[tires screeching]
[tools whirring]
- This full service pit stop took 16.6 seconds
with 72 steps to complete.
[tools whirring]
Just re striking one lug nut
takes on average three tenths of a second.
[tools whirring]
Let's take a look at the footage in slow motion.
Carrier's getting his equipment set right outta the gate,
just like the jack man's getting his jack ready
on the wall as well.
That jack itself weighs about 35 pounds,
and of course the changers have their guns
already in the off position, they're always making sure
the button's in the right position,
they have nitrogen running through that air hose
so that gun itself works when they jump off the wall.
[tires screeching]
One of the biggest things we teach
is always to jump on time.
So these pit crew members are all moving
as you see in sync off the wall,
each position has the same steps
just to get to the right side and that is on the clock.
They have to meet these times of getting to their job.
For changers, that's getting to their first lug nut.
For the jack person it is getting to the peg of the car.
For the fueler it's getting the probe
to the dry break of the car.
Tire carriers are having to get these two tires
as you see here in the clip, out to the right side
while jumping in between the jack person and the changer.
Getting those tires that weigh over 90 pounds each,
setting them out on the right side
and having to get to that right rear of the car
and then putting that tire on the car.
One thing we always talk to our pit crews about
is don't try to speed something else up
for something you've already done wrong.
Make sure you maintain your pace
throughout the whole course of the pit stop.
Forget what you just did bad, pick up from there
and repeat that process.
It still will be a slower stop,
but it won't turn into quick sand.
So here we're showing a good example of choreograph,
you're always trying to chase that choreograph
to make it cleaner.
There's always a 1%
that we can make better and better for each stop.
That front changer's always takin' five steps
to get to his first lug nut.
The jack man's taking five steps
to clear the nose of the car
to be squared up on the right side to hit his peg.
The rear changer's taking his same three steps
to get around the car,
drop in to get his socket into that hub.
They're getting squared to the car,
which is something you always wanna be.
That means your hips are facing your target.
That allows your torso, everything else,
to be facing your target.
Changers that's crucial
'cause it's a precision based element
trying to hit these lug nuts off five for five
on all their patterns.
And jack men have to put this plate
that's about five inches wide
on a peg that's about an inch wide
and make sure that things always center mass
when it's coming in.
That jack plate starts to get low, low low, low,
getting that whole body to the jack, getting down
so they can go ahead and start placing that plate
before the cart itself stops.
That's a 3,500 pound car
that we're getting up with a single stroke.
[tools whirring]
Here on the right side the tire exchanges are really good.
They basically hit that fifth lug nut off,
pull tire, get the tire on, hit the first lug nut on,
it's about two seconds and that's called the exchange.
That is a big chunk of both sides of the pit stop.
These changes only get two tenths or under
on the front to get to their first lug
and the rear changer's only getting about
seven tenths of a second to get to their first lug.
So this is a great view of the front changer.
He's popping each lug nut efficiently,
that socket's hitting the lug square,
getting them off on the first strike.
Does a really excellent job,
as soon as you clear that fifth lug nut
we gotta go ahead and start flipping the gun
so we can get both hands into the wheel.
The left hand is still holding the gun
as you'll see in this angle, so you don't have a full grip
like you do on your right hand.
But we teach to get those top two fingers,
that index and that middle finger
hooked on the spoke closest to seven or eight o'clock
and that right hand closest to two or three o'clock
so we got a nice symmetrical lever coming off the hub.
Good pulls here, changers are really saving time
on button switches, 'cause button switches
can take anywhere from two tenths
to a second if they miss it
and so if you can shave eight tenths on a bad button switch
on both sides of the car,
that's another 1.6 seconds
on the pit stop that they're gonna save
just off of using their equipment more functionally.
So that's those pieces of the pit stop
we're always looking at so we can grade them out
once they get back from the racetrack.
If you watch that tire carrier in the rear,
you watch the jack person in the front
starting to put those tires on,
you'll see there's two different styles here.
The right rear is being what we call left stepped on
and the right front tire is being swung on.
So it's two styles of carrying,
a swinging index is always gonna be a little bit faster
than a left step index due to biomechanics on how you set up
and using your hips to put the tire on the car.
You'll see him just get his left hand placed on the tape
for his hand placement.
Then you'll start to see that right hand
go set up close to six o'clock,
that way he can start to move the tire on
with his right leg.
We call that more of a swing style index,
so he is swinging the tire on,
and of course that tire carrier
is left stepping the tire on.
We always say a four tire pit stop
is two stops within itself,
the right side and the left side.
Front changer does a really great job
bracing himself on the fender to get up,
he's always getting his hips angled
at 45 degrees coming around the nose of the car.
Jack person's dropping that car after he sees
that all five lug nuts are tight on the right side.
As soon as he's dropping that jack
he is chasing that front changer,
we're always working in unison.
So that front changer's taking three steps
to get to the left side,
that jack person's taking seven steps
to get to the left side.
Rear changers, taking five steps to get to the left side.
And then the tire carrier,
they're trying to take minimal steps
to get to that right rear tire that just got tire pulled.
Tre carrier here does a great job
of moving that 90 pound tire efficiently to the left side.
He's also making sure that tire gets back to the wall.
If tires don't get back to the wall
that's a tire penalty on the pit crew,
but you also have to have a really great front changer
getting up, already having that tire outta the way,
getting his gun up, getting that hose cleared
so he can get up and go
and here's a great angle of him getting that outta the way,
taking his three steps, getting back down,
getting that gun in the hub,
generally that time's showing about two seconds
to 2.2 seconds from getting up
and getting back down and starting our job again.
So here's another example
of what we don't wanna have, fault steps.
That tire carrier, every step he takes
needs to always be in a forward direction.
The pit crew, that's the story of their lives.
Every step they take needs to be going towards
the next objective of the pit stop.
And if they're doing that, that jack person can get faster
from what we call peg to peg, dropping that car,
running around the car like you see here,
getting the plate under the left side peg and pegging it.
That peg to peg on a good day is under three seconds
and then getting the car up is well below four seconds.
And if all things go good,
changers already hit five off on the left rear,
nothing happened on the front
for the jack person to run around,
he's able to get that tire onto the left side
generally about five and a quarter seconds to five flat,
and that's pushing the boundaries
of how fast you can really go.
Here we have a grave view of the jack man
placing that jack under the peg, pegging that efficiently,
using a Jack that will get
these cars and trucks off the ground within one pump.
Shop jacks you might have at your
house might take three or four pumps
to get the lift to max capacity,
so when you have a hydraulic
that can get the car off the ground with one,
it's gonna take a lot more force.
So we're always teaching them how to use their hips
to not only just peg the car, but to drive up the handle
and force all their weight through the back of that lever
using the maximum amount of weight they can
to drive the car up in one solid stroke.
We generally get the car up in one second or less
because we have to go ahead
and get the tires off efficiently, sooner than later.
One thing that makes a pick crew and a pit stop different
than a lot of sports is most of these sports
you're not carrying such heavy equipment
and being timed with it.
We're using what we call hinging
where you're lifting weight, lowering weight with the hips.
You don't see them rounding their lower back
to actually put the jack under the car
or to put the tire on the car.
We don't teach to be fast by timing that pit stop,
we teach 'em to be fast by taking out extra steps.
We always call it hip knee toe,
so start pointing your hip where you're gonna go,
point your knee where you're gonna go,
and then get that big toe underneath you
and drive out of the hole.
The rear changer is going to the left,
which is to the rear of the car,
but to get up more efficiently
because we have to run around
a little bit bigger of a dimension,
the rear versus the front,
we do this thing called a post step
where that tire changer as soon as he hits five lug nuts on,
and he's done he'll go ahead and switch that button
and get that right leg underneath him.
So he can drive out of the car there,
that allows him to be super fast getting up
and allows him to keep what we generally wanna see
is that 45 degree body lean
where he's not standing straight up losing time vertically,
and he's not also just crouching around the car,
which would lose linear speed.
So there's a really good angle of hitting those studs,
hitting those lug nuts off in the front
with his impact wrench and that socket's lining up.
If they ever have to do a re strike
it's generally because they've done something
to affect the angle of the socket.
It could be that they didn't have the camber in their wrist,
they could had their elbows dropping to push that gun high,
they could have been rising up in their hips
to push the gun down.
You'll also see in the same shot
that we did have a restrike on the rear changer.
Thought he had cleared that lug nut
but then he had to go back in and hit it off again.
And you'll see there's a big difference in time
when you hit five off
versus having to go back and restrike that sixth lug nut.
You'll also see there's pit support here
and these are the people that work behind the wall.
They're just as important as the pit crew
when it helps getting the pit stop to be more efficient.
They do things like pull hoses, roll tires in,
hand off second fuel cans.
This is an angle where the pit support
is actually rolling in the left rear tire.
It's faster for that jack person
to be able to come around to the left side of the car
and already have that tire set up to the left rear
so he can just grab it and start to index it.
If that pit support is not there,
then that jack person would have to peg,
pump the left side up, run back to the wall, grab the tire,
and then get back into position, index it on the left side,
which as you can tell would take a lot of time.
These tire carriers
putting those tires on the hub really quickly
with their left hand always being on the same spoke
and then using their right thumb
to steer that tire to the stud.
You just don't grab the wheel and just throw it on any way,
they're lining up those five stud holes
to the five studs that are on the hub.
These changes are timed on how quickly they can do that
and on average they're doing five lug nuts off
or five lug nuts installed within one second to 1.2 seconds.
And if you time and look at the best indexes on pit road
on Sunday, Saturday and Friday,
these tire carriers and jack persons
are moving that tire from the ground
and getting it lined up on the hub flush
within a half a second.
And we have those taped on the tire
to help us always have the same hand references.
If you want to hit 20 lug nuts, every stop,
even if you have extras that's fine.
What you don't wanna do is have 20 lug strikes
and be perfect on your patterns
but then you have 3, 4, 5 loose lug nuts
where you have a loose wheel.
Same thing with a fueler putting fuel in the car,
you can put that probe to a dry break and engage it
but if that thing's not perfectly sealed,
fuel's not gonna get in the car.
This is a good example of
when a fueler is coming from the wall
on their first can plugging in,
and once they have that can in their hands
right hand wrapped around it,
left hand supporting the neck of that probe,
they take that left foot, right foot, left foot
to engage the car and then using those hips
keeping 'em at 45 degrees, using that left hip
really to engage the probe to the dry break of the car
to make sure there's a flush seal of the can
so that fuel starts to flow.
So a big thing we need to do
before the race and during the race is
we have to clean these wheels, get any kind of debris
off the actual stud holes themselves, degrease 'em,
and then what we do after that is we glue the lug nuts on.
We use a weather strip adhesive
that goes to the back of the lug nut,
just enough to stick it to the steel itself of the wheel.
And then we'll let those set up
for about an hour and a half to two hours on a good day.
And then they're ready
to actually put on a car or truck during a pit stop.
So in this view you'll see where the driver
can also help the pit crew in a pit stop.
We generally call him the sixth man on the pick crew.
Them hitting their marks
can really help speed the pit stop up.
We'll have sign board out there
so they can see their box coming in,
they know to put that left headlight on the sign board
to always hit that mark.
That helps us a lot right off the get go
so we can then start to pre-plan where the car's gonna be.
Also as they're coming in,
making sure that not only they brake on that mark,
but when they're braking
to go ahead and get the wheels straight.
We've been doing this for years
where we put tape on the steering wheel,
which will be right at 12 o'clock
so that way, when the driver has the wheels straight
that that allows the wheels,
the hubs to actually be straight
which allows us to hit lug nuts off
and to put tires on and off the fronts of the car.
'Cause if that wheel is turned,
it's really tough to hit lugs
and it's really hard to get the tire off.
And another thing to do on all stops
is you gotta realize when they're coming in
they're generally gonna be in second gear,
maybe third gear, braking it stop,
but they have to get back into first gear
before they leave out of their pit box.
While you're trying to hit a lug nut
or trying to put a wheel on the car,
the last thing you wanna have happen
is those studs move on you.
So drivers know once they stop, keep the car in gear
and once we drop the car on the right side
they'll go ahead and shift while the car is on the ground
to put it back in first gear.
As soon as they fill that car drop
they know to get the car back outta the pit box,
that is their timer.
I'd like to show you a few tools
that us pit crew people use to pit the car.
One of the heaviest pieces you'll see on pit road
is the fuel can.
You'll see that fuelers are normally larger in stature,
they're a little bit taller than normal.
One to line this probe up to the car itself.
To line that up and get it flush
you need to generally be about six foot tall.
The can itself when it's filled with fuel
can be on the upwards of 110 pounds.
Here like some teams do,
we'll utilize water to mimic fueling.
One, it's safer, two, all of our cars
will have reservoirs where the water will run into
so the water doesn't go into the fuel tank
or go to the engine.
One of the tools we use as changers is an impact wrench.
Probably one of the tools
that I think most people know the sound of.
[tools whirring]
A lot of the people when they learn how to do pit stops
this is the position
they at least wanna learn how to try and do first.
These are a little bit more efficient,
a lot more faster than your standard shop tool.
We're running generally upwards of 200 pounds of nitrogen
to actually spin that socket.
So that allows us to get these lug nuts off
a little more efficient and quicker than standard shop guns.
There's a coupling end
that goes to the whip hose end of the gun.
This will always run to a nitrogen bottle.
That nitrogen bottle puts nitrogen through this hose,
through the whip hose, into the impact wrench.
The nitrogen's what spins the internals of this gun
and allows that socket to spin freely.
We have to keep these internals always oiled up.
Bare minimum, we always change oil
at least every two stops, we put just enough oil in there
to fill up the internals of that gun.
You always check to make sure it free spins
when you're spinning with your hand.
Make sure you definitely have a clean snap
on your button switches.
It should have a nice firm click to it.
So this is a linered tire,
which means it has a bladder within the tire itself.
So this is a 90 pound tire,
we also run things called non liners
where it's just the tire, there's no bladder inside.
Those are generally about 55 to 60 pounds.
So depending on what track we're at
we'll run different style tires and wheels.
To become a pit crew member
it takes a lot of heart, drive, and intensity.
Teaching the fundamentals to anyone is not the hard part,
it's getting an individual who wants it,
who doesn't mind grinding day in, day out,
repeating the same movements to fine tune those steps
to get better each and every day.
Sometimes only gaining 1% each time they practice.
You don't win a race without a pit crew.
[tools whirring]
[engine revving]