Martin Truex Jr.'s crew won the Tissot Pit Road Precision Award in Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Darlington Raceway.
Truex’s crew, out of the Earnhardt Ganassi Racing stable, became the season’s ninth different winner of the Tissot pit road competition. The win came as a result of Truex’s Chevrolet Impala SS spending the least amount of time on pit road – 411.199 seconds.
The No. 1 pit crew’s performance lifted Truex to a sixth-place finish at Darlington's daunting 1.366-mile track.
“I’m very proud of the guys for working hard at their pit stops,” said No. 1 team crew chief Kevin “Bono” Manion. “The Bass Pro Shops / Tracker Boats team is a very solid group of guys, and they work well together. We aim for perfection, but we ask them to control penalties and mistakes. We can’t go fast if the lug nuts are not on tight or if a wheel is loose, so we work on being smarter when it comes to finishing our stops.”
Truex’s pit crew consists of: Dennis Terry (front-tire changer), Shannon Keys (front tire carrier), Coleman Dollarhide (rear-tire changer), Mark Kennerly (rear-tire carrier), Jeff Kerr (jackman), Preston Cordell (gasman) and Eric “Pee Wee” Hoyle (catch can). The pit crew coach is Walt Smith.
Truex’s crew will receive $5,000 for the pit road win. The team with the most Tissot Pit Road Precision Award victories at the completion of the 36-race schedule will earn a $100,000 bonus plus Tissot watches for the crew and driver.
Jeff Gordon’s No. 24 crew leads in the Tissot standings after 11 races with three victories. There are eight teams tied with one win.
Tissot has been the official watch and timekeeper of NASCAR since 2006. The company is also the official timekeeper for a number of other sports, including the MotoGP World Championship, the Ice Hockey World Championship and the Cycling World Championship.
2009 Tissot Pit Road Precision Award Winners Daytona 2/15 Reed Sorenson Team Fontana 2/22 Tony Stewart Team Las Vegas 3/1 Greg Biffle Team Atlanta 3/8 Clint Bowyer Team Bristol 3/22 Jimmie Johnson Team Martinsville 3/29 Jeff Gordon Team Fort Worth 4/5 Jeff Gordon Team Phoenix 4/18 Ryan Newman Team Talladega 4/26 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Team Richmond 5/2 Jeff Gordon Team Darlington 5/9 Martin Truex Jr. Team
