So what do ya think?

[mudslinger47]

In the Pocono race, many of the teams were told to pit on about lap 29 of their present run at the end stages of the race when they had 37 laps to go, knowing that the outside fuel issue was 34 laps...they did this based on the fact that prior races had a yellow in the last 20 laps.... I think this is absolutely crazy....why trap your driver in a fuel save mode when it wasn't the least bit necessary...run 2 more laps and they can race hard to the end...to me that is a ridiculas gamble... If I were Joey, Kyle, David, Austin and half a dozen others I would be pretty fried!! So where am I wrong? I discussed this with Larry Mac via twitter and he was down with them cause of the possibility of the yellow, I call BS cause if there isn't a yellow they don't finish... there could have been a yellow, yes, there could have been a snow storm too...

[kidrock]

If they decided on that stratagy then they should have been saving fuel all along instead of trying to catch Joey. End of story lol.

[t.nie]

Play it out the other way, Kyle pits for fuel, etc. Where does he finish then? Can he still win? Doubtful. So the decision is go for broke and win or bust, or pit and probably lose any chance of winning by your own decision and seal your fate that all you are going to get is a better points finish.

In that situation, the choice was made to go for the win and if it doesn't pan out, you still reduce the points gap you are chipping away at anyway. So thats' win/win. If you pit you don't win but score more points, which is a "won more points but didn't try to win the race" outcome. And these guys weigh it up and go for the maximum highest finish and if it doesn't play out, get em next time.

Also the reason he isn't going to go ballistic and be mad at his crew chief is it's that same crew chief that's brought him all the rest of the success he's had this year, so sometimes you have to support the guy when his decisions don't pan out the best too. At the end of the day Kyle is driving, but they are all in that same canoe paddling away to their championship together, so be mindful of the success those guys are bringing you before you go nuts at them for one call that didn't go your way.

[mudslinger47]

Play it out the other way, Kyle pits for fuel, etc. Where does he finish then? Can he still win? Doubtful. So the decision is go for broke and win or bust, or pit and probably lose any chance of winning by your own decision and seal your fate that all you are going to get is a better points finish.

In that situation, the choice was made to go for the win and if it doesn't pan out, you still reduce the points gap you are chipping away at anyway. So thats' win/win. If you pit you don't win but score more points, which is a "won more points but didn't try to win the race" outcome. And these guys weigh it up and go for the maximum highest finish and if it doesn't play out, get em next time.

Also the reason he isn't going to go ballistic and be mad at his crew chief is it's that same crew chief that's brought him all the rest of the success he's had this year, so sometimes you have to support the guy when his decisions don't pan out the best too. At the end of the day Kyle is driving, but they are all in that same canoe paddling away to their championship together, so be mindful of the success those guys are bringing you before you go nuts at them for one call that didn't go your way.

Its not just Kyle, its the whole bunch that came in at the same lap, everyone of those Crew chiefs screwed the pooch, they put their driver in an impossible situation, they can't race to win, they're forced to parade around in single file and save fuel....just stupid.. a monkey see monkey do mentality....and if Kyle was the only one to wait even one lap, the worst he would have finished was second or third to his team mate, still far better the 21st, wouldn't you agree?

[t.nie]

Its not just Kyle, its the whole bunch that came in at the same lap, everyone of those Crew chiefs screwed the pooch, they put their driver in an impossible situation, they can't race to win, they're forced to parade around in single file and save fuel....just stupid.. a monkey see monkey do mentality....and if Kyle was the only one to wait even one lap, the worst he would have finished was second or third to his team mate, still far better the 21st, wouldn't you agree?

Dunno. Best I could do as Nascar crew chief is lick my finger and stick it in the air, see how long the shadow is on the flagpole then flip a coin. I figure those guys didn't get there being stupid, but they ain't always gonna read the crystal ball right either. Track bars, air pressure and stagger adjustments notwithstanding, strategy calls on fuel etc are always subject to some "best guess" theory. Many guys have stood in Victory Lane thanking their crew chief for guessing the right way on a critical pit stop. They don't interview the guys who guess wrong much. So if Kyle stands in Victory lane getting interviewed pretty often, and he's scoring points like crazy like he is right now, I'd say his crew chief's crystal ball gazing skills succeed more than they fail and no crew chief is going to get it right every time.