Nothing could have shocked fans more when they saw Jeff Gordon shoving Jeff Burton on Sunday NASCAR Sprint Cup race in Texas after Burton’s car did the same to Gordon’s. Or could it?
When it was apparent that Gordon’s car couldn’t continue, the management of Jimmie Johnson’s team called an audible; swapping out the No. 48s pit crew for Gordon’s No. 24 in the middle of the race.
The reason for the switch? Johnson was having a decent, but not excellent, race and lost track positions due to longer than normal pit stops.
So the pit crew shuffle was on.
Crew teams have been changed as recently as this year when Richard Childress Racing swapped the Kevin Harvick’s and Clint Bowyer’s, but not in the middle of the race.
After Denny Hamlin’s Texas victory, where he took the points lead away from Johnson his crew chief, Mike Ford, wasted no time in playing the psychological war game.
“You've watched them play mind games with people in the past, and I'm completely immune to that. I could care less. I'll be right in their face saying, it doesn't matter,” said Ford
“You put the two pit crews toe to toe, and those guys are going to make mistakes. We’ve seen it this year, and we went beside them, and those guys faltered, and it made them panic and push to the point where they made changes,” he said.
And while changing pit crews in the middle of the race could appear like Johnson’s team pushed the panic button other industry experts say it wasn’t. Previous Cup Champion, Rusty Wallace said on ESPN’s “NASCAR Now” that Rick Hendrick sent him a text saying that the pit crew swap was considered before the Texas race because the pit crew had faltered earlier.
Knaus explained, "I think maybe the grind got to them a little bit. That’s OK. That’s the way that it is.''
On Monday evening Hendrick Motorsport made it official that the seven over-the-wall pit crew members of Gordon’s and Johnson’s cars would trade teams for the final two races of the year.
On Tuesday morning, at a joint press conference, of crew chiefs Chad Knaus and Steve LeTarte, Knaus fired back at Ford’s allegations saying that the swap “was not an act of desperation.”
As of Tuesday nobody on either cars (which are both prepared in the same shop at HMS) has quit.
To the contrary, Knaus, Johnson, and all of his crew are ready to fight for the championship to the end of the season because; as Knaus put it "we're a badass team.”
When it was apparent that Gordon’s car couldn’t continue, the management of Jimmie Johnson’s team called an audible; swapping out the No. 48s pit crew for Gordon’s No. 24 in the middle of the race.
The reason for the switch? Johnson was having a decent, but not excellent, race and lost track positions due to longer than normal pit stops.
So the pit crew shuffle was on.
Crew teams have been changed as recently as this year when Richard Childress Racing swapped the Kevin Harvick’s and Clint Bowyer’s, but not in the middle of the race.
After Denny Hamlin’s Texas victory, where he took the points lead away from Johnson his crew chief, Mike Ford, wasted no time in playing the psychological war game.
“You've watched them play mind games with people in the past, and I'm completely immune to that. I could care less. I'll be right in their face saying, it doesn't matter,” said Ford
“You put the two pit crews toe to toe, and those guys are going to make mistakes. We’ve seen it this year, and we went beside them, and those guys faltered, and it made them panic and push to the point where they made changes,” he said.
And while changing pit crews in the middle of the race could appear like Johnson’s team pushed the panic button other industry experts say it wasn’t. Previous Cup Champion, Rusty Wallace said on ESPN’s “NASCAR Now” that Rick Hendrick sent him a text saying that the pit crew swap was considered before the Texas race because the pit crew had faltered earlier.
Knaus explained, "I think maybe the grind got to them a little bit. That’s OK. That’s the way that it is.''
On Monday evening Hendrick Motorsport made it official that the seven over-the-wall pit crew members of Gordon’s and Johnson’s cars would trade teams for the final two races of the year.
On Tuesday morning, at a joint press conference, of crew chiefs Chad Knaus and Steve LeTarte, Knaus fired back at Ford’s allegations saying that the swap “was not an act of desperation.”
As of Tuesday nobody on either cars (which are both prepared in the same shop at HMS) has quit.
To the contrary, Knaus, Johnson, and all of his crew are ready to fight for the championship to the end of the season because; as Knaus put it "we're a badass team.”