SONOMA, Calif. — Kevin Harvick sat on pit road wall conversing with crew chief Rodney Childers after their runner-up result in Sunday’s race at Sonoma Raceway. During their chat, race-winner Martin Truex Jr.’s No. 78 Toyota drove by en route to Victory Lane.
If not for a clever, final stage trick by No. 78 crew chief Cole Pearn that snookered the No. 4 into pitting earlier, Harvick, Childers & Co. could have been the ones celebrating in that Wine Country Victory Lane.
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“I’ve been preaching for two days to not worry about what everybody else is doing,” Childers said. “You come to road-course races and that’s all you talk about is when’s the right time to pit. What we did last time (in 2017) won us the race, but we got done with the race last time and didn’t feel like it was the right thing to do. We kind of told ourselves going into the race that we were going to do it differently. … (We) needed to worry about ourselves and not worry about what other people were doing. …
“Ones like this hurt a little bit, you know? It’s all good. I felt like the 78 had the best car last year and we won the race and I felt like this year, we had the best car and they won the race. So, we’re square now.”
The trickery unfolded at Lap 73 when No. 78 crew chief Cole Pearn initially called then-second place Truex Jr. for a green-flag stop. The No. 78 crew readied on pit road. Childers, hearing that, opted to bring the leading No. 4 down pit road to follow suit.
At the last minute, though, Pearn told Truex to stay on the track. That differing pit strategy affected the No. 4 team’s approach for the remainder of the race — and eventually paved the way for a No. 78 victory.
No codes, Pearn said — but he hadn’t planned to bring Truex down pit road all along.
WATCH: Mutual respect between Pearn, Childers | Cole Pearn explains trickery
“The whole intention was to stay out,” Pearn said. “We had a lap in mind that we were going to pit at, and it was just trying to get ourselves off sequence from (the No. 4 team). …
“I called (Truex) off at the last second. As far as he knew we were pitting. I’d like to say that we’re smart enough to use codes, but we’re not. We probably would screw it up,” he said with a smile.
Truex joked after the race that his team had gone to “acting school this week,” since the series is in California.
“When he said pit and then stay out, I wasn’t sure what was going on to be honest,” Truex said. “I just did what he said …
“Cole and I have a great relationship. I never question him when he’s calling races, and when he has things going on when he’s talking to me in the car, it’s just, OK — it’s yes or no answers for me.”
RELATED: Truex, No. 78 team snooker the field at Sonoma
But Pearn’s acting job did fool Childers, who radioed into his team after the stop that the No. 78 team had tricked them.
“They did what they had to do,” Childers said “(If) we could have just turned our scanners off and ran our race, probably would have been better off. …
“That’s really why I like racing those guys the most; the 18, the 78, those guys are really good at what they do, they make all of us better and we make them better every week. It’s awesome what they did and I have to congratulate them for that.”
And he did, as Childers paid Truex Jr., Pearn and the No. 78 team a visit in Victory Lane to offer congratulations.
There’s a matter of respect there between both groups, Pearn said. From one elite group to another.
“I think that’s the cool thing about racing,” he said. “I think you go from this level down to short track level, at the end of the day, you’re competing against each other, but you’re all there to help each other out when you’re down. At the end of the day, we’re playing a game. I mean, it’s kind of cool to have that camaraderie, and you spend so many weeks together beside each other in the garage area working next to them, and obviously competing with them on race day and stuff.
“So I think that’s one of the cool things about motorsports from go-karts to even the Cup level is it’s kind of a family at the end of the day.”
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If one extra caution had come, it might have been the No. 4 in Victory Lane instead, Pearn said. That speaks to both teams’ strengths. As the playoffs near, small, gut-like decisions such as Pearn’s play into each race outcome — and eventually, the championship.
With five wins already in 2018, the No. 4 team relishes the chance to return to Victory Lane with a smart, timely move of its own.
“Our team is strong, we had a strong car all weekend and everybody’s done a great job,” Childers said. “Felt like Michigan we gave one away and felt like we gave another one away (Sunday). That part sucks — need two more stickers above the door. But we’ll get it.”
