Free NASCAR Nation by Chris Myers Page B

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