Crew chiefs will determine the outcome of this Chase
QUOTE
The big all-in calls involved not straights or flushes, but two tires or four. Seven weeks from now, a driver is going to celebrate a championship in South Florida. But this title will ultimately be won by the crew chief whose gambles work out for the best.
Is there any doubt after Sunday? Of the three Chase races, two have now been won by pit-strategy calls, those gambles disguised as educated guesses that can land a driver anywhere from out of the running to Victory Lane. Two weeks ago at New Hampshire, it was crew chief Alan Gustafson's decision to stay out on a pit cycle that paved the way for Mark Martin's win. Sunday, it was crew chief Darian Grubb's call to take two tires on the final pit stop that got Tony Stewart back in the championship hunt.
"We knew we had a shot at it, and we knew track position was going to be the key," Grubb said following the fourth victory this season for the No. 14 team. "So we had to do that to be able to get out there and race those guys that were so fast."
There will always be exceptions like last weekend's event at Dover, where Jimmie Johnson had the field covered from beginning to end. But given how much better the current Sprint Cup car handles in clear air, and given how perilous it can be back in the field during a double-file restart late in the race, events ebb and flow on track-position gambles.
..."It just looks bad [Sunday] because we got beat with it, but if you look at it throughout the course of every race, it does come down to that," Erwin said, referring to pit strategy. "They're either fuel-mileage races, or they're pit-strategy races. It's very, very rare that there's a race where everybody puts four on with 40 laps to go and the best car drives from eighth to the win. It's just doesn't play out like that very often. It is all about how you get off of pit road, and [getting] clean air."
Is there any doubt after Sunday? Of the three Chase races, two have now been won by pit-strategy calls, those gambles disguised as educated guesses that can land a driver anywhere from out of the running to Victory Lane. Two weeks ago at New Hampshire, it was crew chief Alan Gustafson's decision to stay out on a pit cycle that paved the way for Mark Martin's win. Sunday, it was crew chief Darian Grubb's call to take two tires on the final pit stop that got Tony Stewart back in the championship hunt.
"We knew we had a shot at it, and we knew track position was going to be the key," Grubb said following the fourth victory this season for the No. 14 team. "So we had to do that to be able to get out there and race those guys that were so fast."
There will always be exceptions like last weekend's event at Dover, where Jimmie Johnson had the field covered from beginning to end. But given how much better the current Sprint Cup car handles in clear air, and given how perilous it can be back in the field during a double-file restart late in the race, events ebb and flow on track-position gambles.
..."It just looks bad [Sunday] because we got beat with it, but if you look at it throughout the course of every race, it does come down to that," Erwin said, referring to pit strategy. "They're either fuel-mileage races, or they're pit-strategy races. It's very, very rare that there's a race where everybody puts four on with 40 laps to go and the best car drives from eighth to the win. It's just doesn't play out like that very often. It is all about how you get off of pit road, and [getting] clean air."
(This was actually rumored once, and someone justified it because 'it would make fans part of the action' - maybe Max could take a cue and let the BB appoint WDCs annually?......)