In 70 years NASCAR pit stops got 85% faster. Christopher Bell just broke the all-time record at 7.98 seconds. Ross Chastain had a top-10 car and finished 16th. Here's what the broadcast never tells you.
By PitByNumbers Staff In 70 years, pit stops got 85% faster. The broadcast almost never tells you what that costs a driver. 8 min read I n the 1950s, a NASCAR pit stop took 55 seconds.
Fifty-five seconds. You could microwave popcorn, grab a drink, and sit back down before the car left the pit box. By the 1970s teams cut it to 33 seconds.
The 1980s brought it to 21. The 1990s to 16. By 2017 the average was 11.5 — and earlier this month at Las Vegas, Christopher Bell's crew did it in 7.98.
The first sub-8-second pit stop in NASCAR Cup Series history. “I felt like we had a top-10 car today, just not the result to show.” — Ross Chastain Pit By Numbers · Inside NASCAR