In and out of the pit, the race is on

Friday, Sept. 21, 2007 | 7:09 a.m.

What: Smith's Las Vegas 350 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race

When: Saturday

Where: Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Time: Qualifying begins at 3 p.m., race starts at 6 p.m; gates open at 2:30 p.m.

Tickets: $36.75-$40.95. 644-4444 or www.lvms.com

In the time it takes most people to get out of their car, swipe a credit card at the gas pump and remove the gas cap, Brendan Gaughan can change all four tires, add 22 gallons of fuel and make mechanical adjustments to his Chevrolet Silverado truck.

Well, not by himself. Gaughan, a Las Vegas native in his fifth full season as a driver in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, relies on his seven-man over-the-wall pit crew to service his No. 77 South Point Racing truck during races.

In a sport where winning or losing a race often comes down to fractions of a second, the adage "races are won and lost on pit road" holds true.

Although choreographed four-tire pit stops can be completed in as little as 13 seconds by top crews in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series, Truck Series teams aim for stops of 15 seconds or less, according to South Point Racing crew chief Bryan Berry.

"It depends on whether it's a stop with adjustments or not, but a 15-second stop is respectable," he said.

Nextel Cup pit crews are quicker than their Truck Series counterparts because that often is their only duty with the team , and they can spend all their time away from the track practicing pit stops.

On most Truck Series teams, however, pit crew members often are mechanics who have duties in the race shop during the week. The Las Vegas-based South Point Racing pit crew works out at 6 a.m. daily and practices pit stops at least once a day when the team is home.

Being quick is not the primary goal. Having a mistake-free stop is paramount .

"I'd rather have a 17-second pit stop with no mistakes every time than one 14- or 15-second pit stop and three 20-second stops," Gaughan said. "In the Craftsman Truck Series, if you can do a 17-second pit stop you will lose no spots (in the running order) and probably gain every time."

Ripping off a good pit stop and gaining several positions on the track as a result is a great feeling, Gaughan said. Battling another driver for 20 or 25 laps to make a pass only to lose the position because of a bad stop will foul the mood of any driver and his crew chief.

"Last year, we had an incident at a racetrack - and it was a short track, which makes it even worse," Berry said.

"I think we were fifth or sixth and we came in and had problems with the front tire changer and came out 19th or 20th. So we go back out there and we're in the back and we get in a wreck. We don't have problems like that anymore. Even on a bad stop, we're still in good shape."

Although Gaughan can't see his pit crew at work when he's in the truck, he can tell how the stop is going by watching the crew in front of him when he's on pit road.

"I'm not sitting there counting, 'One thousand one, one thousand two...' but you just know how it's going," he said. "You judge yourself by the trucks around you.

"Let's say you come in at the same time as the guy in the pit stall in front of you." In that situation, Gaughan said , he looks to see how quickly his team can complete the stop and lower his truck from the jack - his signal to leave the pits - compared with the team ahead of him.

"As soon as your truck drops, you leave . And if you beat that guy out that you know is in that spot in front of you before you got there, it's probably as much or more of a satisfying feeling than when you pass them on the racetrack because you didn't have to work so hard for it."

But seven of his teammates certainly did.