The first intermediate course race of 2024 in Las Vegas last weekend saw pit stops turn out to be a huge factor in determining race outcomes. Over the 213 four-tire-change pit stops certain teams rose to the occasion while a few others cost their drivers positions. Dissecting the reasons for the mishaps on the Harvick Happy Hour podcast, 2014 Cup champion Kevin Harvick detailed a key point.
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He noted that teams and drivers were not always in sync in the initial weeks of a season and so the pit road issues on Sunday did not surprise him. He added, “Yeah, there’s going to be mistakes here and there. But when we get, you know, probably for the first 7 to 10 weeks, there’s just going to be a lot of mistakes because the guys are not in a rhythm.”
Glaring from among the many mistakes in Las Vegas was that of the #8 Richard Childress Racing team. Kyle Busch had a pretty fast car throughout the event, however, he was handed a pass-through penalty that sent his chances tumbling down. The reason for the penalty was that Busch’s splitter went over the line that separated his pit stall from the one in front.
Other misses on the pit road came for Tyler Reddick’s #45 team and Chris Buescher’s #17 team. The former’s crew was a tad bit too slow on the job with a stop time extending as high as 12.79 seconds mid-race. Buescher, on the other hand, was forced to serve a penalty after his crew improperly secured his right front tire during a stop.
Kevin Harvick details the challenges of the Las Vegas pit road
Continuing to talk about the tricky issues that marred last Sunday’s race, Kevin Harvick spoke about the challenges in the 1.5-mile Vegas track. He said, “Vegas is a tricky pit road. It’s hard to get onto pit road correctly. You have some corners in the middle of the pit road with the quad-oval there that you have to navigate. The pit road, the speed, and everything that comes with that.”
He noted that the pit box in Vegas was really slippery and that he used to always practice his stops in them before a race. He ascertained that the slippery nature was the cause for Busch sliding through the road and edging his car outside the given lines. With every NASCAR track comes a different type of challenge and the latest race proved just that.
