Ryan Newman’s team claimed the Tissot Pit Road Precision Award in Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Phoenix International Raceway. The No. 39 team out of the Stewart-Haas Racing stable became the season’s sixth winner of the pit road competition.
The Tissot pit road win was awarded to Newman’s crew as a result of the team’s No. 39 Chevrolet Impala SS spending the least amount of time on pit road – 234.393 seconds – during the 312-lap event at the one-mile oval.
“I’m really proud of how our Haas Automation/U.S. Army pit crew performed at Phoenix,” said crew chief Tony Gibson. “The guys had a lot of challenges thrown at them and they answered every one of them. We had radio communication issues with Ryan and we got blocked in a couple of times on pit road, which was nobody’s fault.
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“And then our rear tire changer (Brandon Blake), hurt his hand and arm on the second stop so we had to replace him with (pit crew trainer) Joe Piette for the remainder of the race. All the guys stepped up, and they didn’t miss a beat. To me, that’s a sign of a strong team.”
Newman’s pit crew consists of: Adam Davis (front-tire changer), Josh Mick (front-tire carrier), Brandon Blake (rear-tire changer), James Houk (rear-tire carrier), Andrew Turner (jackman), Michael Moore (gasman), Andy Rueger (catch can) and Jay Guarneri (eighth man).
For winning the Tissot Pit Road Precision Award, the No. 39 team will receive $5,000. The team with the most pit road wins at the completion of the 36-race schedule will earn a $100,000 bonus plus Tissot watches for the driver and over-the-wall crew members.
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
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