With a wider tire featuring the single, center-locking lug nut sitting around the Richard Childress Racing campus for some time now, J.D. Holcomb wasn’t going to wait to get to work. Holcomb is the tire carrier on Tyler Reddick’s No. 8 team and he likes to do things on his own, in an effort to keep others from getting an edge if he can find something.
So Holcomb has spent weeks getting used to how holding two 18-inch tires will feel when he goes over pit wall next season. Goodyear’s wider tire with a single lug nut is one of the biggest and most polarizing changes as NASCAR introduces the Next Gen car.
“It was awkward,” Holcomb recalled of the first time he picked up the wider tire.
But the work Holcomb’s been doing has been paying off. As some teams are just now getting into pit stop practice, such as last week at the end of a two-day organizational test at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Holcomb is already in the stages of refining his technique. An industry veteran who just wrapped up his 21st season, who has worked on every iteration of race car since 2000, the Next Gen tires are just another challenge for Holcomb to adapt to.
“There are a couple of things I’ve already found as a carrier that can help,” said Holcomb. “We’ll just see.”
Holcomb is one of many in the industry preparing for the next era of pit stops in the NASCAR Cup Series. With Next Gen comes a learning curve for everyone as drivers adjust to wheeling a new car, teams dissect how to work on them, and pit crew members must refocus on the task at hand.
While the tire might be wider, what helps is that Holcomb said it is lighter. But he is changing how he holds the tire because of the spoke with a single lug. In the past, Holcomb would use his index finger and middle finger as a grip. Holcomb’s adjustment now sees him grab the tire with the palm of his hand while wrapping his fingers around the spoke.
Justin Fielder is one crew member who admits he’s going through a complete mental reprogramming.
“Everything,” he said. “Absolutely everything. We are starting at square one.”
Fielder, the rear tire changer on the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports car for Erik Jones, said everything a pit crew member knew from before they “basically have to throw away.” One of the most important things to talk about, according to Fielder, is the learning process tire changers are going through to understand the feel of the gun in their hand and the pressure needed to tighten the lug.
“Before, you’d do it enough times and understand what feedback the gun is giving you,” Fielder said. “Now the feedback is completely different.”
Fielder is naturally left-handed, but throughout his 15-year career, he’s changed tires right-handed. However, Fielder is experimenting with changing hands in 2022 because the air gun is so foreign and “feels terrible both ways.” The new air gun for a single lug nut is heavier (by a few pounds) than the old gun, and it’s also bigger in a tire changer’s hand.
“I’ve done it both ways; I haven’t decided yet what I’m going to do, but it’s heavier, and it’s heavier in a bad way where its nose-heavy,” Fielder said of adjusting his style. “Also, the way the end of it is tapered, it’s basically tapered away from you, and it’s really hard to grip because your hand wants to slide down it because it’s basically a cone.
“The (old gun) there was a little groove in it with the way the casing was built that you could put your hand almost perfectly into, and this doesn’t have that. Trying to find that perfect place to grab (on the new gun) is incredibly difficult.”
Chase Masterson will have to break some old habits too, but he’s looking forward to it. Masterson is the front tire changer on Reddick’s team, and after 16 seasons, he is enjoying breaking away from the repetitiveness of pit stops by doing something new.
Cup Series teams have had to adapt to rule changes for years, such as one that saw seven over the wall pit crew members go down to six and then the five that service the car now. That was fun to Masterson. Over time, the teams figured out how to perfect having fewer members over the wall, and as they did, pit stops naturally got faster and faster.
A single lug nut doesn’t faze Masterson.
“It’s the same but different,” he said. “You’re fighting the same monster just with a different sword.”
Like Fiedler, Masterson agrees the bigger, heavier gun is the most significant difference. Especially when it comes to getting the lug tight.
“That’s something we’re still trying to figure out,” Masterson said. “Finding that number of what’s tight and for what racetrack because something that’s supposed to be tight at Dover is not necessarily the same thing we’d do at Martinsville.”
During pit stop practice at Charlotte, the Childress teams took the time to check the torque on the wheel. It went something like this: perform a pit stop in live time and release the car, then when Austin Dillon drove back around and parked in the box, check everything over. Or perform a stop, and if something looked or went wrong, stop right then and there to walk through what they’d need to do. Fielder even had a notebook, and crew members huddled together after each stop.
As crew members become familiar with their new tools, it’s been interesting to hear how little they feel the pits stops are changing. The concept of a pit stop is the same, and Holcomb doesn’t believe fans will notice anything out of the ordinary, saying it will still be five crew members running around in mass chaotic form that somehow works out beautifully. Over time, it’s likely stops will get quicker as teams adjust.
There are a few changes, though. Next Gen sits lower, so don’t be surprised to see fuelers having to adjust their stance. Plus, there is less room between the fueler and the tire changer because of a shorter rear quarter-panel.
Next Gen is also louder than the sixth-generation race car, which is noticeable for a crew member because the air gun is quieter. No longer is there the high-pitched squeal of the gun as it takes off five lug nuts or as the RPMs are revved up as a car comes into the pit stall. Don’t rev up the gun at all, Childress pit crew coach Ray Wright advised.
“You’d want to run out to the right side with the guns cranked up rolling (but) this one you cannot do that,” said Wright. “So you take a changer who’s been doing that for 10 years, and they’ve been taught to get those RPMs cranked up on the gun, and now, don’t crank it. When you come off (the wall), make sure the gun is quiet. That’s a big change.
“When we were running the five lugs, we could hit that lug with the gun turning however many RPMs we’d want it to turn. Now, if we do it, it’s not going to lock up on the lug on the wheel. It’s just going throw a bunch of sparks. It’s going to just spin. You’ve got to engage it, and then you turn it.”
Something Wright’s noticed through pit practice is the wider tires roll differently. During one pit stop, Wright thought a right front was going to roll down pit road, but instead, it “came back” to the team. Wright said it’s a matter of how they’re balanced, and it’ll be something they continue to study.
Film study and pit practice are going to be crucial over the next few months. Wright was glad to see NASCAR offer teams the chance to perform stops at Charlotte and wouldn’t turn down the change for his team suit up. Of the 22 cars that participated in testing, the Childress group was one of only four teams that took advantage of the opportunity.
“We go from February to November. That’s the longest season, I think, in sports,” said Wright. “Usually, at this time, we try to get the guys a break, but man, there is no break time.”
Wright gave his teams a break on Friday before a day of film on Monday. Then it is back to work before enjoying Thanksgiving.
“They’ll come back, and it’ll be rep city,” said Wright.
A guy like Holcomb is OK with that. While he admitted it’s a bit sad pit stops are changing, its evolution is what brings him back for another season.
“Got a new challenge,” said Holcomb. “Why not?”