CONCORD, N.C. — Roush Fenway Racing’s crewmembers had attaboys all around Friday evening, moments after playing a significant role in securing the top two spots in qualifying for the Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race (8 p.m. ET, FS1).
Matt Kenseth and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will share the front row in Saturday night’s non-points feature, the 80-lap invitational for a select field. Their team’s cheers for seeing the No. 6 and No. 17 sitting 1-2 on the Charlotte Motor Speedway scoring pylon were not only a welcome boost to team morale but also the result of some pit-road ingenuity in the unique three-lap qualifying format.
“You know, we’ve had some adversity this year and the guys needed a little bit up,” said crew chief Matt Puccia, in his second race with Kenseth in place of Trevor Bayne behind the wheel of the No. 6. “This might be what it is here. We’ll see what we’ve got.”
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What they had, for starters, was a well-orchestrated but unorthodox approach to the mandatory four-tire pit stop in All-Star qualifying. Stenhouse’s No. 17 crew debuted the new method, opting to change the left-side tires first before whipping around to change the right-sides.
That technique turned conventional pit-stop wisdom on its head, but both RFR crew chiefs explained that All-Star qualifying rules that require drivers to come to a complete stop before servicing the car opened that loophole. On normal race weekends, pit crews may leave the pit wall on the car’s approach to get a head-start on the right-side tire change.
“This is new, freakish, one-off,” said No. 17 crew chief Brian Pattie. “You can’t leave until the car stops, so that’s where it pays dividends.”
A handful of other teams followed suit, including Stewart-Haas Racing’s three All-Star-eligible teams and the Joe Gibbs Racing teams of Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin.
Puccia said that fine-tuning the choreography in pit practice this month became a point of emphasis, one that delivered Friday night. The top four qualifiers — Kenseth, Stenhouse, plus SHR’s Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick — all used the left-then-right system in their mandatory stops.
“It just makes sense in what you have to do to make the best pit stop,” Puccia said. “The guys have done an incredible job this year working on our pit stops and digging there, and this is just a testament to that. They worked really hard the last few weeks working on this.
“They knew this was coming and they put a lot of work into it. A lot of teams just take it with what they’ve been accustomed to doing, but our group really did a good job and it seems like it’s showing today so far.”