Driver swap helps No. 31 to 'weighty' pit crew win (cont'd)

The important stuff

Of course, "driving" in the Pit Crew Challenge is a bit of a misnomer. The participants were required to jack a car, change front and rear tires, and deposit two 12-gallon cans of fuel without being penalized for "excess spillage." Then, after all that, they had to sprint to yet another car and push it 40 yards across the finish line.

Oh, and they needed to do it in roughly 22 seconds without making any other mistakes. So in a greater sense, Kim Burton wasn't so much driving as she was going along for the ride.

But she had to keep the wheel straight and make certain she didn't brake too early. Those were serious enough tasks that some of the other teams, such as the No. 11 Toyota fielded by Joe Gibbs Racing, actually had their real driver, Denny Hamlin, behind the wheel for the competition.

Let the record show that Mrs. Burton smoked young Mr. Hamlin in the semi-finals.

"Coming over here [for practice on Wednesday], my wife told me that whoever was in front of her better get out of the way, because she wasn't going to stop early. And that's how it went," Jeff Burton said. "I think she figured if somebody was over there in her way, they weren't supposed to be there and if they got run over, that was OK -- because she wasn't going to stop early. That's the kind of competitor she is."

Asked if she was going to bust on her husband because she got the No. 31 to Victory Lane in 2009 before he did, Kim Burton laughed.

“

I wanted to make sure I went way past the cones before I tried to stop. So I did that, but then when I pushed the brake pedal, it wasn't stopping. I just kept pumping and pumping, and I was thinking, 'Oh, Lord, I'm going to crash this car into the wall.'

”

-- KIM BURTON

"If you're in racing, you try not to bust on anybody too hard -- because the next week it can come back to bite you in the butt," she added. "I have a horse competition coming up in two weeks, and I don't want to jinx myself for that. So I'm just going to say awesome job to these guys [in the pit crew]. They deserve it."

Odd man out

It wasn't until a day before the event that Kim Burton officially replaced Andy Spenner, a road mechanic for RCR, as the pilot of the No. 31 for Thursday's main event. Since it was Blizzard's idea to do so, he was the one who had to deliver the bad news to Spenner, who had been looking forward to sitting in the driver's seat.

"How much is your heart set on driving this car for this thing?" Blizzard asked Spenner.

"Why? What's the deal," Spenner asked in return, sensing correctly that something unusual was up.

Blizzard gave it to the man straight.

"Man, we're thinking about putting Kim in the car. She's like 100 pounds less than you," he said.

Blizzard said Spenner took the news like the team player that he is.

"If it's going to benefit the team, if it's going to help you win, then no sweat, I'm all for it," Spenner told Blizzard.

And so then they went out and won it -- for Spenner, for Jeff and Kim Burton, for Richard Childress, and for one another on a pit crew that also included jack man Adam North, 44-year-old gas man Curt Bowman (who, according to the others, serves as the inspiration to everyone else on the team), catch can man Andrew Childers, front tire carrier Jon Wallace, rear tire carrier Chris Martin and rear tire changer Terry Spalding.

For Spalding, the win was especially sweet. The night essentially was a live audition for a job. He had been unemployed in racing after earlier changing tires for Michael Waltrip Racing.

"I think maybe he's got the job now," pit crew coach Matt Clark said of Spalding. "The salary is non-negotiable, though."

Blizzard said he thought of Spenner's sacrifice as the team celebrated.

"That's what's cool about our deal. We work together and we're one big happy family most of the time," he said.

While making sure to credit his wife as much as possible, Jeff Burton took care to make sure he spread the accolades around to the guys who really earned him his choice of pit stalls for this Saturday's All-Star race at Lowe's Motor Speedway, which went to the winning team.

"These guys work so hard. Ninety-nine percent of the people in this country could not do the fitness program that they do," Mr. Burton said. "They put a lot of effort into it, a lot of heart into it. It isn't just a bunch of mechanics who one day decided to pick up a wrench or a jack. They undergo NFL-caliber training.

"We did not have a good day on pit road last week [at Darlington]. The cool thing about [Thursday night], the cool thing about sports, is that you can come back from those days. What makes Tiger Woods so good is that he can forget about the last shot if it was a bad one. These guys did a good job of that, and this is great for all of us. It's good to see that much work pay off."

It didn't hurt that once the car was jacked and gassed and all tires and lug nuts were in place, the guys had 100 fewer pounds to push to the finish line. For that, they can thank Mrs. Burton -- and a Blizzard of an idea.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.

Joe Menzer is the author of "The Great American Gamble: How the 1979 Daytona 500 Gave Birth to a NASCAR Nation." Click here to purchase.