Pit Crew Report: Atlanta
Trackhouse took a step up on pit road, while a development crew shined for Todd Gilliland and the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports team
Trackhouse Racing stepped it up at Atlanta with the No. 1 and No. 88 pit crews both making an appearance on the top-10 charts but it wasn’t without some hiccups for the No. 1 crew of Ross Chastain. Pit stop averages at drafting-style tracks will often vary heavily depending on the strategies chosen by each team as those that choose to have longer fills up front will end up dropping lower in the charts due to the fact that they can be filling for three to five second after the car drops to the ground.
The No. 1 crew of Ross Chastain had the fastest average of the night but it comes with an asterisk as they had to come back down pit lane to retighten a left front wheel on Lap 164. Their crew recovered quickly from dropping the jack too soon and brought Chastain back down pit lane before they suffered a loose wheel and related penalties.
The fastest: No. 1 Ross Chastain crew
No. 1 - Trackhouse Racing - Ross Chastain - 8.51s
No. 9 - Hendrick Motorsports - Chase Elliott - 9.03s
No. 54 - Joe Gibbs Racing - Ty Gibbs - 9.06s
No. 20 - Joe Gibbs Racing - Christopher Bell - 9.18s
No. 34 - Front Row Motorsports - Todd Gilliland - 9.26s
No. 88 - Trackhouse Racing - Connor Zilisch - 9.28s
No. 17 - RFK Racing - Chris Buescher - 9.28s
No. 60 - RFK Racing - Ryan Preece - 9.28s
No. 43 - Legacy Motor Club - Erik Jones - 9.29s
No. 42 - Legacy Motor Club - John Hunter Nemechek - 9.56s
One of the more notable entries on this list is the No. 34 pit crew of Todd Gilliland, which is a development pit crew that is leased from Team Penske. This is the first race where they have beaten all of the other Team Penske pit crews on the four-tire averages chart. We also see the Legacy Motor Club pit crews appear again as they continue to steadily rise up the charts as the season progresses.
The overall season rankings are still dominated by Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports with the No. 20 pit crew of Christopher Bell just holding onto to the top spot as they operate with a substitute front tire changer due to Blake Houston being out for injury.
Not only did the Trackhouse Racing crew make an appear in the average for the top 10 but the No. 88 pit crew of Connor Zilisch was able to grab the fastest stop of the race by completing a four tire change in just 8.31 seconds.
We saw the return of several pit crew members this weekend with Alaka’i Gilman coming back from injury to rejoin the No. 77 pit crew of Carson Hocevar after being out since All-Star race. They didn’t appear very high in the pit stop averages charts as they chose to start the race with long fill on the first stop but Alaka’i blended right back in with the rest of that No. 77 pit crew to complete some quick tire changes. Adam Hartman and Nathan Ricketts also returned to the No. 23 of Bubba Wallace after being suspended for two race for the loose wheel at San Diego.
As we predicted last week, Team Penske would likely see an advantage by chasing fuel-only stops and that ended up working out for Ryan Blaney as fueler Chris Conklin was fastest on those stops with an average time of 1.85 seconds. Nick Hensley on the No. 22 of Joey Logano was right behind him with an average of 2.26 seconds. Fuel-only stops can be significant for track position which is why many of those that were contending in the end were in the top five for those stops.
No. 12 - Team Penske - Ryan Blaney (Chris Conklin) - 1.85s
No. 22 - Team Penske - Joey Logano (Nick Hensley) - 2.26s
No. 71 - Spire Motorsports - Michael McDowell (Brandon Chapman) - 2.74s
No. 23 - 23XI Racing - Bubba Wallace (Josh Pech) - 2.80s
No. 35 - 23XI Racing - Riley Herbst (Corey Coppola) - 4.74s
North Wilkesboro will be a little unpredictable as it follows a new format this year in becoming a points race so we’ll see more pit stops and how often teams go for four tires will be highly dependent on wear. The Joe Gibbs Racing pit crew have been leading the field at short track recently so I expect to see at least a couple of them in the top 5 of those pit-stop averages.