Pit Road and Persistence Determine Darlington Outcome

Pit road performance always plays a huge role at Darlington Raceway. Equally important is how well a team can recover from a pit-road glitch. The latter played a huge role in Christopher Bell’s win tonight.

There was a ton of hype about the new lower downforce/higher horsepower package last March at Darlington that mostly remained hype. But this fall, using the same package and the same tires, NASCAR gave us a race to remember as The Chase starts off.

A Race Contested on Darlington’s Pit Road

Darlington pit road mistakes determined outcomes for many Chase contenders.

• Joey Logano’s stop during the competition caution break was around 12 seconds.
• Ryan Preece started third. He stayed in the top 10 until he left pit road without his right rear wheel securely fastened. That mistake on lap 109 forced him to pit again on lap 110. That second stop dropped him well back in the field where his car didn’t handle as well.
• During the same pit cycle, Carson Hocevar had a slow stop. The team dropped the jack on the right side too soon and had to re-jack it.
• Tyler Reddick had to back up in his pit stall to re-tighten a left front wheel on lap 187.
• The #19 team of Chase Briscoe had pit before pit road opened at the end of stage 2. The crew failed to fill the car and they were about to run out of fuel.
• Denny Hamlin’s team had an almost 16-second pit stop on lap 233. That, by itself, was a problem that could be overcome. However, the mistake put the No. 11 in proximity to the No. 71 on the subsequent restart. Hamlin hit the wall, damaging his steering and effectively killing his competitiveness.
• Bell had a trip-up on the right front tire on a lap 222 pit stop.
• Chase Elliott and his crew got their signals mixed up on their Lap 340 stop. The driver thought they were making a two-tire stop while the crew was planning on four tires. The glitch meant for a longer pit stop.

Mechanical and On-Track Mistakes

Mechanical gremlins also caused some problems for Chase drivers: That was no doubt exacerbated by lightning cancelling practice and qualifying.

• Ryan Blaney’s pit crew wasn’t the focus of attention this week, but that didn’t keep them out of the news. Instead, the No. 12 team started the week out by failing inspection twice. That failure resulted in losing Car Chief Raymond Fox for the race, and getting one of the less-desirable pit boxes.
• William Byron started back in 20th position because weather canceled practice and qualifying. He spun on lap 316, thinking he had a flat. During the spin, his car’s engine rotated backward, killing his night. Byron finished 37th, taking home a grand total of six points for the entire race.
• Daniel Suárez started in second position, but fought brake, handling and fuel pressure issues throughout the night. That led to some very long stops for adjustments. His 21st-place finish was the second worst of Chase contenders.
• Chris Buescher hit the Turn 4 wall hard enough that the team had to change a tie rod. He finished in 20th place.
• Bubba Wallace had a stuck throttle early in the race. The team theorized that it was due to rubber build up and Wallace was able to clear the problem.

With so many Chase drivers having problems, how well you could overcome those challenges determined how well you finished.

Tires Decided the Race

Kyle Larson’s biggest problem was an ill-handling racecar. The long race gave Larson and crew chief Cliff Daniels time to dial in the car. Larson and Daniels are among the best at adapting — whether that means fixing a car that wasn’t right when it unloaded or keeping up with a track.

When the final caution came out on lap 343, Daniels was in the unfortunate position of leading. He had to gamble on how many car would pit for new tires. The maxim is often ‘do the opposite of whatever the leader does.’ In addition, pitting opens you up to the possibility of a pit error and even worse track position.

Four drivers stayed out: Larson, Austin Cindric, Logano and Preece. Neither Logano nor Cindric had great cars. Preece, in 16th position in The Chase, had nothing to lose. Their tires had five laps of green-flag racing on them and a number of caution laps. The bet was that they would hold out for another two-dozen laps or so.

They didn’t,

Winning Crew Chief Adam Stevens

Surprisingly, this is No. 20 Crew Chief Adam Stevens’ first Cup Series win at Darlington. This was Stevens’ 410th Cup Series race. He won two championships with Kyle Busch. Bell noted proudly that it’s not easy to give Stevens a new experience, but that’s exactly what they accomplished.

Darlington is often touted as the ultimate physical and mental test for drivers. I wondered if it was also the toughest track for crew chiefs.

“This one’s up there, you know,” Stevens said after the race. “I don’t know which one’s the hardest, but this one’s tough, right?”

The when-to-green-flag-pit question is the big challenge at Darlington. A crew chief must balance track position and tire wear. At Darlington, the lap time fell off around 2.5 seconds over 25-30 laps.

“And the biggest factor is the one that you have absolutely no control over,” Stevens says “And that’s what happens after, right?”

It’s like a card game. You plan your best move without knowing what anyone else will do.

“So, a lot of times,” Stevens said, “which we didn’t see tonight, but the guys that really short pit or get off sequence get rewarded by a downstream caution… So that makes it challenging. Most difficult. I’m not really sure, but they all have their nuances, as you well know. And this one’s up there toward the top for sure.”

Quote of the Race

Christopher Bell was positively giddy after his first win of the season.

“Darlington is literally the track that is NASCAR. Like there is no other track that’s harder to drive that rewards a talented driver more than Darlington in the Southern 500. It’s this is the epitome of NASCAR, and I’m just super grateful to be”

— Christopher Bell