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  Ride along with former Winston Cup champion Rusty Wallace as he gives CNN/SI a crash-course on NASCAR racing. Rusty's Know-How tips appear each week on CNN/SI.com. Pit selection: The best place to stop Posted: Friday August 27, 1999 11:20 AM
Believe it or not, pit selection is one of the most important issues for a crew chief. It all starts after qualifying concludes on Saturday. A NASCAR official will go to the crew chiefs, and ask them to select their pit location. First pick goes to the pole sitter, followed by the teams in the order they qualified. There's a lot of strategy that goes into picking pits. The first thing you want is an opening either behind or in front of your pit stall -- preferably in front. That way you can't get blocked in. Secondly, if you get the first few stalls, then you can exit pit road as fast as you can go and ignore the pit road speed limit. There are other considerations like pitting around teams that you work well with, and at the restrictor-plate tracks, pitting around teams that you draft well with. That way you can pit and leave together without losing your drafting partner. | ||||||
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