EVOLUTION OF THE PIT STOP: THE EARLY YEARS

8/24/10
EVOLUTION OF THE PIT STOP: THE EARLY YEARS


(This is the first in a series of four stories about how the pit stop has evolved in stock car racing over the past 60 years. Presented by TUMS, the number one antacid in America, award-winning motorsports writer Ben White chronicles the changes that have made a pit stop an art form and the people responsible for that transformation. The NASCAR Hall of Fame hosted the “Evolution of the Pit Stop” press conference on Tuesday, August 24 at 2 p.m.).

On the Sunday afternoon of June 19, 1949, NASCAR’s first ever Strictly Stock race was held on a small, dirt track just off Wilkerson Boulevard in Charlotte, N.C. Since that fateful day, pit crews have serviced cars during races on a variety of track configurations throughout the nation. In more than six decades of racing, it has become a science and an art form.
Pit stops have become an important part of the sport, just as baseball games feature home runs and football has its 100-yard fields. Initially, however, pit stops weren't that important when stock car racing first came to prominence in America following World War II. At that time, moonshiners in the North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee mountains raced cars more for bragging rights than for money in hastily organized events on vacant cow pastures and open farmland.
Rules, if there were any, varied greatly from region to region and often were open for interpretation with many gray areas. Mechanics and those who owned the cars struggled to define them, often causing confusion and anger after races had been completed.
Race promoters would, at times, organize events and announced a purse to be paid, only to scurry off the premises with gate proceeds before the race was completed.
After seeing his fair share of dirty dealings and unfair actions on and off the track, race promoter and eventual NASCAR president Bill France, Sr., called a meeting of drivers, owners, promoters and mechanics in December 1947 and asked for their ideas to build stock car racing into a respected and legitimate professional sport. Once the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing – NASCAR – was incorporated the following February in Daytona Beach, Fla., a structured point system emerged, a uniform set of rules were established and drivers could depend on the purse being paid.
In NASCAR’s fledgling years, many races were 100 miles or less in length on dirt tracks carved by the Hudsons, Desotos, Fords and Mercurys that were driven on them. The so-called race cars of the 1950s came straight out of home garages, put into service after stops at local corner gas stations for fuel, water, tape over headlights, and a leather belt to keep the doors from flying open. The last touch was door and roof-top numbers applied via the use of white shoe polish.
Putting cars designed for highway use to the test through higher speeds and sharper turns meant service had to be ready at a moment’s notice. That resulted in friends and family often being called upon to help turn wrenches when engines broke, when tires went flat and radiators steamed hot.
Dubbed “pit crews” for the deep work pits used in old-fashioned garages, they quickly became an important part of the race-day dynamic. They discovered in NASCAR's early days that positions lost on the track could be gained back with fast stops on pit road.
“In the beginning, pit stops were rather chaotic,” says Buz McKim, historian for the newly opened NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, N.C. “It was pretty much done by neighbors of the driver or team owner looking for a way to get into the race for free. Pit stops weren't choreographed with any degree of real organization until the 1960s. Over time, crew members became quite a bit more specialized as far as their duties on race day, such as changing tires, carrying tires, filling cars with fuel and cleaning windshields. But in the beginning, there was very little polish during a pit stop in NASCAR.”
Crew chiefs or chief mechanics, as they were initially known, answered the mechanical needs on race day the best way they knew how by using merger tools that were very primitive by today’s pit crew standards.
Leonard Wood, chief mechanic for the famous Fords fielded by the Wood Brothers, was a huge part of the team’s 96-career victories dating back to 1953 when the organization was formed.
Over time, drivers and crews discovered quick work in the pits was vital for making up positions lost in the race. Along with his ability for building strong race-winning engines, Wood is considered someone who first recognized and developed fast stops on pit road. His ideas pioneered the astounding 12-second stop often seen today.
“Back in those days, we had a four-lug wrench for taking off lug nuts,” Wood says. “There was a lot of emphasis on making sure it was balanced so the lugs would spin on and off nicely. We continued working where you could do it with one hand. It would spin on real fast and off real fast. But if that wrench was wobbling or not balanced, it wouldn’t spin off very fast and you’d lose time. There was a lot of emphasis put into it, but without that, you just couldn’t get the job done. You could sense this was something the crew could gain time with, so we just kept working with it until we got the process as fast.
“From the four-prong lug nut wrenches, we went to power guns. Once we had changing tires worked out to where we thought we had it as fast as you could get it, then we’d ask ourselves, ‘What’s holding us up?’ Then we’d look at the jack and what could be done to speed the jack up in getting the car in the air. Then we’d have the jack worked out to our liking, so you’d say, ‘OK, what else is holding us up?’ Then it might be how fast the fuel goes in. So we streamline the fuel system. We would just work at what we thought was the weakest link and concentrate on that and improve that. But throughout that process, you want pit crew members who really had quick reflexes.
By the early 1960s the Wood Brothers were already enjoying stardom, having won many races including the 1963 Daytona 500 with Tiny Lund at the controls of the No. 21 Ford. They were already known as one of the fastest pit crews in NASCAR when Ford Motor Co. asked them to step out of their element and serve as Jimmy Clark's pit crew in the 1965 Indianapolis 500.
Both Clark and rear-engine Lotus designer Colin Chapman were delighted to have men from the Virginia mountains giving them lightning-fast pit stops that year. Thanks to their flawless pit work and common sense ingenuity, Clark started from the second position and breezed to victory, just under two minutes ahead of second-place Parnelli Jones.
“From say 1961 to 1963, we already had the pit stops worked out pretty well,” Wood says. “Pitting Jimmy Clark in the Indianapolis 500 was a much different situation for us, but we still took the same techniques. We got there and found we had an all British crew that we were working with. Being a foreign crew, we weren’t sure how that was going to work out because we weren’t sure they were going to accept us. Butwe walked in and they welcomed us with open arms. So that made all the difference. It wouldn’t have worked if they hadn’t wanted us to be there.”
The first pit stop of the day set the stage for Clark’s runaway victory.
“We just started working with the car and preparing for the stop. I remember we were going through inspection and this was the first year they had a gravity-feed fuel flow; it previously was under pressure. Ours (fuel tank) was different, but completely legal.
“The official said, ‘I’ll bet you $1,000 you can’t pour 20 gallons a minute out of that thing.' Of course, we didn’t bet with him. We did a dry run and put in 58 gallons in 15 seconds. So we knew each stop was going to be under 20 seconds. That kind of caught everybody off guard. It just got everyone to thinking. You go along doing the same thing over and over, but then you reach a point where you think of how time can be gained here or there.”
One of the greatest chief mechanics in NASCAR history is Dale Inman, the man who built and turned wrenches on the Plymouths, Dodges and Fords driven by seven-time NASCAR champion Richard Petty. Even though very modest about his accomplishments, Inman orchestrated 198 of Petty’s 200-career victories.
Like Wood, Inman was on the scene when tools used on pit road consisted of not much more than a lug wrench, a pit board, a few tires and a small box of tools.
“Lord have mercy, we might have had a floor jack, but may have even had aregular bumper jack that came with the car some of the time. I’m serious,” Inman says. “There would be times back then with some of the shorter races that we might only change one tire at a time and did it with a four-way lug wrench. I don’t remember the exact time we started using air wrenches on pit road, but that may have been in the late 1950s. It’s hard to describe what this sport has come from to what it is now.”
Today’s specialist-filled NASCAR garage features crewmen dressed in vibrant sponsor-colored uniforms. In the early days, there was very little specialization among crew members. Volunteers were a major part of Sprint Cup, then Grand National, pit crews during the first two decades of NASCAR’s existence.
“We had what we called pick-up pit crews way on up into the mid 1970s,” Inman says. “We used to share pit crews with (veteran crew chief) Harry Hyde’s team at some 100-mile races. We would pit together. If he had three or four people and we had three or four people, we would pit whichever car was out front of the other at the time first.
“It’s all come a long way, but the equipment is what has made the biggest difference. We started modifying our sockets, such as putting springs in them. It was the same thing with jacks. We never had one that worked with one pump, but we did try to make them lighter. At one time, we were changing four tires using two jacks. One would go up on the right side and someone whom didn’t go over the wall would start jacking the left side jack when the right one fell and the tire guys were coming around the car. Over time, NASCAR outlawed thatand made us use only one jack.”
Through thousands of NASCAR events dating back to the sanctioning body's inaugural one, safety on pit road has evolved just as it has with all aspects of stock car racing. Many innovations have come throughout NASCAR’s storied history.
“Fireball Roberts got burned badly at Charlotte in 1964 and we still had gas tanks then,” Inman says. “That brought on the rubber bladders [fuel cells] inside the gas tank. For years, we used a regular gas can and a regular snout to put itinto the car. They now use a dry break system (which lets the gas can spout fit snug into the car to prevent fires). Eventually, the man who catches access fuel out the vent opening will be eliminated. That’s a guy standing with his back to oncoming cars coming down pit road and the guy who is pitting right behind him.” I was there the day Don Miller [retired president of Penske Racing South] got hurt on pit road in 1974. And I don’t remember the exact year, but some people got hurt on pit road the same way at Raleigh [N.C.] Speedway when we were still fueling the cars from the center of the rear bumper. That was a long time ago.”

CARBURETOR RESTRICTOR PLATES

NASCAR has announced that NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams will use carburetor restrictor-plate openings of 1 1/32 inches for the July 3 event at Daytona International Speedway. The previous plate at Daytona last February was 63/64-inch.


Monday’s announcement pertains only to next month’s Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola – the last NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event on the current Daytona asphalt. The 2.5-mile, high-banked superspeedway will be repaved prior to the 2011 Daytona 500.

Each restrictor plate contains four openings which restrict air flow to the engine, thus slowing cars. Larger openings mean more air, and more speed.

"We think this will be a needed boost due to the additional drag we've picked up since switching from a rear wing to a rear spoiler," said NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton.

Rule changes, announced Jan. 21, mandated switching from a wing mounted on the rear deck lid of NASCAR’s new car, back to a more traditional stock-car spoiler. The March event at Martinsville Speedway marked the first race for the new spoiler.

Carburetor restrictor plates are used only at Daytona and 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway. Events at those tracks are famous for their close competition.

The 1 1/32-inch size openings will be the largest since the one-inch mandate in 1988, the first year the horsepower-reducing plates were mandated for yearly use in NASCAR Sprint Cup competition at Daytona.

Teams used openings of 15/16-inch for this season’s spring race (April 25) at Talladega. That size was determined following a March 16 test at Talladega that helped answer several mechanical questions, among them, spoiler height and the restrictor-plate openings.

Records Fall at 2010 Daytona 500

Records Fall at 2010 Daytona 500


A number of records and race bests were recording in Sunday’s Daytona 500. For instance:

- There was a Daytona record 21 different leaders.

- There were 52 lead changes, which is third-most ever at Daytona.

- There were 170 green flag passes for the lead, by FAR the most ever at Daytona since the inception of the Loop Data statistic in 2005. Here's a breakdown, race-by-race in the Daytona 500:

02/14/10 170
02/15/09 34
02/17/08 77
02/18/07 45
02/19/06 82
02/20/05 29

- There were 9,450 green flag passes, the most since the inception of Loop Data in 2005.

How To Make The Daytona 500 Field 2/6/10

How To Make The Daytona 500 Field


Qualifying for the Daytona 500 is unlike any other qualifying procedure in auto racing. Drivers have two chances to qualify for the season-opening race, as opposed to the one qualifying session format used at other races.
The first chance: Daytona 500 Qualifying, which will be held Saturday, Feb. 6.
The second chance: The Gatorade Duel at Daytona, two 150-mile qualifying races held on Thursday, Feb. 11.
Below is a breakdown of the Daytona 500 qualifying procedure:

Daytona 500 Qualifying Day
• Each team may run two laps with the fast lap counting as a qualifying time. The two fastest qualifiers are “locked into” the front row for the Daytona 500. Those are the race’s only guaranteed positions coming out of qualifying day.
• The Gatorade Duel at Daytona, two 150-mile qualifying races, determine starting positions for the Daytona 500 beyond the front row. In the event of cancellation, the field will be set according to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Rule Book.

Gatorade Duel

• The highest-ranked 35 teams in final 2009 car owner points will be assigned to Gatorade Duel races based on those points. Teams with odd-numbered owner points positions will compete in the first Gatorade Duel race; even-numbered owners will compete in the second.
• The only exception is that the fastest qualifier from Daytona 500 qualifying will start on the pole in the firstGatorade Duel race and the second fastest qualifier will start on the pole in the second, regardless of 2009 car owner points.
• Teams who failed to finish in the top 35 of the 2009 owner points will be assigned to a Gatorade Duel race based on qualifying times. The fastest qualifying team goes to the first Duel; the second-fastest next to the second, etc., alternating through the remaining entries.
• Starting positions for the Gatorade Duel races are based on qualifying times.

Daytona 500 Lineup
• The two fastest qualifiers are locked into the front row.
• Finishing positions in the Gatorade Duel races will determine the other starting positions in the Daytona500.
• The top two “non-top 35” teams in each Duel race will earn a spot in the Daytona 500.
• Based on their finish in the first Duel race, the highest-ranked 35 in 2009 car owner points plus the two highest finishing non-top 35 teams will be lined up on the inside row (odd-number starting positions).
• Based on their finish in the second Duel race, the eligible highest ranked 35 plus the two highest finishing non-top 35 teams will be lined up on the outside row (even-number starting positions).
• The remaining positions will be filled based on qualifying.
-If one or both teams on the front row are not top-35 teams, the number of teams that get in based on time are reduced accordingly.
• The 43rd starting position will be assigned to any owner who has the most recent eligible past NASCAR Sprint Cup champion who did not make the race by any other method providing the driver competed in the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. If the 43rd position remains unused it will be assigned to the next highest qualifying time.

The bottom line, regarding who gets locked in the Daytona 500 field:
– The top two qualifiers from Sunday.
– The remaining top 35 guaranteed starters.
– Four drivers from the Gatorade Duel at Daytona (two non-top 35s from each race)
– Remaining drivers not in through the above methods can fall back on Sunday’s qualifying times or being past champion.