Living the life of a pit crew -- one Reuben at a time (cont'd)

Paying the price

Agreed. I thought my day was done, my lesson learned.

Then I learned instead that our time was good enough to earn us a spot in the semi-finals. Now I was getting into it, and determined to do better -- which I did.

This time I got the tire in place quickly enough that I was able to actually lend a hand (I may have only gotten one on the rear bumper) in pushing the car across the finish line. And our time, amazingly, was good enough to place us in the finals against the dreaded Waltrip-Vickers combo.

By now I was feeling it, and not the effects of the Reuben, either. I felt like we could actually win this thing.

Alas, I went in low -- and slow -- with the tire. Then I couldn't get it mounted right. Precious seconds were lost.

Our tire was the last to get mounted and as our car crossed the finish line, the results became all too official.

For Waltrip-Vickers, a time of 20.512 seconds.

For the lovable underdogs from WBTV, NASCAR.COM and points beyond (we also had a regular from Red Bull and some guy from a local radio station who went by the name of White Shadow), a time of 20.565 seconds.

Michael Waltrip and Brian Vickers celebrate their victory but don't plan on any career changes.

I felt terrible -- no, it wasn't indigestion -- and sought answers from Doug Newell, our ringer from the Red Bull team.

"You look at the times. That last round, we lost by half of a tenth of a second. Half a tenth of a second on race day might mean one or two cars beat you off pit road. That might be the difference between winning or losing a race," Newell said.

I had to know. Did I cost us the championship?

Newell tried to be nice.

"This was no championship here," he said. "We were just having fun, right?"

Right.

But what did Newell really know? After all, he was only a gas man. My kids have been calling me that for years.

I needed to talk to someone who could feel my pain -- someone who really knew what it was like to fill the role of right-rear tire carrier. I needed to talk to Mike Metcalf from Red Bull.

"The key is consistency, doing it the same every time," said Metcalf, who has performed the task for both the No. 82 car driven by Scott Speed and the No. 83 driven by the reviled (at least on this day) Vickers. "A lot of it is just knowing where your tire changer is. It's just teamwork. One (pit-crew position) is not more important than the other, but you've got to work together. That's something you might want to do next time -- maybe go through a round or two on the side and get to know your tire changer better."

Wow. Even he knew about the Reuben-over-practice decision?

"You mean I should have chosen practice over a sub beforehand?" I asked.

"Maybe so. Maybe lay off on the sub next year -- and that's less weight you've got to carry when you push the car, too," Metcalf added.

That's provided I can even get to the car. Or if I answer the boss's call next year.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.