August 26th, 2010 
T.C. As a tire changer I have basically two jobs: take the lugnuts off and put the lugnuts on. Sounds simple enough right? Well don’t forget that during a pit stop there are 20 lugnuts to hit, that is 10 off and 10 back on. So in essence, that’s 20 chances to screw up. And trust me, there are a lot of ways to screw it up.
At Bristol, even though Jamie McMurray finished third, it was a tough night for his guys. After one round of pit stops under caution, McMurray had to bring his car back to pit road because the rear changer knocked off lugnuts. Meet tire changer deadly sin number one. When a new tire gets hung on the hub, the lugnuts sit on the end of the studs and wait for us to come back and tighten them up. On your way to getting them tight quickly, it only takes a small miss to knock one off. And sometimes the jackman is paying attention and sees you knock one off, so you can fix it without coming back to pit road. There are plenty of cases though, where a changer knocks one off, the official sees it, and the jackman sends the car. The team has just bought their driver a return trip to pit road. These situations aren’t exactly conducive to job security.
What’s interesting to note though, is that there are actually a lot of cases where a lugnut gets knocked off but the official doesn’t see it, and the car heads back to the race with only four. Things happen so quickly during a stop, that if a changer knocks one off, but is a good actor, the official won’t notice. Often times the official only knows a lug is missing because the changer was fumbling around.
The next deadly sin will also ruin a race for a team, and could cost the changer his job. This sin is usually predicated by a short radio message that goes like this: “I’ve got a vibration.” Those are words dreaded by every changer on pit road. Why? Because that can mean loose lugnuts. There are a ton of reasons why lugnuts could be left loose or come loose, but in any case, it’s really bad when they do. The vibration comes from the fact that the loose wheel is now wobbling on the hub, destroying both the wheel and the studs. And every changer has had those pit stops in his career where when he got done, he said a little prayer and thought “wow, I hope those are tight.” You then spend the next 60 laps praying that the car makes it to the next pit stop without hearing that dreaded message.
The other two sins I will mention here will kill pit stop times, but unless they are repeated over and over, probably won’t completely ruin a race. They are hanging lugnuts, and hitting more then 20 during a stop.
Hanging lugnuts means you hit all five off, but for whatever reason, one (or more) doesn’t come all the way off the stud. It’s a horrible feeling to grab a hold of the wheel to pull it off, only to be jarred by a stuck lugnut that won’t allow the wheel to come off. The next course of action is to either pick the gun back up and hit the offending nut off, or try and spin it with your fingers. And we will call attempting to spin the lug with your fingers deadly sin 3-B. Crew chiefs and pit crew coaches alike will chew some ass over that tactic because sometimes the lugnut might be stuck and your fingers aren’t strong enough to spin it off. Or maybe it took 10 turns to get the lug off. Either way, you just killed the stop.
In practices and at the races, we are always told to “just hit 20.” Only hitting 20 lugnuts is what we all strive for. Sometimes though, that just doesn’t happen. Instead of hitting five, it’s not uncommon for a changer to hit six, or seven, or eight off. There are again a million reasons why this could happen, but every extra hit means the pit stop is longer by two to three tenths of a second. So if I miss one time during each pattern, that’s four extra hits for the whole stop, which just cost my team one second in the pits.
These are all deadly sins because if done enough, they will all lead to a changers demise. And trust me, having to explain why you just screwed up a race is not exactly a fun conversation. No race can ever be won in the pits, but it certainly can be lost.
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But by the time you get to Cup, I’m guessing you’ve gotten a chance to make mistakes in other series. And then figure out how not to. Probably a whole nother blog there on coming up through the ranks.
I’ve always wondered about the intricacies of your job, T.C., so this is fascinating to me. I can’t begin to imagine the pressure you face on raceday. Thanks for sharing this.
freekin amazing..
I have retold what I saw in that video you pointed us to…. where the drill man hits five lugs in 1 second…that is amazing..
Considering 20 years ago stops could last 20-30 seconds…. but today they better be under 14…. it is crazy intense…. I can not even imagine how nuts it must be. ( no pun intended )
Do you use a special HIGH SPEED drill? Do you replace your drill often? what abou the hose? Have you considered another type…maybe a SUPER DUPER electric one ……. do manufactures give you drills to test? ..for free?
I will never forget the image of seeing those lugs fly off “by themselves” as you move on to next nut … then to read you say sometimes they dont come off… dang stuck nutz!!!!
I bet a clean screw thread is your main prioroity… do you lube them up with something?
Do the nuts ever hit you in the faced ?? It seems like they would be flying around like spent shellls from a gun…..
Loved the part about about …..
IF you miss al lug….. forget it ( versus fumbling around )…. 4 lugs proably do as well as 5 ….( I suppose )
another great post from the inside.. thanks
Quick question T.C. Lug nuts have one flat side and one that is tapered to snug into the wheel’s holes. Wouldn’t it make sense to have tapers on both sides so that in the panic of grabbing a dropped nut, it wouldn’t matter which way it was put on? Or do the four (presumably) tight lug nuts have more than enough holding power so that it really doesn’t matter which way the dropped nut goes on?
Thanks.
Garry: The tool we use is an air impact wrench. Guys either use those built by Ingersoll Rand or Brunnhoelzl Racing. Impacts (we usually call them guns) are rebuilt every few races. Electric impacts don’t have the necessary torque to do the job as quickly as we need it done. And guns aren’t free, with some costing as much as $2,000. Before each race, the threads on the studs are cleaned and lubed, and then each individual lugnut is lubed before a pit stop. And yes, I’ve been hit in the face with lugnuts. It’s not pleasant, but that’s why you see most changers wearing some sort of safety glasses.
Dan: That’s a good question. I’m not sure why they couldn’t do that. If four lugs are tight, the fifth doesn’t really need to be seated all the way, so having the flat side down wouldn’t necessarily matter. I will say though, when putting a lugnut back on by hand, it’s actually not as difficult as you might think to put the tapered side down.
Another fine example of the reason I love this blog: things no “beat writer” can tell us. I know tire changers are amazing at what they do, but I always wondered how one casually-strolling official could catch an error like that in such a short time. Your “actor” line summed it up perfectly. Thanks for a great read.
TC great article. They do make lug nuts with the tapers on both sides. I have used them up here in the north east but mostly with the course thread studs. Do you all us the course threads or fine threads? I know the course threads have to spin less revolutions to go the same distance so they would be quicker but may also be more prone to loosen with heat and contraction.
I am not sure if the double tapered nuts are legal in the big leagues. We didn’t use them in the Hooters Pro Cup when we ran that. And it also could be the ones with the flat side set better when they are glued to the wheels with the weight placed on 5 flat surfaces then 5 tapers.
Steve
Good stuff T.C. .
-W