Cup teams switch up pit crews to gain edge
Swap paid off during Johnson’s ’10 title run
Most NASCAR fans probably remember Jimmie Johnson’s historic run to a fifth consecutive Cup series title in
2010.
But what many people might not remember is the somewhat remarkable move that fueled his dwindling championship chances.
That moment came Nov. 7, in the second half of the AAA Texas
500 at Texas Motor Speedway. To the surprise of everybody in the grandstands and virtually everyone along pit road, Chad Knaus, longtime crew chief for Johnson, made a full-scale pit crew change during the race. He benched his over-the-wall crewmen and replaced them with the Hendrick Motorsports crew that normally serviced teammate Jeff Gordon. Gordon had crashed out of the race, so his crewmen were available.
The plan worked. Johnson recovered from a string of poor pit stops by his regular crew, rallying
for a ninth-place finish. Gordon’s team members stayed with Johnson for the next two races — at Phoenix Raceway and Homestead-Miami Speedway, where Johnson won the championship.
The swap drew heavy attention at the time and was mentioned at the season-ending awards banquet by comedian Frank Caliendo, who joked that he was under pressure to perform well “so that Chad Knaus won’t replace me with Jeff Gordon’s comedian.”
It wasn’t the first time pit crews had been swapped in NASCAR’s top series, but it isn’t every weekend that a top-level, championship-contending team makes such a change in the sound and fury of a race.
It underlines the importance of pit road, where a second gained or lost can mean several positions on track.
The tactic — putting new crew people into different and prominent roles as teams strive for the championship — is in play again this year in the final weeks of the season.
Most prominently, before the playoffs started, Joe Gibbs Racing switched the crew of Daniel Suarez, who failed to make the post- season, with that of Kyle Busch, a playoff contender seeking his second title.
The move backfired in the playoff opener at Chicagoland Speedway, as two miscues by pit crew members derailed a fine run by Busch, robbing him of a good shot at victory.
The team bounced back, however, performing well as Busch won Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, boosting him into the playoffs’ second round.
Roush Fenway Racing also addressed the playoffs with a crew change, moving Trevor Bayne’s crew to Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s team. After two races, Stenhouse probably needs a very good finish Sunday at Dover International Speedway to advance to the second round.
Playoff driver Kevin Harvick said teams with multiple drivers and crews should choose their best people for the playoffs.
“You put your best foot forward,” said Harvick, who picked up two crew members from Danica Patrick’s team heading into the final regular-season race at Rich- mond Raceway before his 2016 playoff run.
“Some of the fans aren’t going to understand that, but you’ve already spent 26 weeks trying to get to this point, and the cars that aren’t in it need to rebuild for next year and the cars that are in it need to have everything that that company has.
“I think, from a company standpoint, it’s the right thing to do. We’ve done it. Other teams have done it, and it’s a part of putting your best foot forward to try to win a championship for your organization.”
Similar changes have left some bruised feelings among the team members who helped the driver reach the playoffs only to be cast aside.
NBC analyst Steve Letarte, who was Gordon’s crew chief in 2010 and suggested the crew switch to Knaus, said the team’s overall success is the overriding concern.
“While those are six human beings with six lives and résumés and families, their feelings getting hurt couldn’t be in front of the other 500 workers back at Hendrick Motorsports who had done their jobs to get the car there,” Letarte told USA TODAY Sports. “Some could never get over the swap, others understood it, and you just moved on.”
Business is business, Letarte said.
“The people who work on these cars, the people who change tires, the engineers — they determine who’s fast and who’s slow, and they have the best chance to determine the winner,” he said.
“Make no mistake — this is a competition-based business. It’s not a popularity contest. It’s not varsity sports. We don’t give out letter jackets for just participating. This is the premier motor sport in all of the United States. It needs to be managed as such.”
The Busch-Suarez switch at JGR was designed to give the 2015 champion every possible weapon, said teammate and current playoff driver Matt Kenseth.
“They’re just trying to give Kyle every edge they can because he is in the playoffs,” Kenseth said.
The team said the Suarez crew generally had performed better than Busch’s over the long run.
“They (Busch’s crew) have been kind of struggling and inconsistent on pit road,” Kenseth said. “Really, it’s just an over-thewall switch. The 19 (Suarez team) guys have been unbelievably fast.”