Subscibe to our feedKeep Cool Under Pressure
When folks in NASCAR talk about the heat of the season, they don’t just mean the hot, muggy days of summer. The competition really heats up during the long stretch of races between the race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway and the final cutoff for The Chase for the Championship at Richmond.
This is the time of year when every driver is pushing for points and position, when every pit crew is fighting for seconds on pit road and every crew chief is battling against 42 other guys to make the right call to get to victory lane.
When you’re working that hard toward a common goal, you really have to have the right mental conditioning to go with the physical conditioning we do. The pressure to perform a pit stop perfectly or to make the right call on two tires versus four tires is incredible, and it only builds as the temperature rises.
We spend a lot of time as a team getting ourselves focused on our performance. It’s easy to let up a little bit and relax, and that’s when mistakes happen. Just like when you’re on the golf course, and don’t pay attention to your shot, you can take your eye off the ball and cost the team greatly on the track. You can also let the pressure get to you, and for my golf game, that can mean missed shots and hot tempers, neither of which is positive on the score card.
There’s definitely a balance between finding that focus and concentration that delivers excellent performance, and putting too much pressure on yourself that keeps you from doing your best. With the No. 48 team, we work on this individually and together to create the right mindset for everyone on the team.
For the individuals, we look at how to create motivation for them to succeed and help them channel their drive to win. We also work on things like confidence, concentration and attitude. Too much confidence can be a bad thing, but too little can mean not performing at an optimum level.
It is also important to help team members direct their energy and use their down time productively. We always have a team meeting before the race to get everyone focused on the team goals and their individual tasks. Then, they have time on their own to get themselves in the right place mentally.
For the team, we look at the relationship between team members and build upon individual strengths. Some people are natural leaders, some provide the solid reassurance and some are great cheerleaders. You have to balance those group dynamics to create the most positive environment for performance.
The pressure can be incredible, and, as a team, we work on how to channel that into energy and excellent physical actions. That’s something that is critical – if you allow the pressure for the team to become too great, it can hurt everyone’s ability to do their jobs. We try to turn mistakes into training experiences, and missed calls into learning opportunities for the future.
That way, we can race our way through the heat of the season and keep our performance high and our morale even higher.