Gilligan’s Island” at Sears Point, but I didn’t realize it was truly as isolated as it was. Thanks for the interesting history lesson!
If either one of you were working in nascar at the time, did that extra 15-seconds that cars were held on pit road truly even things out like it was supposed to? Or was pitting over there still a disadvantage?
Wow. Thanks for the history lesson. In my best Johnny Carson voice: “I did not know that.”
I always dig the backwards pitting at the Glen.
And yes, I vote for one more road course in the Sprint Cup series.
I do have to say though when it comes to road racing it really is not my favorite. It does provide an interesting angle every once in a while but im not a huge fan of it. Now saying that I do have to agree that seeing the cup cars at Road America in Wisconsin would be cool. That is the only road race I would ever think about attending live, being I live in the mid-west.
Very interesting. Were you on are pit crew back then? If so were you ever stuck out there ……. on a 3 hour cruise ; )
I do not recall reading how long you have been doing this, unless it something you would rather not say.
as for your question … HECK YES I AM READY FOR SOME ROAD RACING again (last weekends 24hours of Le Mans is always a fun road race to watch.
Garry: Sorry, but I can’t say whether I was there or not. If I did, you could date me and that might help folks figure out who I am…
Kevin: If I remember correctly, NASCAR changed the amount of time teams were held over there on several occasions. I believe it was pretty tough to determine what was actually a fair time penalty.
Ah yes, Sears Point and NASCAR before the be reconfig… I have quite a bit on that in the “40 Years of Infineon” mini-doc I did a couple of years ago: http://www.worch.com/2008/04/25/40-years-on-the-red-line/ Including a bit on Gilligan’s Island, if you listen closely. I left the TV audio track running just loud enough when that part is shown