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Sprint Cup
CUP: Pit Road Safer But Far From Safe
Various hazards exist on pit road at every NASCAR race...
Four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon makes a pit stop during the July race at Daytona. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
By the time David Ragan slid to a stop inside his pit box at Watkins Glen during last year’s Sprint Cup Series race, Dwayne Ogles had already jumped off the wall and was making his way around the back of the Roush Fenway Racing Ford.
The rear-tire changer was focused on the task at hand – hitting 10 lug nuts with his air gun as quickly and cleanly as possible.
Unfortunately, he never got the chance.
“As soon as David got his right rear in the box, I took off to go to the left rear to start the pit stop,” Ogles says. “It was time for [Juan Pablo] Montoya to leave his pit … it was just real tight; it just got my left rear leg and took me down.”
Montoya, who was pitted in the box directly behind Ragan, didn’t see Ogles until it was too late. The front end of his Chevrolet clipped the crewman, sending him sprawling onto the asphalt.
Examined at the infield care center, Ogles, who has since moved to Roush’s No. 99 team with driver Carl Edwards, says he suffered a gash in his elbow and “some knee pain.”
A week after he returned to work, the pain in his leg persisted. An MRI eventually revealed a cracked fibula.
Ogles’ story isn’t unusual. In spite of numerous safety changes made in recent years, pit road at a NASCAR race is still an extremely dangerous place.
It’s safer, but it’s far from safe.
“The first thing my guys told me,” Montoya says of his Earnhardt Ganassi Racing crew, “is that, ‘If you hit one of us, it’s our fault. Don’t worry about it.’ And I don’t; I really don’t.
“You have to give the guys on pit road a little bit of room, but if their guy is running around … you are only focused on getting out of your box as quickly as you can.”
You hear the phrase often, but in truth, there’s really no such thing as a “routine” pit stop. In approximately 13 seconds, a team will remove and replace as many as four tires, fill the car with gasoline and make any necessary chassis adjustments before sending the driver back on his way.
And they’ll do this while other teams, at arms’ length, are going through the same hectic motions, each trying to gain as much of an advantage as possible.
A Game Of Chicken
When the caution flag flies, cars roll onto pit road in packs, loud and fast, and it’s up to each team to not only know what their own driver is doing, but what those who are pitting around him are doing as well.
“I was always aware of that, but now, after that incident, you’re very, very cautious,” Ogles says. “You pay more attention to the leaderboard, you communicate with the guys in front and behind you, ask them if they’re doing two or four tires because that will mix it up a little as far as when they’re coming out and when you’re going around the car.”
Working at the rear of the car, he says, is safer because those working on the front have to jump in front of their own car as it pits and be aware of any cars coming around them.
“It’s kind of like a game of chicken for the guys up front,” he says. “You have to jump out in front of the other guy, too, because they’re going to cut all the room they can, because if they slow you down and their crew has a good stop, they’re going to beat you out of the pits.”
Alan Gustafson, crew chief for Mark Martin, describes it as “a very controlled danger” when crews go over pit wall.
“Jason Hunt, our jackman, got hit at Watkins Glen last year,” Gustafson says. “We’ve had a few people hit, we’ve had some [tire] carriers get hit. Unfortunately, it’s part of the deal.
“It’s tough. As teams and drivers, you’re trying to get everything you can on pit road, but sometimes you cut it a little bit too close to the guys that are doing their job there. … The advantage you get on the race track isn’t worth the risk you give to your crew members.”
There is no standard size for pit stalls; they vary from track to track, as do the widths of pit road. Even the surface along pit road differs, with some tracks featuring a concrete surface inside the pit stalls while others are asphalt, and thus more likely to be slippery from fuel overflow or other fluids.
Pit road speeds change as well – ranging from 35 mph on the series’ short tracks to 45 on the 1.5-mile venues and 55 at tracks two miles or longer.
The rear-tire changer was focused on the task at hand – hitting 10 lug nuts with his air gun as quickly and cleanly as possible.
Unfortunately, he never got the chance.
“As soon as David got his right rear in the box, I took off to go to the left rear to start the pit stop,” Ogles says. “It was time for [Juan Pablo] Montoya to leave his pit … it was just real tight; it just got my left rear leg and took me down.”
Montoya, who was pitted in the box directly behind Ragan, didn’t see Ogles until it was too late. The front end of his Chevrolet clipped the crewman, sending him sprawling onto the asphalt.
Examined at the infield care center, Ogles, who has since moved to Roush’s No. 99 team with driver Carl Edwards, says he suffered a gash in his elbow and “some knee pain.”
A week after he returned to work, the pain in his leg persisted. An MRI eventually revealed a cracked fibula.
Ogles’ story isn’t unusual. In spite of numerous safety changes made in recent years, pit road at a NASCAR race is still an extremely dangerous place.
It’s safer, but it’s far from safe.
“The first thing my guys told me,” Montoya says of his Earnhardt Ganassi Racing crew, “is that, ‘If you hit one of us, it’s our fault. Don’t worry about it.’ And I don’t; I really don’t.
“You have to give the guys on pit road a little bit of room, but if their guy is running around … you are only focused on getting out of your box as quickly as you can.”
You hear the phrase often, but in truth, there’s really no such thing as a “routine” pit stop. In approximately 13 seconds, a team will remove and replace as many as four tires, fill the car with gasoline and make any necessary chassis adjustments before sending the driver back on his way.
And they’ll do this while other teams, at arms’ length, are going through the same hectic motions, each trying to gain as much of an advantage as possible.
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A Game Of Chicken
When the caution flag flies, cars roll onto pit road in packs, loud and fast, and it’s up to each team to not only know what their own driver is doing, but what those who are pitting around him are doing as well.
“I was always aware of that, but now, after that incident, you’re very, very cautious,” Ogles says. “You pay more attention to the leaderboard, you communicate with the guys in front and behind you, ask them if they’re doing two or four tires because that will mix it up a little as far as when they’re coming out and when you’re going around the car.”
Working at the rear of the car, he says, is safer because those working on the front have to jump in front of their own car as it pits and be aware of any cars coming around them.
“It’s kind of like a game of chicken for the guys up front,” he says. “You have to jump out in front of the other guy, too, because they’re going to cut all the room they can, because if they slow you down and their crew has a good stop, they’re going to beat you out of the pits.”
Alan Gustafson, crew chief for Mark Martin, describes it as “a very controlled danger” when crews go over pit wall.
“Jason Hunt, our jackman, got hit at Watkins Glen last year,” Gustafson says. “We’ve had a few people hit, we’ve had some [tire] carriers get hit. Unfortunately, it’s part of the deal.
“It’s tough. As teams and drivers, you’re trying to get everything you can on pit road, but sometimes you cut it a little bit too close to the guys that are doing their job there. … The advantage you get on the race track isn’t worth the risk you give to your crew members.”
There is no standard size for pit stalls; they vary from track to track, as do the widths of pit road. Even the surface along pit road differs, with some tracks featuring a concrete surface inside the pit stalls while others are asphalt, and thus more likely to be slippery from fuel overflow or other fluids.
Pit road speeds change as well – ranging from 35 mph on the series’ short tracks to 45 on the 1.5-mile venues and 55 at tracks two miles or longer.
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