Bonehead of the week: Homestead

MRM

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I have tri-choices for this week's bonehead. It's the crews of the 3 teams that didn't win the championship. Truex's team for putting the tires on the wrong side of the car, the Hamlin crew guy that put too much tape on the grill, and Childers for leaving Harvick out too long on the last stop.
 
The 19 and 11 teams. Those are mistakes that rarely, if ever get made and this wasn't the time for them.
 
I thought the 19's pit strategy was puzzling and perhaps more detrimental to their cause than the tire mistake was. I have to agree with Letarte; either pit with Kyle, or try to run out the string like the 4 did and hope for a caution. Once Pearn decided NOT to pit with Kyle, pitting when they did accomplished nothing.
 
I thought the 19's pit strategy was puzzling and perhaps more detrimental to their cause than the tire mistake was. I have to agree with Letarte; either pit with Kyle, or try to run out the string like the 4 did and hope for a caution. Once Pearn decided NOT to pit with Kyle, pitting when they did accomplished nothing.

Not really. It was a track position race and the #19 utterly controlled the race until the tire fiasco, at which point the #18 took the helm. The #4 had the best short run car of the four, and the worst long run car. The #4 had no choice but to gamble wildly on cautions and short runs to finish the race. The #19 was in a less desperate position once they were back within reach, but realistically, they also had almost no chance of chasing down the #18 and passing him straight up with this package. They would had to have been much faster, and instead they were perhaps a little faster. Don't forget that the #11 was still in the race at that point, and had pitted first.

Truex was 3.8 seconds behind Busch when Busch pitted on lap 210. He finished the race 4.5 seconds behind him. Letarte overstated what pitting five laps later cost Truex. It wasn't useful, but it wasn't detrimental either. They also ultimately needed a caution and a chance on a restart, but going the Harvick route wouldn't have helped them any more.
 
It's got to be the 19 team. 11 had a mistake and the 4 went with a dumb strategy but putting the wrong tires on is pretty bad.
 
Not really. It was a track position race and the #19 utterly controlled the race until the tire fiasco, at which point the #18 took the helm. The #4 had the best short run car of the four, and the worst long run car. The #4 had no choice but to gamble wildly on cautions and short runs to finish the race. The #19 was in a less desperate position once they were back within reach, but realistically, they also had almost no chance of chasing down the #18 and passing him straight up with this package. They would had to have been much faster, and instead they were perhaps a little faster. Don't forget that the #11 was still in the race at that point, and had pitted first.

Truex was 3.8 seconds behind Busch when Busch pitted on lap 210. He finished the race 4.5 seconds behind him. Letarte overstated what pitting five laps later cost Truex. It wasn't useful, but it wasn't detrimental either. They also ultimately needed a caution and a chance on a restart, but going the Harvick route wouldn't have helped them any more.

UNLESS the caution came out. No sense in not pitting before or with the 18 unless you are going to stay out as long as you possibly can and try to catch that caution. You're right in that it probably wouldn't have mattered, but it seemed kind of desperate at a point that didn't call for it yet. Just not what I expected from Pearn.
 
It's got to be the 19 team. 11 had a mistake and the 4 went with a dumb strategy but putting the wrong tires on is pretty bad.

I don't think the 4 team's strategy was dumb, it just didn't work. I think they knew the only way they were going to beat the 18 was catch him a lap down. The 19 deal, I am curious just how that happened, because from my experience, by the time those tires get to the car, three to four people have come in contact with and looked at them. Once we knew we were going to stop for tires, we always stacked them inside the pit wall in two stacks with the lefts on the bottom.
 
I'd say the 11. For putting the whole damn roll of ductape on the car...but then why wouldn't you stay out?? You pit and you have a 1% chance of winning the race. Stay out and you'll run fine or blow up trying.
 
19 crew!! Is that really possible? The tire carrier can do his job in his sleep!!!!!!! I'd like to know how it happened.
 
I'd say the 11. For putting the whole damn roll of ductape on the car...but then why wouldn't you stay out?? You pit and you have a 1% chance of winning the race. Stay out and you'll run fine or blow up trying.

I think they would have emptied the radiator and blew the engine. The pit stop to remove the tape was pretty harsh itself. Waiting another lap or two would have probably made it irreversible, imo.
If it had been anything short of absolutely knowing it was going to blow they would have ran the risk.

I think the tape was a good idea. They needed more speed in in a must win situation. It could be argue that it was too big but going smaller is easy to say in hindsight.

Maybe they could have put on a smaller piece that the engine cooling could have tolerated, and still be kicking their selves for not going bigger on the down force side.
It was a double edged sword and a difficult situation, more of a racing is tough situation than a genuine error, imo.
 
11 crew chief for wanting a piece of tape the size of Texas to go on the grill. It is a moot point that it was improperly placed on the grill.
 
were they mistakes?
or just part of " the show"

Makes you wonder
Did The 22 team get the same script last week
Funny how if the 22 got in he’d been just as fast the the 4 championship cars
Didn’t get in so he was no where to be found, Chase too
 
I want to go with the 11 because I think that move was more of a hit to his chances than the 19 because the 19s mistake was early.. but I cant.. I have to say the 19 tire guy because.. wow... really?
 
I'd say the 11. For putting the whole damn roll of ductape on the car...but then why wouldn't you stay out?? You pit and you have a 1% chance of winning the race. Stay out and you'll run fine or blow up trying.
I’ll go with this as well. If you stay out and blow up, you finish 4th in points. If you pit, you finish 4th in points. I think they would have had a little better chance going with the first option.
 
I think JGR had to come up with a way to get Kyle the championship without showing their hand and so came up with the tire debacle. It worked, everyone is blaming the crew. :)
 
I don't think the 4 team's strategy was dumb, it just didn't work. I think they knew the only way they were going to beat the 18 was catch him a lap down. The 19 deal, I am curious just how that happened, because from my experience, by the time those tires get to the car, three to four people have come in contact with and looked at them. Once we knew we were going to stop for tires, we always stacked them inside the pit wall in two stacks with the lefts on the bottom.

Cautions have been way down this year on 1.5 tracks. It was dumb to bank on a caution when they just haven't happened this year.
 
Cautions have been way down this year on 1.5 tracks. It was dumb to bank on a caution when they just haven't happened this year.

OK, but what other strategy did they really have? I don't like to take yourself out of contention, but there is something to be said for "you're not going to beat them doing the same thing they are doing". Paul Wolfe for one has made a career out of contrary pit strategy. It has served Childers pretty well too. The simple fact was that after the sun went down, the 4 was the slowest of the four cars, so what do you do?
 
OK, but what other strategy did they really have? I don't like to take yourself out of contention, but there is something to be said for "you're not going to beat them doing the same thing they are doing". Paul Wolfe for one has made a career out of contrary pit strategy. It has served Childers pretty well too. The simple fact was that after the sun went down, the 4 was the slowest of the four cars, so what do you do?
The #4 had little choice but to try what they did. The #11 was probably right to short pit. It's the #19's 'neither one nor the other' that has me still scratching my head. That played a much bigger part in the #19 not getting the title than the tire FUBAR did.
 
I thought the 19's pit strategy was puzzling and perhaps more detrimental to their cause than the tire mistake was.
I agree, but pit strategy is a judgement call. That tire screw-up was due to something being done wrong during a routine stop, or during the routine prep for the stop, things that are rehearsed and executed hundreds of times during the season.
 
I think they would have emptied the radiator and blew the engine. The pit stop to remove the tape was pretty harsh itself. Waiting another lap or two would have probably made it irreversible, imo.
If it had been anything short of absolutely knowing it was going to blow they would have ran the risk.

I think the tape was a good idea. They needed more speed in in a must win situation. It could be argue that it was too big but going smaller is easy to say in hindsight.

Maybe they could have put on a smaller piece that the engine cooling could have tolerated, and still be kicking their selves for not going bigger on the down force side.
It was a double edged sword and a difficult situation, more of a racing is tough situation than a genuine error, imo.

Yeah, they would have been down on power, probably blown up, they know how far they can push it on temps before it's critical, wasn't going to last long, too many laps left. Come in, take it off, hope for a caution and a miracle.
 
I have to go with the 19, that was a bonehead mistake. At least the 11 car was trying to go faster and the gamble didn't work out. Late in the race Bell's bonehead Xfinity group called him in for a pit stop and then waved it off, changed their minds and pitted on the next lap. I think he lost 17 seconds on the other two.
 
Cautions have been way down this year on 1.5 tracks. It was dumb to bank on a caution when they just haven't happened this year.
Less horsepower and more downforce. I don't care what Ryan Blaney says, the cars handle too good now and are easier to drive. You can see it looking at an in car camera. Nobody's really fighting the car the way they used to. It might be loose or tight, but they're not slipping and sliding. Thus, organic cautions are down.

The Gen-6 car is trash and this aeropackage is the worst thing to happen to the sport since Earnhardt died.
 
Not really. It was a track position race and the #19 utterly controlled the race until the tire fiasco, at which point the #18 took the helm. The #4 had the best short run car of the four, and the worst long run car. The #4 had no choice but to gamble wildly on cautions and short runs to finish the race. The #19 was in a less desperate position once they were back within reach, but realistically, they also had almost no chance of chasing down the #18 and passing him straight up with this package. They would had to have been much faster, and instead they were perhaps a little faster. Don't forget that the #11 was still in the race at that point, and had pitted first.

Truex was 3.8 seconds behind Busch when Busch pitted on lap 210. He finished the race 4.5 seconds behind him. Letarte overstated what pitting five laps later cost Truex. It wasn't useful, but it wasn't detrimental either. They also ultimately needed a caution and a chance on a restart, but going the Harvick route wouldn't have helped them any more.
When Truex came out of the pits he was over 10 seconds behind
 
When Truex came out of the pits he was over 10 seconds behind

Yes, but he then had fresher tires and started making up the defecit. I'd be interested to see the full pit deltas for both the #18 and #19 to know whose was faster. I have a guess. I'm arguing that Pearn stopping five laps later in that case didn't help but didn't really harm either. They couldn't just sit nearly 4 seconds behind the #18 and let the race play out. I think he took a quick gamble on a caution for a few laps, but then when the tire drop-off was set to get really bad, as it did for the #4, he went ahead and stopped.
 
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