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Small Changes Have Huge Outcomes
By Dennis Terry
This weekend is promising to be a really big event shadowed by many changes.
Our Bass Pro Shops pit crew is heading back to Daytona, NASCAR's greatest venue, and we have a double header weekend in store. Tonight we'll be pitting Dale Jr's #8 Busch car and tomorrow night we are back with Truex in the #1 Cup ride.
This race was originally ear marked as an opportunity for our pit crew to get a little more experience while giving Dale Jr. an advantage on pit road at one of his favorite tracks, Instead Daytona will once again serve as a proving ground for our pit crew.
Just as the February Daytona 500 was our first race together as a rookie pit crew this weekend's Pepsi 400 will test how well we can adapt to several new personal changes in some key positions.
Our gasman, Bob Tracy has moved on and will be replaced by Opie Opal from the DEI engine shop. Will Gray who was catch can has made the decision to spend more time at home with his wife and kids on the weekends.
During the Sonoma race Ryan Buscaglio, my tire carrier, suffered a very serious injury on pit road requiring surgery.
While Ryan recovers from spinal surgery, Mark Full will fill in as front tire carrier. Mark is an experienced tire carrier who has dozens of wins under his belt and a championship with Kurt Busch.
Full is one of the best carriers on pit road and we have practiced relentlessly this weekend to get everyone acclimated to all the new personal. Buscaglio will need 6-8 weeks to recover, so we were lucky to find an experienced carrier to fill in for him at the last minute.
With change comes sacrifice and when you are doing 12 second pit stops small changes can have huge outcomes.
Brian France has just announced that small changes are in store for the 2007 Chase for the Championship.
Some ideas that have been rumored for months to be a part of the new format is reducing the number of drivers in the Chase from the current 10, setting up a new points system for the drivers in the Chase and changing the tracks that are currently part of the Chase.
Just like the personal changes to our pit crew, changes in NASCAR's Chase format are a necessary evil. The old adage, "if it aint broke, don't fix it" doesn't always apply to performance based business.
The name of the game is identifying problems before they become problems so that you never get stuck trying to play catch up to the competition or have to rebuild your program from the ground up.
I know that our pit crew will overcome these changes and we’ll be better then we were before and I expect NASCAR's changes to the Chase to add more excitement and suspense for the fans.
What changes to the Chase format would you recomend that France make?
DT
June 30, 2006 | Permalink
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Comments
First of all speedy get well for Ryan Buscaglio. Looking forward to the adjustments that Bono, Martin and the BPS team will make now that they are returning to some of these tracks for a second time. Good luck this weekend!
Posted by: Lori | Jun 30, 2006 3:41:43 PM
Prayers for Ryan to recover thoroughly. I have every confidence that the BPS pit crew will show solid results from all your hard work and do yourselves, DEI, and us proud.
Posted by: Margaret | Jun 30, 2006 3:52:46 PM
Do us proud DT, and our prayers are with Ryan B!
Posted by: Tbfka# 5 | Jun 30, 2006 7:16:34 PM
Congrats on the win with Jr. He really spanked the field.
Posted by: Alltel_fan | Jun 30, 2006 11:00:10 PM
Congrats to the new #1 BPS pit crew! Way to go, winning the first time out. You ROCK!
Dennis, be sure and let Ryan know our thoughts and prayers are with him through his recovery. Back problems are no fun, I know.
I'm sure you will miss him on the crew, but it will be great when he returns healthy.
Well hope you all can enjoy another win tomorrow night. Good Luck!
Posted by: mary4jrs8 | Jun 30, 2006 11:06:07 PM
Way to go, Dennis, and the entire BPS pit crew. A good, clean, professional stop when it was critical. A 7-second lead going into the pits and a 10-second lead after the pits! That says it all. You've given Walt a real challenge in selecting the "best of" this week. Thanks for all the hard work.
Posted by: Margaret | Jun 30, 2006 11:17:56 PM
Speedy recovery for your injured teammate. WOW. Junior really showed DEI is still to be reckoned with! As far as 'tweaking' the crapshoot...I think it's sad when the 'excitement' has to come from manipulating the points, rather than the racing on the track. I still think locking teams out of or into the top (insert number here)is ridiculous, especially when you expect all 43 teams to run every race. HEY! Maybe they should just reset all the teams points after 26 races! then everyone is 'eligible'.
Posted by: sal | Jul 1, 2006 7:05:05 AM
Hope Ryan is doing ok, that's a tough injury.... Wishing him a speedy recovery, hope he does what he's suppose to and takes it easy????
Congrats on the Busch win..... Yall did a great job! Yall had some awesome stops in Cup..... Don't know what happened there with yall and Biff.... I guess things happen..... tough break though....
I've never really been a fan of the Chase, still not really one.... I'm a Newman fan and although that first year, Newman was locked in and I was glad, but like McMurry, would have pasted him "if" the old points had of still been in place..... So I think the top ten should not be decided until the bitter end, the very last race..... and Oh my goodness! You said REDUCE the number?? Is that what yall are hearing???? I was hoping for them to increase it to at least 15 instead of 10, not reduce..... Hum? Twill be interesting!!!!
Posted by: darlene | Jul 4, 2006 3:32:40 PM
Changes to the Chase?
Scrap it. No artificial second chances... if you can't run with the big dogs, stay under the porch.
Posted by: RCSanders | Jul 5, 2006 10:49:24 AM
I like the chase,but I can't see some one doing OK for 26 races, guarantied tenth place money after 36 races so here goes. Top TEN or any one within 500 points qualifies. The drivers/crews/teams are only guaratied that they have earned the right to "Race for the Championship". These same teams will be scored under TWO scoring systems. First they will be scored under a chase format and they will also be scored under the regular system. Obviously the Winner of the chase format becomes Champion, second through fifth will be scored in their position, ALL the other drivers will revert to the second scoring system and be paid accordinly. This is good for the sponsors/Teams as well because they will be able to brag a top ten position even if they were 14 or 15 at the end of 26 races. The scoring for the Chase Drivers would refect their efforts, Lets say 10 cars are in the chase. Qualifying would count as each car would receive points in the order they qualified in respect to other chase drivers ie: first gets ten, second gets nine etc. The same system would score them for the race ie: first gets 10 second gets 9 etc. BIG POINTS would be when a driver wins POLE, he gets 25 point Bonus. Win the race and you get 50 point Bonus. LIKE IT ?
Posted by: 328 | Jul 23, 2006 9:20:41 AM
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