Posts under ‘Over The Wall’

Racing is a team sport.  Maybe more so then the other major professional sports in this country.  One guy’s effort and performance cannot carry an entire race team.  I don’t care how good you might think a driver is, if the equipment isn’t right or pit stops are bad, he won’t win.  But something that I [...]

I have…
The Nationwide and Cup Series are heading north this weekend to the Finger Lakes region of New York and the historic Watkins Glen road course.  The Glen and Infineon always present unique challenges to the drivers because all of a sudden they need to turn left and right.  What you will also see challenge [...]

This is a topic I’ve been asked about before with email questions, and something that was an issue today at Pocono: dealing with brake dust.  As pit crew members, and tire changers especially, brake dust is an issue we deal with usually at short tracks like Bristol and Martinsville.  With the introduction of the new car though, and [...]

So I was clicking around today, and came across this blog post from the NASCAR.com Community blog section.  It was featured on the front page of NASCAR.com and has had quite a few responses.  Long story short, this guy is doing yard work for a lady on top of his actual job to earn enough [...]

Tires, tires, tires.  I returned from a busy weekend to find my inbox full of questions and comments regarding the situation at the Brickyard today.  First off, let me say that days like today shouldn’t happen.  Having destroyed racecars and putting drivers in danger for what seems to be something that could have been avoided [...]

So there you are, sitting in your team’s pit area, minding your own business when you hear the spotter key the mic and say: “Uh, you okay?”
Now the mad dash is on…
Those three words are usually followed by some sort of explanation by the driver and/or spotter of what happened and then a quick description [...]

Bad pit stops.  We’ve all had them.  We are all going to have more of them.  It doesn’t matter whether you are on a Cup crew or a Hooters ProCup team.  When we step off the wall, we have a lot of tasks to complete in a very short amount of time.  And no matter [...]

If you get your weekly racing fix by being one of the millions of fans tuning into NASCAR TV broadcasts, you have no doubt seen a lot of racing-themed commercials featuring drivers, manufacturers, and teams.  Many sponsors feature their drivers and teams in their advertisements for obvious reasons.  And while there are some spots that [...]

Racing is a tough game.  Sometimes, despite the best laid plans, everything goes wrong.  The saying “sometimes its better to be lucky then good” seems to apply a lot in racing.  And I think this distinguishes racing from most other sports.  Being the best team, or having the fastest car doesn’t guarantee anything. 
Each week, crew [...]

I think any athlete will tell you that they have a specific routine they go through on game days in order to be mentally and physically prepared.  They eat certain foods, have a certain schedule, and do certain warmup activities.  NASCAR is no different.  The drivers have their rituals, as do the pit crew guys.  I [...]