Playoff pressure in the NASCAR Cup Series increases for the 16-eligble drivers as each Round decides who moves on, and who’s out.
For the race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday night, the pressure is really on for the No. 48 Chevrolet team of contender Alex Bowman who is 15th in Playoff standing 35 points behind the Cutoff Line. Because of costly pit stops in the last two races, the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports and the non-contending No. 77 Chevrolet team of Carson Hocevar are swapping pit crews. The only member remaining with the No. 77 Spire Motorsports team is the Fueler of Zico Pasut.
The Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 team will now have the Front Changer – Daniel Boch, Rear Changer – Rod Cox, Tire Changer- Jarius Morehead and Jackman – Cody French, servicing Bowman’s car. Hendrick Motorsports trains the pit crews for Spire Motorsports.
Hocevar Crew Has it Going On
According to Bozi Tatarevic on his X account, the No. 77 Chevrolet pit crew was the fastest non-playoff crew at World Wide Technology Raceway last Sunday and had the third-fastest average of all crews.
Meanwhile, for the second-consecutive race, Bowman’s Hendrick-trained crew had another pit road mishap resulting in a 26th-place finish. Not where one wants to be trying to fight their way into the Round of 12 after Bristol.
While running in the top 10, Bowman had to wait while the jackman had to lift up the left side a second time during a stop. The reason was the left rear tire wasn’t properly tightened with the delay causing a 29.3 stop.
“It was just really poor execution on all angles today, it was a bummer,” Bowman said after WWTR. “I thought our No. 48 Ally Chevrolet was okay once we were kind of towards the front-half. We just struggled in the back. S
“Super frustrating, but all we can do is keep digging. There’s a lot of people working really hard to continue to be better. I thought, race car-wise, we were heading in the right direction once we had some air on it.
“We just have to go to Bristol (Motor Speedway) and go to work.”
Bowman’s Struggles on Pit Road at Wrong Time
The need to make this crew swap can be easily ascertained from the last two races.
During the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway to open the Playoffs, Bowman suffered a disastrous stop to put him out of contention 70 laps into the race. After pulling this No. 48 Chevrolet down pit road and into the stall, the rear tire changer went to the right side only to discover the air gun was not working properly.
This forced him back to the wall and the front changer jumped to the rear after completing his front tire change. As he went around the front of the car, the car moved forward trapping the only working gun and air hose under the right front tire.
Once the jackman came back around, lifted the car to free the hose, the front changer completed the left front as the rear changer, now back in service, completed the left rear change.
This all resulted in a 40-second pit stop for Bowman, who finished two laps down in 31st place.
Jeff Gordon, vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, told Kelly Crandall of Racer “I guess we’ll see” when asked about the changes.
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