Author’s Note: Welcome to Monday Morning Pit Box. Here’s where we break down all the critical calls that shaped the outcome of a race, looking at life from a crew chief’s perspective.
This past weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series headed to Kansas Speedway for the second race in the opening round of this year’s playoffs in a weekend where the sport saluted the lives of those lost in the 9/11 attacks in 2001. Earlier this season, Kurt Busch scored his first win with 23XI Racing at the mile-and-a-half track, and this time around it was Bubba Wallace who played playoff spoiler, ironically also running the No. 45 following a decision that’s designed to help keep the car number in the owner’s playoffs.
But even before the spoiler win, there were some crucial pit road calls that made the difference for several drivers as the series prepares to head to Bristol Motor Speedway to end the Round of 16 and trim the playoff field to 12.
1. Lap 84 – Ryan Blaney pits to fix a loose wheel
Stage one had just come to a close, and most of the field was on pit road for four tires and a fuel tank top off. The problem for Ryan Blaney was that while he had a great stop, all four wheels weren’t secured on the car. Thankfully for Blaney, crew chief Jonathan Hassler caught the issue before it became a major problem and called his driver back to pit road to fix it.
Had the wheel come completely off of the car, it would have resulted in a mandatory four race suspension for the crew chief and two team members, usually the tire changer and tire carrier of the lost wheels. Instead, crisis was averted for the No. 12 team and Blaney recovered to finish ninth, despite a second-place result in stage one.
“I was proud of the progress we made. I had to come down pit road there after the first stage and had to kind of reset in the back,” Blaney explained after the race. “From there we just weren’t quite good enough to get back up into the top five. I was chasing it and adjusting the car after that. Overall, not a bad day. It was a good points day and we are looking pretty decent going into Bristol. We will have to just go there and have a good day.”
Blaney currently sits fifth in the championship standings with a relatively comfortable 36-point advantage over Kyle Busch, who’s currently the first driver on the outside looking in.
2. Lap 139 – Bubba Wallace opting to use his qualifying tires
Fast forward to lap 139 when the field was under its eighth yellow for…
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