Refueling cars is one of the processes that take a lot of time away from a driver. This is why fuel-saving strategies have become prevalent in recent times. In the Daytona 500, Joe Gibbs Racing figured out a way to minimize the time that it took for cars to refuel. It involved the usage of a specific tablet and software to help signal when the car had enough fuel in it.
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When the car comes in for a stop, a crew member stands in front of the car with a tablet in his hand. The tablet’s screen displays a timer for the driver and the refueler to see. When the fuel fill target is hit, the screen turns green and signals that the car can take off. Cars don’t need to be filled to the brim in the middle of a race.
The software on the tablet, controlled by race engineers, figures out how much fuel the car needs based on the track position, throttle usage, and other factors.
The timer keeps changing throughout the race. As the race goes on, the engineers are able to calculate how many gallons of fuel would be required to finish it.
In this video we see a fuel only pit stop on the No. 11 of Denny Hamlin in the Duels last night.
Due to the distance of the race being so short, the car does not need a full fill of fuel so teams try to predict exactly how much fuel to add in order to maximize track position. pic.twitter.com/MQANbrh3cy
— Bozi Tatarevic (@BoziTatarevic) February 14, 2025
The only manual step in this process is the crew member starting the timer once the fueler is fixed on the car. This could be automated by fitting some sort of sensor on the fuel can, but NASCAR prohibits the attachment of electronic devices to fuel filler cans. Nevertheless, the tablet does appear to be a better alternative to voice or physical affirmations.
This process can be particularly useful on drafting tracks where drivers are dependent on fuel a lot. Denny Hamlin pointed out on his podcast that it was just a way for them to reduce the time they took for fuel stops.
He said, “We’re all fighting for tenths of a second, right? So, when you go into the pit area and you know you need a certain amount of time…”
“Let’s just call it 4 seconds of fuel, right? It’s usually the crew chief who watches to see when they plug in. He counts to four, and then he tells you to go, or he’s waiting to see the bubbles come up in the fueling tank, and then he gives the nod. The crew chief then says go, and all that takes time. All that round of communication takes time.”
He continued to note that the current process with the tablet is just a way for the team to streamline that communication. It will be interesting to see if any of the other teams draw inspiration from Joe Gibbs Racing and adopt a similar system.
