Pit road stats: Speedy stops at Kansas benefited Bubba Wallace, others
Speed was plentiful at Kansas Speedway last weekend, and that wasn't just for the Next Gen cars alone.
Pit road was popping in the Sunflower State as teams put up some of the fastest times of the year. According to data by Racing Insights, six of the 10 single fastest four-tire pit stops of the year came at Kansas, including spots 2-6 on the list (full top 10 is below).
RELATED: Kansas results
The quickest of those was on Bubba Wallace’s No. 23 Toyota for the 23XI Racing team. His stop of 9.509 seconds on Lap 84 was the best of the day and the second-fastest of the entire season among all NASCAR Cup Series teams.
Most teams now display their own pit-stop time in their own pit box, and the data from the Next Gen cars essentially allows teams to see everybody's times. At least one pit crew member credits that visibility leading to a spirit of competition at Kansas.
"I think when you start seeing faster stops, people start reaching for that," said Ryan Flores, tire changer on the Team Penske No. 12 team and co-host of the "Stacking Pennies" podcast. "The only way to start reaching for that time is to take a bigger risk. Some guys fall in love with a certain (time) trying to be faster, and pit road is as hard as it's ever been. The risk matches the reward, but the risk is really high."
Wallace's team consistently hit on pit road all day. In addition to having the fastest time on one four-tire stop, the No. 23 team also averaged the best time on all four-tire stops at 10.121 seconds.
Buoyed by the strength of crew Austin Dickey (front changer), Adam Hartman (rear changer), Brad Donaghy (tire carrier), Jorden Paige (jackman) and
Joshua Pech (fueler), Wallace drove to a fourth-place finish at Kansas, tied for his best finish of the year.
That pit-road performance moves the No. 23 team into fifth place on the season-long chart of fastest average four-tire pit stops of the year (see more below). William Byron’s No. 24 crew remains at the top of the rankings following Kansas.
See below to analyze additional pit-road statistics from Racing Insights.