NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
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CUP: More Chase Excitement Means More Stress
Regan Smith’s crew will be housed by Stewart-Haas; NMPA hall inductions are next week…
Mike Hembree  |  Posted January 11, 2011   Charlotte, NC
Chad Knaus has been on the wrong side of NASCAR multiple times. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Chase Changes Fuel Pressure – NASCAR is scheduled to reveal its seasonal competition changes next week in a press conference at Daytona International Speedway.

Among the new items will be the requirement that drivers in the sanctioning body’s three major national series specify before the start of the season which of the three championships they choose to pursue. The main push here is to eliminate Sprint Cup regulars from eligibility to win the Nationwide Series championship.

The more anxiously awaited news, however, deals with the Chase for the Sprint Cup and NASCAR’s apparent plans to install major changes in its format. Among the speculation: Expanding the field to 15, having “knockout rounds” to eliminate drivers as the Chase progresses and possibly including a formula that will require drivers to have a race win to be a Chaser.

NASCAR has confirmed none of those possibilities, but it is clear that, whatever the changes, the new Chase will add more pressure on the participants. One of NASCAR’s goals is to create more – in chairman Brian France’s words – “game seven moments,” and that has fueled speculation that there will be more “do or die” scenarios in the Chase.

The general view among insiders is that putting teams’ feet to the fire with elimination rounds in the Chase probably will put more pressure on crew chiefs than on drivers.

The crew chief has become the “answer man” in modern NASCAR, with the pressures of late-race decisions adding more and more each year to the worksheet for the big guy on the pit wagon.

Spot decisions on tires changes (Two? Four? None?), fuel mileage (Can we make it?) and other pit strategy easily could decide a team’s future – or lack of it – as the Chase unfolds. It seems safe to say that calculators will be working overtime during the weeks leading up to the Chase as teams work to cover every possibility.

Furniture Row Partners With SHR – Furniture Row Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing have announced an unusual partnership for this year’s Sprint Cup season.

The pit crew for Furniture Row driver Regan Smith will be employed and trained by SHR.
The pit crew for Furniture Row driver Regan Smith will be employed and trained by Stewart-Haas Racing. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Smith's team is based in Denver, so the change will allow the crew to be much closer to most of the season’s races.

“After reviewing SHR’s program, personnel and facility, we are confident that SHR will deliver a crew that meets all of our objectives,” said Joe Garone, Furniture Row’s general manager.

The No. 78 pit crew will be under the supervision of SHR pit crew coach Joe Piette, who also oversees the pit crews for Tony Stewart’s No. 14 team and Ryan Newman’s No. 39 team. SHR is based in Kannapolis, N.C.

The first race for the new Furniture Row Racing pit crew will be the Budweiser Shootout Feb. 12 at Daytona International Speedway.


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