Pit stops, previously seen as an afterthought, have come to the forefront of racing

Whether it’s during a race, at a practice session or in the garage during downtime, it’s impossible to take stock of a NASCAR pit crew team without noticing the sheer volume of instruments at its disposal.   From walls of computers spitting out valuable information to sets of state-of-the-art tools that enable a team to do a complete pit stop in (ideally) less than 14 seconds, never has a crew been put in better position to shave valuable milliseconds off a pit-stop time.   Progress wasn’t always measured in milliseconds, though. In the early days of NASCAR -- the 1960s, when men such as Richard Petty, David Pearson and Ned Jarrett ruled the track -- the pit stop was, to practically every team, an afterthought.   With so many races in that era topping out at 100 miles on dirt tracks, pit-road strategy consisted of figuring out fuel mileage to make sure a driver had enough gas to finish the race, along with cleaning the windshield and the grille. There was no need for anything else, certainly not replacing tires. More

Pit stops, previously seen as an afterthought, have come to the forefront of racing

Whether it’s during a race, at a practice session or in the garage during downtime, it’s impossible to take stock of a NASCAR pit crew team without noticing the sheer volume of instruments at its disposal.   From walls of computers spitting out valuable information to sets of state-of-the-art tools that enable More