An intriguing subplot to today’s race [at Texas Motor Speedway] is that title contenders #48-Jimmie Johnson and #11-Denny Hamlin will pit next to each other. Johnson leads Hamlin by 14 points. Typically, title contenders don’t pit around each other, in part because those cars often finish on the lead lap so one could always be fighting the other for space on pit road. Pit stalls are picked in the order a driver qualifies. Johnson qualified 17th, so his team selected its stall before Denny Hamlin’s team since Hamlin qualified 30th. By pitting in front of Johnson, Hamlin’s team can dictate, in a way, how well Johnson gets off pit road. Hamlin could stop short in his pit box, meaning the car’s rear is close to the front of Johnson’s pit box. That would force Johnson to pit short or have to back up and lose time to get around Hamlin. Hamlin’s crew chief Mike Ford said the stall in front of Johnson’s was the best remaining because #82-Scott Speed, who has struggled at times this season, has the stall in front of where Hamlin pits. Ford also admits that when Johnson’s team picked to pit in front of Hamlin’s crew at Kansas earlier in the Chase that rankled him. “Why this is a topic when the exact same thing happened at Kansas and there were a lot better pit stalls to be had by those guys?” Ford said Saturday. “That was a deliberate stab. This was not a deliberate stab, but with that, OK, courtesy is out the window.”(Roanoke Times)(11-7-2010)
