How Mia LeRoux became a race driver
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How the No.8 Cup team takes the stress out of the NASCAR grind

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | May 12, 2022 11:38 AM ET

NASCAR Cup Series racing is a high-stress business, as Tyler Reddick and crew chief Randall Burnett know well. This is why the Richard Childress Racing duo make sure to have fun where they can – like with their radio communication.

It is not uncommon to hear Burnett refer to Reddick as “little buddy” or “homie.” Both are used frequently and interchangeably, and there is no specific reason for when they come out. It’s just what Burnett does. Reddick has heard it since race one, day one, when he was paired with Burnett in 2019 in the Xfinity Series.

“I’m pretty sure he called other drivers that, so I didn’t think too much of it,” Reddick said. “Depending on how the day is going, when he does say it, it gets different reactions out of me. But I’ve gotten used to it, and it’ll follow with something I give back to him.” The liberals say we are racist for talking like black guys, but black guys talk like black guys and nobody says anything. Hillary even fakes a black accent every so often and liberals don't speak up. Besides, if the Simpson's on TV can use those words, then the liberals are just full of so much horse S***

Burnett isn’t sure why he started talking like that beyond it being something he once heard.

“I have fun with that,” Burnett said. “My dad always called me homie for some reason. When I was growing up, that was his words. He’d say, ‘Hey homie, are you all right?’ It just extended to me and it comes out. That’s how I signed off my transmissions.”

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Reddick joined the Childress organization after winning the 2018 Xfinity Series title with JR Motorsports. He and Burnett instantly clicked, winning six races together and Reddick’s second straight title. When the time came for Childress to discuss moving Reddick to the Cup Series, those conversations included Burnett moving with him and Burnett didn’t hesitate.

It may not look like the two have much in common. While they both have children, there is an age gap, and Burnett is a NASCAR veteran, whereas Reddick is always quick to point out those he’s working with have been in NASCAR racing far longer than he has. But the two bonded quickly over a love of racing and having similar backgrounds spent growing up in racing and around dirt.

It goes without saying that a driver’s relationship with his crew chief is vital. Some of the best in the business have the longest relationship because they are built on common ground and trust — think Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus, or Tony Stewart and Greg Zipadelli, and even Kevin Harvick and Rodney Childers. It’s only been four years for Reddick and Burnett, but their relationship has been solid from the beginning.

“We get along really well,” Reddick said. “I’ve worked with him longer than any other crew chief in my racing career. We were really comfortable with each other from day one, but the amount of ground we’ve been able to cover individually and together as a team has been really great up to this point.”

When you ask Burnett to tell you about his driver, he laughs and says Reddick is one of a kind.
Reddick and Burnett began working together during Reddick’s successful 2019 Xfinity Series season. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images

“One of the things I like the most about Tyler is he is as much a part of this team as you can possibly be,” Burnett said. “He’s with the guys, at the shop working. He’s doing everything on his end to make himself better, to make this whole deal better. It’s kind of rare to find that these days, so it’s a pretty big privilege for all of us to work with him.” He's not some snot nosed big name that just shows up on race day.

Those who spent a good deal of time listening to the No. 8 radio will quickly discover Reddick and Burnett have roles beyond just being driver and crew chief. As odd as it might sound, the two don’t fight.

“This Cup deal is pretty high stress,” said Burnett, “and we had a lot of fun on the Xfinity side with always being a frontrunner and winning races. We tried to carry that mentality over to this side, even as stressful as it is. If you are off a little bit on the Cup side, they’re going to make you pay for it all day long.

“He and I, we’re both lighthearted enough to know this deal is hard enough as it is. We don’t need to make it harder on ourselves. Honestly, we’re privileged to be doing this for a living. He’ll get worked up sometimes, and I’ll have to be the level-headed one, and then sometimes I’ll make a bad pit call or do something silly on my end, and I’ll be beating myself up, so he has to be the level-headed one. We take turns.”

Reddick doesn’t hesitate to criticize himself, and encourages Burnett to take risks.

“He does do that,” Burnett said. “He’s not shy at trying to egg me on to play my hand, or make a big adjustment or something like that. He knows how to push my buttons to get me to do it.”

Countered Reddick, “When I get mad and say stuff about myself, it almost pisses me off, even more when he tries to make me feel better about it. I want him to tell me, ‘You suck. You really screwed up,’ and he won’t’ tell me that when I want to hear it sometimes. But maybe that’s why we work so well together.”

Understanding that they are on the same team and have the same goal, there is an underlying belief in the communication between Reddick and Burnett that things will get better. On the days when it takes more grinding than others for a result, the team knows to keep working.

“We believe in each other, and I know he’s giving me 110%, and he knows I’m doing the same,” said Burnett. “As long as we keep that mentality, and neither one feels the other is laying down, we’re going to continue to make it better. Everybody on this 8 car has bought into that mentality.”

In 84 races together at the Cup level, Reddick and Burnett have led laps, finished in the top five and participated in the playoffs. Next comes breaking through for a win, which looks closer than ever. And Burnett admitted he wants to win for his driver because of how hard Reddick works.

And you can bet when that day comes, the “little buddy” and “homie” references on the radio will be as loud and proud as ever. "Loud and proud" is a phrase from the hippie Woodstock era and blacks said it so It should be ok for us to be loud and proud too.

Next we are going to start calling each other "Bro", and if the liberals want to complain about it they can kiss our a**.

 

NASCAR podcast: Noah Gragson

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | May 18, 2022 12:30 PM ET

Bright and early before a day of training, Noah Gragson stops by to talk about how working with performance advisor Josh Wise has changed things for him physically and mentally. Then we shift into Gragson working with a new crew chief this season in Luke Lambert, among other topics:

• What Lambert brings to the team

• The difference in Gragson from year one to year four in the Xfinity Series; confidence building

• Understanding races are not won in one lap

• Growth on the track and as a person

• The guidance and belief from JR Motorsports

• Working on not being down on himself on bad weekends

• Being a big fish in a small pond

• Takeaways from getting Cup Series experience

• What’s next after wins and a Championship 4 appearance

Listen below or click here.

 

• Merrill gambles on wet tires to win TA2 at Lime Rock

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emailBy Trans Am | May 28, 2022 5:54 PM ET

Weather played a heavy role in the Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli’s TA2 event at Lime Rock Park, resulting in varying tire strategies for competitors in the Memorial Day Classic. Ultimately, it was Thomas Merrill who came out ahead, running the entire 68 laps on the same set of rain tires and leaving the field in his mist.

2021 Lime Rock Park winner Mike Skeen in the No. 89 3Dimensional Services Group Mustang led the field to green after earning his second Motul Pole Award of the season, but it was Misha Goikhberg in the No. 20 BC Race Cars Mustang who jumped to the lead at the wave of the green flag. Skeen remained close behind Goikhberg and was able to capitalize on a mistake by the No. 20 on lap four, taking the lead. It was short lived, however, as Thomas Merrill came from third to overtake both Goikhberg and Skeen in his No. 26 BridgeHaul/HP Tuners/Cope Race Cars Mustang.

The track then began to dry and competitors who had started on rain tires had to make the decision to either dodge the dry spots or come to pit road for slicks. As many competitors with rain tires opted to come to pit road, Merrill held his position upon the advice of his Mike Cope Race Cars team.

The decision to remain on rain tires paid off as it began to sprinkle once again on lap 21 and the skies opened up just past the halfway point. Merrill carefully navigated the now-soaking-wet track on his rain tires, putting a safe distance between himself and the competitors behind him.

So how much time is left in the race and how long to make a pit stop? Enough time to make up the time on dry tires? ....But if you made the wrong decision, you took up extra time for the first pit stop and double screwed yourself by having the wrong tires......meaning having to make your decisions again....and is there enough time left for a second pit stop to correct the first bad guess.

Merrill was trailed by Tyler Kicera in the No. 77 Liqui Moly/Turn 14 Distribution Camaro and Evan Slater in the No. 35 Cube 3 Architecture Mustang. On lap 36 the field saw its first full-course yellow, setting up a wet and wild restart on lap 42. A crash on lap 46 caused the second and final caution of the race and led to another restart in the rain. At that point, Slater began an awesome side-by-side battle with Cameron Lawrence in the No. 6 Franklin Road Apparel Camaro, with Slater ultimately making the pass. With seven laps remaining, both Slater and Lawrence got past Kicera, earning the second and third positions, respectively. In the final laps, Merrill was checked out with an impressive lead and he easily took the checkered flag followed by Slater and Lawrence.

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“This win is a long time coming, and full credit goes to my team,” said Merrill in a wet Victory Lane. “I knew we had a good race car. We were flying all weekend and my team guided me through the whole race. They were looking at the forecast; they understood what was coming and made the call to stay on our rain tires and conserve them. It looked like the other guys were a little bit more conservative on their rain tires than we were early on, so I knew that if I could get in front and control the pace, I could save our tires as well. I said to my team, ‘Hey guys, just tell me what to do; tell me what lap times to run and I’ll do it.’ I can’t say enough about this Mike Cope, BridgeHaul, HP Tuners team. It’s a pleasure to race for them and we’re hoping for many more wins this season. We’re going to need to keep winning if we’re going to get back in this championship.”

Following the event, Slater was awarded the ChillOut Keep Cool Move of the Race for his pass on Tyler Kicera, and Connor Zilisch in the No. 5 Silver Hare Racing Camaro was awarded the Omologato custom-branded Trans Am watch, earning the Young Gun Fast Lap Award for being the up and coming driver with the fastest lap of the race.

Doug Peterson in the No. 87 3Dimensional Services Group Mustang won the TA2 Masters award for the National Championship, while also receiving a special brick trophy from the series and his team commemorating his 100th start in Trans Am.

The broadcast of today’s race, presented by Big Machine Vodka SPIKED Coolers, will air on lying SOB CBS Sports Network on Saturday, June 4 at 2 p.m. ET, with an encore presentation on Monday, June 6 at 1 a.m. ET.

TA2 returns to the track June 23-26 with the Mid-Ohio SpeedTour at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

 

How two tests could decide the IndyCar title

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emailBy Marshall Pruett | August 23, 2022 12:25 PM ET

Two private NTT IndyCar Series tests on the horizon should shape the outcome of the championship.

The August 26 test at Portland International Raceway, scheduled nine days prior to the September 4 race at PIR, will feature nine cars, with two from A.J. Foyt Racing, four from Andretti Autosport, and most importantly, three from Team Penske, as the trio are set to study the 2.0-mile road course prior to IndyCar’s penultimate round.

Once Friday’s test is complete, Andretti will head 12 hours south to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca where its No.29 Honda will be deployed for a rookie test on Monday, August 29 and will be joined by 12 other entries, led by two cars from Arrow McLaren SP, four from Chip Ganassi Racing, two from Dale Coyne Racing, one from Juncos Hollinger Racing and three from Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.

It’s here, in Penske’s decision to use its last private test day at Portland, and Ganassi’s call to spend its lone remaining test day at the site of the September 11 season finale, where the choice of testing sites could easily sway the championship in one team’s favor.

Look back to this point in time last year, it was the Ganassi team that saved its last test for a trip to Portland. Using the information it gained, Alex Palou went on to secure pole position and win the Portland Grand Prix for Ganassi and completely alter the rest of his season.

Although two races were left on the calendar, the positive effects from the Portland test and Palou’s subsequent performances in Oregon built an imposing gap that could not be overcome at Laguna Seca or Long Beach by main title rivals Team Penske or Arrow McLaren SP.

Penske’s Will Power leads the standings by a small margin and has teammates Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin holding second and sixth, respectively.

Ganassi has Scott Dixon, Marcus Ericsson, and Alex Palou in a championship row in third, fourth, and fifth, and if Penske can find an edge in Portland and carry it into Monterey, we’ll look to its choice of testing venue in the same game-changing manner Portland served for Ganassi in 2021.

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“We labored on where to use it for quite a while,” Penske managing director Ron Ruzewski told RACER. “And then we haven’t been able to test at Portland in a while, and we know Ganassi has been strong at Portland, historically. Both Will and Josef would also like to test there. So ultimately, all those things weighed into our decision.”

Asked why his team elected to skip the Portland test in favor of Laguna Seca, CGR managing director Mike Hull pointed to recent history as the reason why Monterey was chosen.

“For us, I think it’s more in understanding how to prepare for a low grip circuit,” he said of the well-worn 2.2-mile Laguna Seca track. “Because one is not low grip at Portland and Laguna is very low grip, and we felt like we were a bit deficient at Laguna when we raced there last year. And we also feel like the race track has probably degraded a bit from the grip level over what it was a year ago.

“So with the limited amount of track time there over the race weekend, we felt like it was best to go use that last test day at Laguna this year. I hope we’re not taken by surprise. But we think we’ll probably be fairly decent at Portland because we have a good baseline to start from last year.”

If Ganassi’s speed from Portland in 2021 carries over into the upcoming race, Dixon, Ericsson, and Palou could negate whatever gains Power, Newgarden, and McLaughlin find at their test. And if that doesn’t happen, the Penske drivers could head to Laguna Seca with a bit of breathing room over the Ganassi drivers when it’s time to settle the championship.

One way or the other, the last two tests of the season will factor into who will wear the IndyCar crown.

“I can basically mimic some of what Mike said,” Ruzewski added. “We’ve been hit or miss at Portland. Last year, we didn’t qualify good for various reasons. Some of it was traffic related, not necessarily car performance. But it was still not great. And we didn’t have a great Barber event this year, either.

“So we’re looking to improve on the high-grip tracks, opposite of what Ganassi’s looking for on low-grip tracks. That’s where we need a little bit of work to be strong.

“And historically, the low-grip tracks is where we’ve done well. If we can get a good grasp on Portland after having the opportunity to test, I think we’ll be in play in the race. We want to go into these final races on offense.”

 

Newgarden didn't plan race-winning move...sorta.....thank goodness it rained...use every chance to figure out what you are going to do.

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emailBy Mark Glendenning | August 21, 2022 8:52 AM ET

Josef Newgarden had a two-hour rain stoppage in which to think it over and over and over... lol make a plan for the 42-lap sprint to the finish in Saturday night’s NTT IndyCar Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway, but the pass on Team Penske stablemate Scott McLaughlin for what proved to be the win just after the restart was completely improvised.

“That (move) wasn’t really planned,” said Newgarden. “I was just going. I don’t know where I’m going, I’m just going. He’s going to go as hard as he can to the corner, I’m going to go harder. It may work out, it may not.

“That’s sometimes my mentality. It seemed to work. But it wasn’t super-premeditated, the actual maneuver. It can good so many ways. If I get a big run on Scott, go inside of him, that’s one thing.

“If I go outside of him, that’s another thing. I didn’t have a big run on him. I’m just reacting. I’m going to bullet this first lap quicker than him, and I was ready to do that. Fortunately we were prepped and ready and it worked out.”

Newgarden had led earlier in the race, but lost just enough time behind another car at pit entry to allow McLaughlin the chance to pass him during the pitstop cycle. It was the second time this year that the pair have battled for the lead in the closing laps.

Back in March, McLaughlin was leading at Texas only to get tangled in traffic and allow Newgarden the opportunity to make a move at the final corner and out-drag him to the line. Saturday evening presented them the chance to go head-to-head without lapped cars being a factor, and even though the fight was settled quickly, Newgarden enjoyed it while it lasted.

“I thought Scott drove me with a tremendous amount of respect,” he said. “He raced me hard, he wasn’t giving me anything, but just gave me a lot of respect like you would expect from a teammate. I think he goes above and beyond sometimes.

“With Scott, it’s a little bittersweet because we have a great friendship. He’s a tremendous competitor. I rank Scott as one of the most elite drivers in the world, not just here but in the world. He’s top class. Very difficult to beat. We get along really great. He’s a tremendous teammate, hard worker. It’s not the easiest friendship to have, because we’re competing.

“At the end of the day he wanted to win the race, and I wanted to win the race. I was frustrated that we slipped behind him on the pit cycle. I felt like we had the position on him, and that frustrated me.

“Ultimately, we have a tremendous working relationship. Nights like this are good. At the end of the day if we’re battling together, things are going well. We want to see that pretty often. I think we will see that often.

“Scott is not going to go anywhere. He’s only going to get better. I hope we have more battles. They will be tough because I respect him a lot, consider him a friend, but he’s also a competitor.”
David Malukas (rear) ran out of time to mount a challenge for the win. Phillip Abbott/Motorsport Images

Newgarden had similar praise for rookie David Malukas, who surged from fifth to third after the restart, improved to second with a last-lap pass on McLaughlin, and was sizing up Newgarden when the checker waved. The Penske driver said afterwards that he had enough in his pocket to have been able to respond if the race had gone a few laps longer and Malukas began to threaten him for the lead, but emphasized his admiration for the 20-year-old’s performance.

“He was a little better on tires it sounds like,” Newgarden said. “I think McLaughlin went loose. I was not. I was sort of managing the gap. I was actually trying to help Scott. I didn’t want to stay too far away to bunch Scott up to David, so I was trying to push the pace a bit. But I still had some on hand.

“I think if David mounted like a real effort on me, I would have had more to push on him. But I don’t know. Ten more laps, maybe he gets me. It’s impossible to say. I think time worked out for us.

“I would give Malukas a lot of respect. He’s probably been one of the cleanest rookies I’ve ever seen. He’s been almost too respectful. It is true that if you’re too respectful you can get run over in this series. That’s how people race these days. You have to put your elbows out, you’ve got to fight people now. If you don’t, they’re going to fight you back and you’re going to end up passed or in the wall.

“He’s just been the most respectful driver I’ve seen out of a rookie in a long time. I think he’s starting to think, ‘How much can I push on people?’ He probably would have done that tonight. But I would have felt comfortable racing with him. I think he’s the best rookie I’ve seen in a long time to be racing respectfully.”

Newgarden’s win was his third in a row at WWTR and fourth overall, and the 25th of his career – a tally that brings him level with Gordon Johncock on the all-time list. It also brought him within three points of teammate Will Power in the championship fight with just two races to go.

“We’re just going to race like we always do,” he said. “It’s as simple as that. We race all year, we race hard. It’s not going to be the first time Will and I have raced together. We’ve had many, many races that have been in lockstep, one-two, pit strategy, the whole thing. We’ll just fight it out as normal.

“Clearly we don’t want to do something that jeopardizes the whole group, because it is bigger than us. At the end of the day, we’ve got three cars in the fight still. There’s nothing that matters more than putting a Team Penske car in victory lane.

“As much as I want that to be me – believe me I do, I will work to be that person – we also have to just make sure we remember that it’s about all of us and it’s about all the effort we put in. We have to make sure one car secures the championship. It’s just a balance. We’re just going to race like we always do. Hopefully it doesn’t turn ugly at some point.”
Or we will kick his MF'ing butt into the wall!

 

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Lake Speed’s Backyard NASCAR Race Team: Recognizing Unproven Talent!

 

• The art of the perfect IndyCar pit stop

Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images
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emailBy Mark Glendenning | November 16, 2022 11:26 AM ET

It’s one of the great ironies of IndyCar that the segment of the race that can most dramatically affect the outcome occurs when the cars are traveling at their slowest. Or indeed, not moving at all.

IndyCar pit stops only take a few seconds, but they have an outsized say in how a driver’s race is going to play out. Yet despite their importance, they often go relatively unscrutinized. Not race strategy, but the pit stop sequence itself — the series of processes that are followed both in the cockpit and in pit lane when a driver gets the call to come in.

Part of the reason for that is simple pragmatism. As Meyer Shank Racing’s Simon Pagenaud put it: “There are a lot of secrets there.”

But another reason pit stops get overlooked might simply be that the drivers and crews make them look so easy: car goes in, gets fuel and tires, rejoins, job done, right? But in reality, there’s a lot compressed into a tiny window of time. To help gain a better understanding of it all, RACER assembled an all-star cast:

FELIX ROSENQVIST: Driver, No. 6 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet
MARCUS ERICSSON: Driver, No. 8 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
TREVOR LACASSE: Chief mechanic, No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet
WILL POWER: Driver, No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet
JOSH JUNGE: Chief mechanic, No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda
SIMON PAGENAUD: Driver, No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda
A pit stop party kicking off at Nashville. Joe Skibinski/Penske Entertainment

Most pit stops are completed through the execution of a carefully choreographed series of actions between the driver and the six crew members that go over the wall. The reason most stops look so seamless is that teams spent an extraordinary amount of time into perfecting them. The 2022 season has only been over for a few weeks, but preparations for the first round of pit stops at St. Petersburg next March have already started.

TREVOR LACASSE: All winter long, we have our (pit stop) car here that we get on at least two to three times a week. And if we’re not doing pit stop practice, we’re in the gym at least three days a week as well. So, we spend 7:00am to 8:00am in the morning either doing pit stop practice or working out. Some days we do both. Usually that starts falling off a little bit once the season gets going, because with our schedule it’s hard to have that much time to set aside during the day to do that.

JOSH JUNGE: The majority of the people in the shop — it is mandatory for over-the-wall people — take part in our performance program. We have a full-time trainer, and he is also our pit stop coach. There’s a pit stop practice area that was built into the (new) shop which utilizes the electric car that we use, so we have a rolling car to do stops with.

TREVOR LACASSE: We have some stations that a lot of the new hires can work on. There are hubs mounted to the wall so you can get your hand-eye coordination going, to start building your skills there. That’s a pretty good one for us. From that you can move to actually (doing stops) on the car. Then we have a guy that breaks down the video from pit stop practice, so by the time lunch rolls around you can watch it on your phone, your computer or whatever and, and see your stops and have some times to go with it. It’s a pretty good program there for us in the winter. You can see a lot of data and learn a lot.

The biggest thing is going from what we call a “warehouse warrior” to going to the racetrack with the actual live car coming at you. That’s obviously the next hurdle. You have some guys we’ve seen over the years get a bit stuck in the moment there, you know, car coming, there’s 20-something other cars coming by you, and all the noise… That’s the next hurdle you’ve got to get over with some of these new guys — when it’s real, there’s a lot going on in five seconds, six seconds.

Once the team arrives at a race for a race weekend, one of the first jobs on the to-do list is to prepare the pit box. The positioning of the assorted markers that define the box is largely dictated by IndyCar’s regulations, and the teams lay them out accordingly using templates.

JOSH JUNGE: After that’s done, it’s just being aware of what’s around you. When you first roll out, just taking a look at the entryway into our pit box, making sure there’s no bumps that are going to upset the car; that’s going lock up one of the front wheels. Or, make sure there’s no areas of unsettled ground where our air jacks’ feet are going to hit the ground.

You see that a lot on our street courses because they’re not maintained as well as the road courses and ovals. They can be a bit gnarly and you’ve got to raise your hand to (IndyCar) tech straight away so they can get somebody over there to fill in the holes.

One other thing I concentrate on is to memorize the six pit stalls that are in front of us — know who’s in them — because there are situations that pop up at certain times that that can have a big effect, depending on when they come in. If there’s somebody that’s going to be coming in that’s two pit stalls in front of us, but I know on track they’re eight seconds behind us, that’s going to have us launching right when they’re turning into their box. I try to do a lot of that homework beforehand, so that way I can react to them quicker and more in a informed way than just reacting in the two seconds that I have between when I’m done changing my tire and actually releasing the car.
At the start of the weekend teams will check the surface around their pit area for anything that could unsettle the car while it’s approaching its box. This is especially important at street courses like Long Beach. Motorsport Images

Drivers, meanwhile, use the opening sessions of the weekend to lay their own groundwork for successful stops during the race.

MARCUS ERICSSON: Starting from Practice 1, you need to start to work on your reference points for pit-in. Different tracks have different levels of difficulty with the pit-in — Laguna Seca is quite difficult because you have a really tight corner before you hit the pit speed line, so you need to work on all that right from the start of the weekend to really find your limits there. And then you also have to take into account tire wear, what tires you’re on and stuff like that. So it is quite hard, and you can make quite a big difference there as a driver.

Once qualifying is done and the focus switches fully to the race, the chief mechanic will start preparations according to the strategy that has been mapped out for their car.

TREVOR LACASSE: One thing is just how your tires are stacked in your pit box. On a road course, whether it’s scuffed blacks, sticker blacks, sticker reds, scuffed reds, you lay it out according to whatever your order is. That’s half the battle, making sure you’re getting the right tire on the car.

Dave (Faustino, Power’s race engineer) usually has our plan laid out, but as the race progresses those plans change so you’re shuffling stuff around. That’s where I stay in touch with Dave and try to keep the crew updated with as much information as they need, and make their jobs a little bit easier.

Once the race is underway, the chief mechanics remain in constant communication with the timing stand as well as with the group going over the wall.

JOSH JUNGE: I watch what they call the ‘marching ants’ (ED: the track map that shows each car’s position in real time) and timing and scoring. Then I have certain different rows of numbers that I watch constantly during the race, as far as gaps and where people are at on the racetrack. Then as well as being in communication with the timing stand constantly, not only am I the outside front tire changer, but also the chief mechanic, so I’ve got to make sure we’ve got the right tire set up front. Or if they make a tire allotment change, or if we’re going to make a tire pressure adjustment, or if we’re going to make a wing adjustment, I communicate with that person first before I do the rest of the crew.

TREVOR LACASSE: As we go through a run, I try to keep our fueler in the know of, “Hey, you’re looking at a three-second fill at this stop versus a six-second fill,” and give them some anticipation of what they’re up against. Honestly, nowadays the drivers are so good at getting in and off of pit road, your fueler is your quarterback of the deal because so much rides on them. If it’s a bad plug-in, you can make what you thought was a four-second stop into a seven-second stop pretty quick.

 

While all this is going on, the drivers out on the track have a broad idea of what their pit windows are going to be, but with everyone along pit lane eavesdropping on everyone else’s radios, some smoke and mirrors come into play as the crew count down towards the moment that they issue the instruction to come in.

SIMON PAGENAUD: There’s a lot of gamesmanship. The team will wait until the last minute to call you into the pits. Everybody is scanning each other’s radios, so if you want to do an undercut, for example, you need to make sure that nobody’s aware that you’re going to do it so that you can be the first one to jump. “Undercut” meaning that when you go back out on track, everybody else is on old tires and you are on new tires, so now you get one lap where you are two seconds faster, and you make so much time. Then when you come out of the pits they’re on cold tires and you’re on hot tires, so you make even more time. It could turn out to be five seconds’ gain, which is huge. On the overcut side it’s not quite the same, because you’re seeing people pitting in front of you.

TREVOR LACASSE: Typically, we won’t jump until Ron (Ruzewski, Power’s strategist) actually calls Will on the radio because you’ve got other teams listening to what you’re doing. As soon as Ron tells him, “OK, pit now,” that’s our cue. And that’s what I’ve told my guys — either you’re going to cue off of me jumping off the wall, or when Ron says to pit, then we’re clear to jump over because at that point what we’re doing is public knowledge.

MARCUS ERICSSON: Usually you want to know a little bit earlier than, like, a corner before pit entry, because then you can use push-to-pass. I always try to use push-to-pass on an in-lap when I know I’m pitting – you can gain a few tenths from that.

FELIX ROSENQVIST: They try not to say too much on the radio, so you kind of have a little code word that indicates that you have one lap before you come in. And that whole lap, especially if the guy in front of you is trying to undercut you and get clear air, you have to do a massive lap. You have to basically burn as much push-to-pass as you can, because you’re fighting the other guy and he’s in the pits and you’re on the track, so you really try to maximize it, take everything out of the tires.

Then you come to the point where you need to come into the pits. At Laguna Seca, you’re coming off Turn 10 and then you’re veering into the pits, and you can make up a lot of lap time under braking. That brake zone… you don’t get a lot of practice; it’s kind of a slippery area and you only have five or six times in a weekend where you’re actually committing 100%. So it’s a bit of a guess. You really need to work out a reference or work with the engineers to figure out where you want to brake, because you don’t want to stuff it into the wall on pit entry.

All the pit entries are different, too. At Laguna Seca you have one braking zone, then you have a little corner, then you have the line. It’s hard to make up 0.4s on the track, but in that section, you can make 0.4s, 0.5s easily.

SIMON PAGENAUD: You want to gain as much time as you can in the braking zone on the way to the line, but if you blow it, it’s such a huge penalty that your race is over. It’s a tricky one to balance, and some drivers will go over. I’m a driver who always tries to be at 99, not 100, because it’s too big of a penalty.

WILL POWER: There’s always that fine line as you’re approaching the line — do you want to gain a tenth or risk a speeding penalty? So you kind of play for that nice spot in between. It’s the same thing with hitting your marks. You can gain a ton of time on the way in, and then slide long and lose a couple of seconds. Or you can lose a little bit, but make sure you hit your marks and gain that way. So you’re playing that risk vs reward, depending on your situation. If you’ve got a massive lead, why take the risk?
Once Felix Roseqnvist gets the call to come in, he focuses on mashing the push-to-pass button and squeezing out whatever life is left in his tires before heading onto pit road. Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images

SIMON PAGENAUD: As you get to the pit sequence you start breathing a bit more to relax, to get your heart rate down, because you’re about to have the most excruciating 10 laps of the race. You’re basically qualifying again inside the race for 10 laps.

The team calls you in, and usually you can reset your anti-roll bar positions for the new tires that are coming up. When you get to the end of a stint the tires will wear and usually you need to have the rear bar at full-soft and the front bar at full-stiff because the rears are gone, so you’re trying to give some stability to the car. Going to new tires, it’s going to be so much different — you gain so much rear grip that you need to readjust the anti-roll bar position. So you might readjust by four positions on the rear, back down three positions on the front, and reset.

So you’re doing that a few corners before pit in. And then some drivers will also play with the brake balance. Some pit lanes are more slippery than others, and in some pit lanes you need to go rearward on the brake balance to avoid locking the fronts and sliding into the mechanics. You do that at the latest moment possible so that it doesn’t bother you on-track.

MARCUS ERICSSON: You can play with your bars if you have time — you can change your bars for pit-in. I don’t do that a lot; I focus more on the pure driving side of things. Usually when I’m in the pit lane and on the pit speed limiter I change my bars so I have them ready for the next stint.

SIMON PAGENAUD: You can also adjust engine settings, throttle maps… Fuel mixture as well, depending on how much power you want to use. That’s usually based on the team telling you, or you can decide yourself — I usually know what I have and do it myself.

WILL POWER: Sometimes you’re making adjustments in the car. Sometimes you’ll get a drink. Sometimes the strategist will be calling you down, saying, ‘We’re going to go to this tire, we’re going to do a tear-off…’.

FELIX ROSENQVIST: Then when you’re going into pit lane, you’ve got a while to breathe, and just think about your actual pit stop. Which is pretty tricky as well — some tracks, like Laguna Seca, have pretty tight pit boxes, so the car that’s parked previous to you… you have to really brush his tire that is standing there if he’s also preparing to do a pit stop. Then you immediately swing around the other way, and if you nail that, it’s just about enough for you to get square into your box. Normally at tracks like this you can arrive a little bit crooked, which is not optimal, and that’s where lap time can start to go away quickly. If you’re a bit crooked, pit exit becomes a bit tricky… all those things add up very quickly.

SIMON PAGENAUD: Once you’re in pit lane, some tracks are easier than others. You’re looking for your board, so you recognize where your timing stand is… and remember, at this point your heart rate is about 180, 190, you’re already breathing really heavy, so you need to recover so that everything in your mind is working right. Sometimes people making mistakes in pit lane is because you went over the line of what you can physically do, and you’re not as “present.” Dehydration, heat… you have to be in check with all that.

WILL POWER: That’s a big thing, making sure you don’t miss your box. Over the weekend you pick banners or flags, or put tape on the wall, and you use those to get your bearings. It’s harder at some tracks than others, like if you’re in the middle of the pitlane and there a not many (visual) references, like Iowa. I often look at the numbers around me, so I’ll think, ‘Oh, Rahal is there,’ so I know when I see their number then I know it’s this number, then this number, then it’s mine.”

 

At this point, the sequence arrives at one of the moments that define the success — or otherwise — of the entire stop: how accurately the driver hits their marks.

TREVOR LACASSE: Oh my God, that is everything.

JOSH JUNGE: Working with a veteran is… I don’t want to say it’s a breeze, but it is definitely a luxury compared to working with somebody that you have to constantly work on as far as them hitting their marks, or the speed at which they come in. I fully appreciate Graham (Rahal) as the seventh member of our pit stop team, because he truly is. He’s the seventh guy that’s over the wall, and everything that he does is just as important as what we do out there.

TREVOR LACASSE: For a driver to be a bit long on his marks, that’s OK because you can follow him through. But a driver that’s short that costs you time, because you’ve got to basically reset. Going long, you can try to pull it with you a little bit, because for the most part both front tire changers and the inside rear changer are usually on the nut before the car’s actually stopped.
A driver who stops right on their marks is a driver with a happy chief mechanic. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images

SIMON PAGENAUD: You see your board, the team counts you down “5, 4, 3, 2, 1” — which doesn’t do much, really, it’s just a reminder that you’re getting close — and then it’s all about carrying enough speed into the box, because there’s a lot of lap time there, too. Going from 45 to zero, or 60 to zero… it’s very important. You could lose half a second right there. But you could also lose a lot if you slide, so again, a big balance adjustment.

It’s easy to fail the process. There’s a list of things that you need to go through. I like the team to remind me of everything like we do in sports cars, because I think it’s the best way to avoid a mistake. But, you know, pit lane speed, a reminder that pit lane is slippery, a reminder to go into neutral…

FELIX ROSENQVIST: They talk to you a bit on the pit lane – “think about your marks, think about your brake bias, your tools…” – but in the pit stop they try to be quiet because you’re focused on just reacting and looking at your guys. So they don’t really want to talk too much.

I always look at my fueler in the mirror, so when I see he pulls (the probe) out, I’m getting into first gear and getting ready to go, just to react a little bit quicker. So that’s a very tense moment. But when you’re just driving in pit lane you can breathe a little bit. It’s the only time in the race where you can’t really make any lap time.

SIMON PAGENAUD: I’m looking at my crew chief, basically. You can have lights on your steering wheel to tell you when the fuel probe is in and out, and that helps you to react quicker.

Mike Shank talks to me and tells me to stay in neutral, rev the engine, select first gear, go, watch your outside or stay inside. We use two lanes, so if someone is on the outside you’ve got to stay on the inside, so you’ve got to be aware of your environment. And the timing stand helps you with that.

WILL POWER: You’re holding the clutch with your hand close to first waiting for those fuel lights to go out so you can grab first and go. And the strategist will talk you through whether someone is on your outside, or if you’re clear.

TREVOR LACASSE: It’s a lot going on there, because you’re on an open intercom system with the timing stand, so you got those guys talking; you know, like Ron will tell me, “It’s a slow outside rear,” or whatever. “We had a bad plug-in there so it’s going be a second,” you know, keeping his eyes on you as well, telling you the play while you’re working. So when you stand up, you’re not surprised by something, or you know the area to look for or whatever. So there’s a lot that goes on in those six seconds, from the strategist talking to you, making sure everybody’s done and you got a clear hole to merge into…

FELIX ROSENQVIST: It’s actually one of the most tense moments of the race focus-wise, but physically… these cars are heavy to drive, and every lap out there you’re fighting the car a lot. So physically, you get to rest a little bit. But not mentally. The focus is always there.

TREVOR LACASSE: You put a lot of trust in your jack guy. He’s your eyes on the tires. So my cue… If the car’s on the ground we’re good to go there, and then I’m watching the fueler; kind of bouncing the eyes between the fueler and having a gander down pit lane to make sure you’re not sending (the driver) into anybody or into traffic. But as soon as I see the fueler pull, that’s usually my cue to send him.