How did Jimmie manage to take a 20+ second advantage over Mark Martin when Mark’s pit stop was only a 7 second pit stop? Especially when Mark was leading the race when he made his stop with 9 laps to go.
Heres where the fun begins. Marks stop may have been 7 seconds in the pit box. Because that is all that Fox showed us. But what Chad did was time how long it to Mark to come down pit lane. He also timed him how long it took him to leave pit lane. Which is about another 14 to 15 seconds. Most of knows that it takes 1 minute to travel 1 mile if we are going 60 miles per hour. Phoenix is a 1 mile track. So if the drivers are doing 35 to 40 second laps. They are traveling anywhere from 115 miles per hour to 126. Give or take a few miles per hour.
Remeber they slow down to make the turns. So if Mark took about 21 to 25 seconds to make his pit stop. Jimmie is still at full speed putting Mark even more seconds behind him. Because Mark has to follow pit road speed which is about 55 miles per hour. Alot slower then the 120 miles per hour or so that Jimmie is running. That means that now Jimmie has extened his lead by however many seconds ot took Mark to get back up to speed. So when Mark pitted with 9 laps to go. That meant that Jimmie could slow down about 4 or 5 miles per hour give or take a few and conserve gas. Mark at this time is no longer a threat.
The only one that Jimmie had to worry about was Clint Bowyer. But with 6 laps to go. Clint was 10 seconds behind Jimmie. So which meant that now Jimmie could slow down even more and save even more gas. Now had Mark stayed out and called Chads bluff. Jimmie would have definetly run out of gas along with Mark. But Im sure that Chad was probably waiting until 3 or 4 to go and he would have brought Jimmie in for a splash.
Its kind of interesting when you sit back and do the math. Im sure that Chad was also listening to the radio to see what the other drivers were gonna do. Thats only one reason why Chad is the best in the business.
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C2.0.3/334 Fri Jun 6 03:53:14 UTC 2008
3 Comments
Smoke20Wins
Apr 13 2008 21:18
Frazzled Minded Tonight
My mind’s too tired to think clear tonight. There’s also others who listen in to pit plans that’s spoken over the scanners. I just don’t know how much of stuff they take into condideration all the time either. I’m just glad I’m not someone’s crew chief, I’m not one to pick the right decission at the last split second. I wasn’t a math major, lol.
JJandBV
Apr 13 2008 19:26
I'll sit back
and watch you do the math.
Kit_Kat
Apr 13 2008 18:57
OK, I never was
any good in math and now I’m (me personally) somewhat confused. Good state of affairs for me to be in. LOL