Pit event kicks off All-Star events

CONCORD - Tonight at Time Warner Cable Arena, the field will be the same as for Saturday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Except for the NASCAR drivers.

The Sprint Pit Crew Challenge will match the same teams as the Sprint All-Star Race, with seedings determined on the basis of positions in the Sprint Cup owner standings. Three more drivers will be added to the race between now and Saturday, based on the first two finishers in the Sprint Showdown, the introductory race, and the winner of a fan vote.

The Pit Crew Challenge involves five rounds of pit-stop competition. The times are considerably longer than routine pit stops during NASCAR races because the method of electronic timing is different. Ryan Newman's crew set the record with a 23.35-second stop en route to victory last year.

Individual performances by pit-crew members are also timed and evaluated.

"We know the drivers are the stars, and they're the ones that go to driver introductions and fly home on their jets Sunday evening, but it's all because of the guys in the shop and in the trenches," said former crew chief Larry McReynolds, who will participate in the Speed telecast.

Teams actually train specifically for this competition, at least as a part of regular practice sessions.

"We work with the car and practice pushing it instead of doing cardio and running at the end of pit practice," said Trent Cherry, a pit coach for Penske Racing and trainer of last year's winning team. "We get our legs underneath us and see what it feels like to push the car a long distance, but we don't really do a separate practice set just for the competition."

Since teams have to push the car 40 yards after servicing it in each round, the physical demands get somewhat grueling for those teams in the event.

"When we won last year, we competed in five different heats and it killed us," said Cherry, a rear tire carrier himself. "We've got pretty good athletes on our team, and we were all hurting pretty badly."

Eliminating mistakes is also important. Last year, seven of the 24 teams competing in the first round received penalties during the first round. Opening ceremonies begin at 6:45 p.m. The first round begins at 7 p.m., and the final round is scheduled for a 9:45 p.m. start.