Concord, NC-While the crew chief Adam Stevens told Christopher Bell to find the team of a teammate to tighten a loose wheel on car n ° 20 during the race for last weekend in Las Vegas, how many warnings the head of the crew James Small ceased that Bell would stop in the stand of his team?
None.
No warning was necessary.
“If you are at this end of the stands road (near the standing of the stands), we, for years, have had an agreement that if someone is reproducing in your stand box, you know what you need to do,” Small said at NBC Sports on Tuesday after the first of a two -day tire test at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
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The little team leader of Chase Briscoe saw Bell slow on Pit Road and knew Bell’s plan. Bell avoided circulation on Pit Road and entered the Stalle of the Briscoe pit.
“I could see Bell trying to arrive at our box and I am as if he had a loose wheel,” said Small. “He entered and he pointed out and I got on our radio in the car and I started to shout:” Left front! ” Left before! »»
Briscoe, who was on the track under caution, said he was surprised when he heard little on the radio about the front left tire and thought that something was wrong with his car. Once Bell was far from the Briscoe de Briscoe stand, Briscoe was informed of what had happened.
It was ingenious, really – well thought out.
Small said Joe Gibbs Racing teams have spoken to bringing a teammate into the pit of another to tighten a wheel “for many years now and this is the first time that has happened.”
If Bell had returned to the right track and the front left tire died, it would have been penalized two laps and had been suspended two crew members for the next two weeks – the Briscoe team of the offenses and the Kyle Busch team had in Las Vegas.
But by tightening the Briscoe team, Bell was only penalized to walk in front of its stand. This sent him to the back of the ground for restarting.
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“When I saw it, my initial reaction was that it was really intelligent to do what they did,” Ryan Blaney told NBC Sports. “Honestly, we have had discussions on this subject in the past two years.”
While Bell was heading towards the stands on the outer track, he had William Byron next to him on the inner path, at least briefly.
“It was a little weird because I was like” very well, I will feel like I’m going to run it out of the stands road, then he started slowing down, “said Byron on Tuesday during the tire test.” When we talked about it under the caution of what happened, it was as if it was the head so that they anticipate this and, obviously, they talked about it in the past. “
