NASCAR teams can struggle without crew chiefs, the key communicators
MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- With NASCAR showing a greater propensity to suspend crew chiefs after violations, teams are operating under the reality that their at-track leaders might miss the most important hours of the race week – the actual competition.
Some of the sport’s leading teams have dealt with that issue this year and in recent seasons, and the results have been mixed. Kurt Busch won at Pocono Raceway last June when team engineer Johnny Klausmeier filled in for suspended crew chief Tony Gibson. Other teams have scrambled with replacements, and most drivers say communication typically suffers when substitute crew chiefs are in place.
“That communication is still going to be there; it’s just going to be distant,” said driver Joey Logano. “It’s going to be harder to communicate. A lot of times you can say something on the phone or in person, and it’s a lot different with your body language.
“I think that’s a definite big challenge. It seems like these days teams are really strong and have a lot of depth and can overcome that for a certain amount of time. [But] I think if it’s a really long time it will gradually eat away at you. I think for a few weeks a lot of teams can handle it well.”
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Brad Keselowski, Logano’s Team Penske teammate, produced a clear illustration of the value of the crew chief Sunday as he and Paul Wolfe teamed to win the STP 500, their second victory of the season.
Wolfe was suspended three races because of violations at Phoenix Raceway two weeks ago, and Brian Wilson filled in as interim crew chief two races ago at Fontana, Calif. But the Penske organization decided to appeal, and Wolfe returned to the team pit wagon at Martinsville. Wolfe is expected to continue to work at the track until a final ruling.
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Former crew chief and current NBC racing analyst Steve Letarte agrees with the “body language” part of the equation, particularly as it relates to practice and the at-track work associated with making the race car fast.
“The biggest difference with a substitute crew chief on Friday (of race weekends) is that you don’t get the emotions of dropping the window net and looking your driver in the eyes when you have a conversation,” Letarte said. “Communication is key, but body language is a big part of communication.”
Driver AJ Allmendinger lost crew chief Randall Burnett for three races because of penalties from the season’s second race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Veteran mechanic Ernie Cope was his replacement.
“Having Randall back is definitely going to help, but I didn’t feel like we were hindered a lot, like that was the reason that we struggled was the fact that just Randall wasn’t there,” Allmendinger said. “You could kind of see back at the shop he was kind of chomping at the bit.”
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Suspended crew chiefs aren’t allowed to be on race track property during their suspensions, but they aren’t prevented from communicating with their teams via telephone, Internet or otherwise. So crew chiefs who aren’t at speedway locations tend to know almost as much about conditions at the track as those who are. But the emotional tie is missing.
“It’s a big handicap,” Letarte said. “This is a sport about humans. On top of the pit box, that crew chief has to make gut decisions that there are no right answers to. What your competitors do (in relation to pit stops and strategy) often has more to do with your decision than what you do. Those three or four hours on Sunday afternoon present the biggest handicap to not having your guy there.”
Team owner Roger Penske agrees. “I need him (Wolfe) on that box every weekend,” Penske said. “I told him I'd pay him to be on that box every weekend, not to be sitting in his motorhome looking at a bunch of monitors.”
Rookie driver Daniel Suarez faced the challenge of a crew chief switch last week at Martinsville when veteran Dave Rogers took personal leave from the Joe Gibbs Racing team. Scott Graves, who led Suarez to the Xfinity Series championship last season, is filling in for Rogers, whose leave is indefinite.
This is the first Cup season for Suarez, who is missing Rogers’ in-depth knowledge but is fortunate to be working with a familiar face in Graves.
Suarez had a tough weekend at Martinsville, finishing 32nd after his car was damaged in accidents.
Kyle Busch, Suarez’s veteran teammate, says the loss of Rogers impacts all teams at JGR.
“I think anytime you lose good crew chiefs, you lose a little bit of strength to your company,” Busch said. “I think whenever you lose good drivers, like Carl Edwards (who left the team in the off-season, opening the seat for Suarez), you lose a little bit of strength to your company. We've taken two big bullets here for this season -- one from Carl, one from Dave.
“We've got to recover some of that and get back into the game where we're the strongest four‑car team out there, like we felt like we were the last couple of years with all of us in place.”
Follow Hembree on Twitter @mikehembree
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