NASCAR Nation (8 page)

The economics of NASCAR revolve mainly around sponsorship. Sponsors play a major role in the sport, and finding a good one can make or break a team. You can't build a car and pay your staff if you don't have the money to do it. Then the team of mechanics has to be assembled long before the actual car is. These mechanics and engineers are among the most talented in the country. The team boss and crew chief
will organize who is on the team and the pit crew. These decisions are pivotal to the outcome of the race and the well-being of the car, but are rarely given a second thought by NASCAR fans. And yet, having a good pit crew is crucial to the outcome of the race.

Well-trained and sharp-minded pit crew members are sought after and noted in the NASCAR industry. Just as major league teams trade prized players, pit-crew members can be lured onto other teams with higher pay. Their paychecks don't come close to the drivers' or that of a major league player, but they are highly valued. Every team knows that having the right crew members is the key to getting into Victory Lane. Races have been lost due to a loose lug nut or poorly fixed quarter-panel damage. Having a fast time is critical, and these pit crew members are put under an extraordinary amount of stress to make sure that it happens.

Sometimes it can be difficult to appreciate the work that the pit crew does when you're watching the driver blast down the track in full glory. However, I've always had an admiration for those who can work well under pressure, particularly with cars. Many people just don't have the natural skill to do that kind of work. I know I don't, though my brothers always have. There have been many times in my life when I've needed a pit crew of my own – like the time I nearly crashed on the interstate.

Early in my career, I was doing local television in New Orleans, filling in the five o'clock sports segments on the news. I was driving to work when I suddenly realized I had a flat tire. It certainly would have been nice to have a pit crew then, because I was no tire changer. Not wanting to be late for work, I pulled to the side of the road and quickly changed the front tire as I best could. As soon as I got back on the road and accelerated up to speed, the tire flew right off. A lesson that would be hammered home once I began broadcasting for NASCAR: success lies in the details.

Unfortunately, the drivers seem to get the most attention – not when the car is running well and the race is going smoothly, but when they make a mistake. That mistake, like a loose lug nut, is enough to throw a race. That lug nut and the guy who didn't tighten it are now infamous. The casual fan doesn't pay attention to the crew unless something goes wrong. That seems to be the sad case with someone who is not always front and center – the time the spotlight hits them is when they call attention to themselves with a major flop, such as a cashier who miscounts the money in the register or the construction worker who leaves the job half-finished or poorly done. Sometimes the gift of good labor isn't recognized until it's not there.

It's important to appreciate every team member, because each one is vital to the success of whole. The
assembly line, which is what put the American car industry on the map and made faster manufacturing of cars possible, is a good example of the value of teamwork in American society and business. Everyone has a role to play, a car part to place in the vehicle. No one built the car alone – that would have been inefficient and taken far too long. Yet by working together and developing an effective system of doing so, our automotive industry was able to flourish and pump out vehicles quickly. Teamwork is essential to American business and industry, and it's essential to NASCAR. These pit crews work to the very best of their ability, and just like the hard-working Americans who keep our country running, they work behind the scenes and out of the limelight.

To be honest, there was a lot I didn't realize about pit crews until I got inside the NASCAR community and closer to them. The pit-crew members are really some of my favorite people to interact with in the sport. They're regular guys who probably shop at the same stores as everyone else and send their kids to the same schools. They live closer to the reality of everyday Americans. When their day starts, they don't sprint out of bed to run laps like pro athletes or fly stunt airplanes like some drivers. They start the day off shuffling to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee, just like everyone else. Then during the week they work at the shop, probably from nine to five like
many other Americans, then head home for dinner. Yet somehow, on race day, they come together to form a super task force.

The crew is like a team of volunteer firefighters who spring into action on a moment's notice. They transform from your average next-door neighbors into a task force that is jumping over walls and working at high speeds in perilous conditions. They have to be on their toes, and they have to work together flawlessly in a short time. These crews are, in fact, perfectly choreographed. Joe Gibbs began videotaping pit crews and having them practice their moves, changing tires and refueling cars until their routine was fast and flawless. Every second is utilized, no movement wasted.

Even though everything is happening rather quickly, there are certain things fans can watch for when crews are doing their high-speed dance. Our broadcasting team tries its best to show what the pit crew is doing from every angle, giving fans bird's-eye views, close-ups, and low angles. We even time the crew and keep the clock up for fans to see.

There are many stages to the pit-stop process. First, the driver pulls into the pit stall, which is trickier than it sounds. They have to reduce their speed considerably otherwise they get penalized. Then the crew jumps into action. While one crew member is tearing off a windshield (instead of wasting time cleaning it,
debris is removed quickly by installing windshield tear-offs onto the car that can be peeled off during pit stops), another is refueling the car, and another is tossing the driver water. While all this is happening, there could be major or minor repairs being made on the car; they may be hammering a fender or replacing worn parts. What fans can watch for, if they are observant and able to catch all this while it's happening, is the team's synchronization, how well and how quickly they work around each other. One of my favorite things to see them do is to change all four tires in seconds. Meanwhile, I'm notorious for not being able to change
one
tire efficiently.

I remember when I was seventeen and I first got my license. I was working a late radio shift in Miami, and I was driving home alone. My father had taught me it was important to help other motorists in peril and would always pull to the side of the road at the first sign of caution lights and a lifted hood. That night, there was a woman on the side of the road standing helplessly beside a wood-paneled station wagon. We tried working together to fix the tire, but we didn't quite have the expertise to get it done. I was just about to give up and offer to drive her home. In fact, I think I damaged the wood paneling on the side of her station wagon. Eventually, a trooper pulled to the side of the road and fixed the tire. My brothers always laugh at that story and say it's a good thing I'm a broadcaster.

When it comes to the pit crew changing a tire mid-race, it's an entirely different story. When it's all said and done, which is oftentimes in just a matter of seconds, the team members escape from either side of the car and get out of the way so the driver can take off. The driver has to maximize his speed in about fifteen seconds to get back into the race properly. Once he's back in the race after a good pit stop, the pit stop may have been quick enough to move the driver up several positions in the race.

For the difference that a good pit crew can make, they really should get more credit. They don't get the kind of attention they should. The credit usually goes to the driver or the crew chief, but the guys on the crew are just some of the many people who make up the team behind the driver and crew chief. These unheralded guys don't appear on any roster. They're working-class people who love being on a team. They wear helmets and safety gear then put themselves at risk doing what they do. They're living proof that nobody does it on their own.

In this country, we have learned to work together. That's how we've built our bridges and developed our great cities. We work hard together and we've learned to trust each other. We've learned to find jobs that we're good at and that we love, and then do them to the best of our ability. We all play our part. When you drive over a bridge or when you watch a race,
you may not think about the people who made that bridge or assembled that car, but they make America possible. The pit crews make NASCAR possible at every single race.

As behind-the-scenes as these pit crews are, they have risen to glory on occasion. Something that everyone in NASCAR enjoys is All-Star week. For a lot of people in the NASCAR community, All-Star week is fun because it's less stressful and all the events during the weekend are non-points events (all other races give out points to the drivers that correlate to their finishing position, but during all-star week, only winning counts and no points are rewarded regardless of finishing position). The format of the NASCAR Sprint Pit Crew Challenge Presented by Craftsman is fairly straightforward. Teams that are participating in that year's NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race and past champion crews of the NASCAR Sprint Pit Crew Challenge get to compete in the event. If the twenty-four spots in the competition are not filled based on the previous qualifications, the remaining participants are selected in order of car-owner points standings until all the positions are filled. The top eight teams in the points standings (it doesn't matter whether a team was selected as a participant because they are a past champion or a participant in that year's all-star race) are given byes in the first round. Teams seeded ninth through twenty-fourth
face off against each other, two at a time. Winners move on to the second round, where the crews seeded first through eighth also participate. The crews continue competing in one-on-one trials until there are only two teams left.

I think the NASCAR Sprint Pit Crew Challenge is a great addition to NASCAR. Finally fans get a chance to see what the over-the-wall crew members do during a race and get a closer look into the nuts and bolts of racing. The tasks are the same from round to round. Each crew will have a jackman raise and lower a car while a gas man fills a pre-determined amount of gas, which isn't really gas in this competition, into a different car and the tire changers and tire carriers complete the tasks they would normally complete during a routine pit stop. All these tasks are done simultaneously on different cars. After each crew member finishes the assigned task, he or she races to another race car located at one end of a small runway and starts pushing the race car toward the finish line. As more crew members finish their tasks they join their team already pushing the car toward the finish line. The first crew to push their car across the finish line moves on to the next round, or, in the case of the final round, wins the championship. I enjoy watching the pit crews battle it out because I do admire the work they do. As I can personally attest, not everyone has these are skills.

It's true I can't fix a car like they do in the pits, but I have my own part to play. Like my cameramen and the people on my broadcasting team who make our broadcasts possible, we're all a part of the NASCAR team. People make the cars, drivers race the cars (once someone fixes them), and we put it all on air so the fans can watch it and the sponsors can sell their products and pump money into the sport. Everyone works together, in their own way, to keep this sport alive. It's a very functional system, and every part of that system is important to keeping NASCAR strong.

Yet sometimes things don't go according to plan. Sometimes there's a teenager trying to change a flat and someone has to pull to the side of the road to help. That someone is the crew chief whose job is to be in control in times of catastrophe and keep the wheels of the race team turning.

When pit crews aren't in sync, the crew chief puts them back in order. The crew chief is on the radio with the driver, trying to help him figure out whether to make a pit stop and lose time to make necessary adjustments. He's a therapist and a cheerleader; he talks the driver through things, pushes him on. He really has to know the car and the driver in order to be able to work with him and coach him on.

In baseball and football, we know the names of the coaches. In football we even know the names of all
the coordinators and assistant coaches. We recognize it's not just about the players and the star athletes anymore. Someone has to have the experience to know how to lay out the game plans in order for the team to win. Coaches operate, in many ways, in the same way that crew chiefs do.

A crew chief works with the driver to develop a winning strategy on the road: when to take stops, what to repair, and when to fix it. He decides whether or not to keep pushing on in the race; he's the angel hollering over the radio in the driver's ear. Crew chiefs have a lot to handle. You can have the best pit crew and an amazing driver, but if your crew chief can't keep things together, has a bad relationship with the driver, or can't diagnose the problems with the car himself – there's no way your team is going to Victory Lane.

There are some crew chiefs who have really made a name for themselves in the sport, such as Johnson's crew chief Chad Knaus. He guided Johnson to five consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup championships. Knaus is clearly hard-working and his attention to detail, if you listen to his radio conversations with his driver, is impeccable. He's ready to make adjustments for the situation at hand. He understands when something goes wrong, knows his team, and realizes their strengths and weaknesses. He gets the car running right for the track that day, and he keeps it
that way. He knows when to gamble with the fuel strategy, when to call the driver in for a pit stop, and when to wait for a caution flag. There's a good deal of strategizing that goes on in the pits, and teams need a sharp mind like Knaus's to lead them through the race. A good crew chief is irreplaceable.