I see where Kevin Harvick was "not too happy" with his pit crew's performance at Sonoma.  I can see his frustration since he was a contender to win late in the race if it wasn't for his last pit stop.  For me, my only interest is watching the actual race, not the commercials and pit stops.  I usually DVR the races and fast forward thru the cautions, commercials, pit stops.   I understand that the "big teams" all have full team pit crews, thats all they do.  They don't work on the cars during the week as they practice pit stops.  In my opinion, eliminate the importance of the pit crew during caution periods allowing the cars to maintain their running positions, as long as a car gets back out on the track before going a lap down.   I know there would still be the issue of where do the cars restart that caused, or were directly involved in the incident that caused the caution flag.  Don't know if there's an alternative but I do know I could care less about watching pit stops.  Just my opinion, would love to here for you 3Widers to see if anyone agrees with me, or thinks I'm totally "off the wall" with my opinion.   Scott Ely 

So your saying you would be Ok for the pit crews to possibly dictate the outcome of a race as long as its a bad  pit stop  under green, but not when the race is under yellow??????????

So why even bother having green flag pit stops? Just throw a yellow every 35 laps or whatever a fuel run is and let the whole field come down pit lane and go back out in the same running order?

I'm off to re-invent the wheel.....................

I appreciate the comment by Paintman, as well as the other 3Widers who put their 2 cents.  And speaking of green flag pit stops, don't really care about them either.  I enjoy the trucks way more than xfinity and cup for sewveral reasons.  One is shorter races which equates to less pit stops.  Just my opinion.  Scott Ely  

got to agree w/ you scott,on truck races vs.xfinity-

more action better racing with shorter distance-

but you have that old saying in racing ( probably from indy in the'30's ) that races are"won and lost in the pits" i feel holds true today 'specially w/ those wacky wheels and 1 centernut not seating --boy, what a firedrill those damn things are !!

blessings this weekend to my 3 wide family !!

bill

I just hope the crew has the ability to give Kevin a piece of their mind when he screws up!! Would be nice if they did it over the radio during the race.

over the years Harvick has criticized his pit crew performance in many oc. I just think it is in poor taste to complain in public forums or in the media. Seems this should be handled in private team meetings. Harvick has always been about Harvick. He’s enjoyed a great career. It’s coming to an end. Victories are hard to come by. Stewart-Haas is no longer a powerhouse. He’s frustrated.

Nascar uses cautions and pit stops to create drama in otherwise dull and boring races. They’ve elected entertainment over pure racing.. 

Remember the 3 minute clock at Reading?

I've seen pictures, but how did the 3 minute clock work at Reading?

(Info on the 3 minute clock at Reading):

The first caution flag in the feature resulted in a red flag condition.  Crews had 3 minutes to make any changes to the cars. As long as they completed the work within those 3 minutes, you kept your running position from when the caution came out.  Back then, the cars were weighed before the feature.  You'd be amazed at how many tires were changed under the red. Heard rumors lots of water, concrete powder and other things inside the tires to make the cars heavier going over the scale.  Some cars 100 lbs lighter after the red.  The good old days!!!

I heard a qoute from a former owner that said slow the fueling down to 25 seconds and you can have your brother in law change tires.