Joe Gibbs Racing produced a NASCAR record pit stop amidst Kyle Bush’s black flag drama at Richmond Raceway

Joe Gibbs Racing produced a NASCAR record pit stop amidst Kyle Bush’s black flag drama at Richmond Raceway

Toyota Owners 400 winner Denny Hamlin's pit stop at Richmond Raceway

Joe Gibbs Racing Team has set a new record for the fastest pitstop in NASCAR history. The team achieved this record last weekend at Richmond Raceway in the Toyota Owners 400.  The record is set for the fastest pit stop featuring a four-tire change.

It all comes down to the new single-lug setup for Next-Gen Cras and a new pit stop choreography. In the past crew has to use five lung nuts to secure the wheel which was time-consuming and now they only have to loosen and secure a large, single lug which makes the pit stop more efficient. In the past, race stops were regularly 11 or 12 seconds, with a 10 second or less stop being a huge rarity.

Though the team is disappointed by NASCAR black flagging Kyle Busch for using duct tape on the grill he can at least cherish the fast pit stop his team had. JGR pulled off a 9.1-second stop for Kyle Busch’s No. 18 car is paving the way for a whole new era in racing history, one where we could potentially see a NASCAR tire stop conducted in a fraction of the previous times. The crew jumping in front of the stopping car than the side or rear was the main factor for increased speed from the choreography side.

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“It’ll be interesting,” Joe Gibbs Racing owner on new NASCAR record

Joe Gibbs
Joe Gibbs

Joe Gibbs who owns the JGR team has come forth appreciating his team’s new moves and suggested that the strategy is a work in progress as the team is going to analyze the pit stop to find something new or different.  

“I think it’ll be interesting because we had some of our guys with regular choreography and some with (the new one. It’ll be a work in progress. We’ll analyze it and see what we think. That’s the fun thing about sports, are you get something new and a different way of doing something,” Joe Gibbs said.

“We’ve got way more where that came from,” Kyle Busch’s crew member

kyle busch
Kyle Busch on Richmond Raceway

Cunningham, who works for Kyle Busch’s Number 18 team said that the team he and the team were nervous about jumping in front of the car as they generally prefer the rear. He went on to say that the team can perfect the technique and produce faster pitstop considering the fact that the record pit stop wasn’t even a clean one.

“Obviously, I was a little anxious that I’ve been changing tires (for) 17 years and have never jumped out in front of a car before, and in front of Kyle Busch at that. I’ve always been a rear guy…. We’ve got way more where that came from. They weren’t even that clean of (pit) stops,” Cunningham said.

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