 | | Carl Edwards' pit crew kept him in contention throughout Sunday's race -- and posted an 8-second stop in the waning laps. Credit: Autostock |
By Ryan Smithson, NASCAR.COM
June 13, 2005
06:02 PM EDT (22:02 GMT)
Pit Story of the Race Michael Waltrip had his choice of pit stalls at Pocono, but he and Kurt Busch both let Brian Vickers have the very first stall, and it paid off for Vickers. Vickers was able to get off pit road first all day long -- in some cases stealing the lead in the pits from Carl Edwards -- and he credited a combination of location and talent. The No. 25 team has been one of the better teams on pit road all year, but until Sunday, they didn't have a chance to prove it. But with Vickers retaining the lead in the pits all day, their stops were the envy of pit road. "We had good pit stops, but you come down pit road running first or second, those guys have the pressure on them to keep you there," Vickers said. "They stepped up to the plate [Sunday]." Waltrip, who won the Bud Pole, could have picked the stall that went to Vickers, but crew chief Tony Eury Jr. said that his driver didn't want to drive all the way down pit road. Waltrip picked the first stall that had an extensive opening in front of it. Kurt Busch, who had qualified second, took the second stall with an opening. "I will typically take the No. 1 stall, but Michael would rather pit down here, so you got to go with driver's choice," Eury Jr. said. Vickers was surprised that he had the chance to pit at the head of pit road. "I didn't anticipate that," Vickers said. "But you know, it wasn't the pit box that did it for us, but it was a great pit box to have." Waltrip gets an assist Michael Waltrip led the first 29 laps but lost spots on pit road early in the race -- including the lead to Vickers during the first round of stops. DEI made the unusual move to transfer one of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s tire changers over to Waltrip's team. "When [Earnhardt Jr.] had his problems, we asked the front-tire changer from the 8 to help us out," Eury Jr. said. "We appreciate [them] helping us. We can't do it every week, but the 8 car had the misfortunate so they helped us out." "We lost a little bit of track position with some pit stops," Waltrip said. "Some of the boys off the 8 car came down to help us out, that was cool." Pocono: Not your average pit road  |  | ALSO | |
|
Pocono's pit road is very quirky. The actual lane itself is extremely wide, but it features numerous bumps, which teams try to avoid when making their pit selection. A team that qualifies poorly will invariably find themselves pitting in the middle of one of the bumps. Quotable "This is one of the neatest parts about this deal is my pit crew and how flawlessly they performed. I've got the greatest pit crew in the business and they're just killing it on every pit stop."
-- Carl Edwards, who gained spots all day on pit road | 
