About Stooge Expertise 8 year crew member, 25 year NASCAR historian with VAST collection of
NASCAR data (stats, photos, old magazines, books, programs). I know all
or can find all about NASCAR Winston Cup trivia, including stats, driver
facts, race records, pit & inspection info, pics of old cars and
drivers, etc.
Experience Almost 40 year fan, 8 years on pit crew, high traffic NASCAR website, hundreds of old info sources including pics
Education/Credentials Life: lived it for 8 years, been following it for almost 40 years, been to more than 200 races, worked shoulder to shoulder with many of the drivers and crewmen of the present and past, been quoted in magazines and newspapers, website listed in a book, had picture published in Nextel Cup Scene (was Grand National Scene back then). *Just quoted in a Las Vegas magazine last month (Feb/March '07) about the Vegas race*
NASCAR Racing - History of Pit stops - time it takes
Expert: Stooge - 12/17/2008
Question I want to find out how long the typical pit stop used to be 20 and 30 years ago. I know that using process improvement and lean concepts, they have been able to reduce it to about 13 seconds on average today.
Answer In the 70's the regular 4 tire pit stop averaged in the upper 20's to 30 seconds, in the 80's they had cut it down to the 18-20 second average, bringing dow to the lower teens by the end of the 80's. The two biggest changes were the high speed air wrenches and the quick pump jack (went from 3-4 pumps to get the car off the ground to 1-2 pumps).
