Subscibe to our feedOffense Wins Positions, But Defense Keeps Them
An Inside Look at What Makes the Team 48 Pit Crew the Best in the Business
The average race fan wouldn’t expect to find words like choreography, ballet, dance steps, yoga and Pilates in a NASCAR glossary – unless they were familiar with the crew members who go over the wall each week to service Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet.
But those are the very terms team members use to describe the preparation for and execution of pit stops by the two-time and defending winners of the Mechanix Wear Most Valuable Pit Crew Award. The crew also took top honors in 2004.
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Performances like that begin early. In the case of the Lowe’s crew, it starts at 7:30 a.m. each day, when the guys assemble at the Hendrick Motorsports gym.
With music from groups like P.O.D. and Metallica piped in, crew members hit the machines to begin their workout under the watchful eye of their coach, Greg Morin.
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He said the goal of the gym work is to maintain the team members’ fitness level during the season. In the off-season, each member has goals to meet such as an increase in strength or decrease in weight.
“We always want them at the top of their game from a cardiovascular perspective,” he said. “Some races are long, and the heat gets to them, and the number of pit stops can be high. At one race last year we did 12 or 13 pit stops, and they were as fresh at No. 13 as they were at No. 1 because of their training.”
Sometimes, to break up the monotony, the team runs stairs, plays ball or goes biking or swimming.
Just this year, Morin added yoga to the team’s routine, and is considering Pilates, exercises that teach awareness of breath and alignment of the spine, as well as strengthen torso muscles. “A lot of it has to do with stretching, and there’s some mental focus involved,” he said. “It can be difficult when they first start because they’re putting their bodies in positions that they’re not used to. It does take a lot of strength to do the yoga they’re doing.”
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The team spends three sessions a week practicing pit stops, and like a football team, studying film of their pit stops in races and practices. The rest of the time they work as mechanics in the shop.
To the casual observer, a pit stop can look like mass confusion. In reality it’s anything but.
“It’s a testosterone-filled ballet,” Morin said. “Everything’s choreographed. One guy’s doing one job, worrying about what he’s got to do and trusting that everybody else is going to do their job.”
Team members like jackman Kenneth Purcell of Savannah, Ga., say most pit stops aren’t really that stressful. But when the race is on the line, it’s different.
“If everybody’s coming and you’re running second or third and looking for the lead, or in the lead, that’s when the adrenaline kicks in,” said Purcell, who handles his 37-pound jack as easily as some would a kitchen broom.
Because of the pressure the Lowe’s team faces on a regular basis, crew chief Chad Knaus has chosen a mix of veterans and newcomers.
“Our tire changers are veteran tire changers,” he said. “We wanted guys that were comfortable, that could handle the pressures of winning races and bidding for championships. We needed those guys solid in that spot. And we went and got a younger jack man because we had mature experienced tire changers. So his youth and enthusiasm, along with those guys, coupled for a good relationship.”
Knaus, Morin and other members of the team say that in today’s highly competitive Sprint Cup world, the pit crew members have become more like the defensive squad of a football team
“The crew chief and the driver control what goes on, and they’re on offense all the time and going for the win,” Morin said. “We’re the defense. We go three [downs] and out as they say in football – we change the tires, fill it up with gas, make any adjustments and get Jimmie back out there as fast as possible.”
Knaus said that back in the 1990s, when he was changing tires, a fast crew could be counted on to gain time on pit road, but that’s no longer the case.
“Now what you want to do is not make a mistake,” he said. “It’s definitely a defensive position working on a pit crew now.”
But, Knaus said, in many ways, the fundamentals of the work being done on pit road haven’t changed that much since he hung up his air gun in 1999. It’s the execution that’s evolved. Now four-tire pit stops in less than 12 seconds are possible.
“With better athletes, choreography and equipment, they’ve gotten way faster than we were back then,” he said. “The dance steps aren’t a whole lot different, just faster.” Chad Knaus | 
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And no one appreciates that speed and reliability more than the man behind the wheel of the No. 48.
“First and foremost, when I leave the pits I’m so happy to know all the wheels are on tight and I’m not going to have something fall off and hit the wall,” Jimmie Johnson said. “They don’t send me out there in harm’s way. The stop may be slower than we want. They may have a problem and the lug nut may fall off, but they take the time to get it right, and they don’t send the car out unless it is right. Even if they do have a lug nut fall off or something goes wrong on the stop, we rarely lose spots. Our guys, they really work hard at it and do a great job.”
And part of the success of the No. 48 Lowe’s team is that is has become a close-knit group whose members respect each other in good times and bad.
“Those guys, I definitely have a great relationship with all of them,” Johnson said. “Different drivers have different techniques. I’m just a guy that tries to pat everyone on the back. I’m under the impression they’re working as hard as they can.
“Everybody makes mistakes. They don’t yell at me if I stick it in the fence. They know I’m trying. They know I’m doing all I can, and they don’t yell at me. So why do I have the right to yell at them if a stop doesn’t go right? I know they’re beating themselves up more than I could ever tongue-lash them.”
What Johnson does do is find time in his busy schedule to let his crew members know he appreciates them.
“We do different things,” he said. “The end of last year, a warehouse that I built has a little bar in the front and some of my old race cars I’ve been collecting, so we’ve had a couple of poker nights. We try to get together whenever we can.”