How NASCAR Revolutionized Its Iconic Pit Stop For the 24 Hours of Le Mans

A few days ago, NASCAR roared through the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The sanctioning body used Le Mans’ experimental “Garage 56” entry to bring a V-8 Chevy Camaro to France with one of its most famous teams, Hendrick Motorsports, and drivers Jimmie Johnson, Jenson Button, and Mike Rockenfeller. The car immediately went viral for being loud, proud, and staggeringly American.

But the car wasn’t the only cool part of the program. So were the pit stops, which required modifying NASCAR’s hardcore approach to fit the rules of endurance racing.

NASCAR pit stops are all about precision and accuracy. Teams often seek out college and professional athletes to become part of their crews, which results in a five-person team changing all four tires and adding fuel in about 9 seconds. (I learned how to be a NASCAR tire changer last year. It was brutal.)

Evan Kureczka, Hendrick’s pit-crew coach, was lying on the floor when I walked into the Garage 56 stall on Sunday. It was 17 hours into the race, and Kureczka’s thick mustache and bootcut NASCAR fire suit were just as American as the car.

Kureczka has been at Hendrick since 2017. He currently oversees its pit department, which included bringing a crew to Le Mans this year and reimagining NASCAR pit choreography to follow a different series’ rules. The crew trained for eight months leading into the race.

It worked. They were so fast that despite being the only team using a NASCAR-style manual jack—not the quick air jack endurance racing is known for—they won Le Mans’ pre-race pit stop challenge in the GTE class and got fifth overall in the 62-car field. They were 0.3 seconds behind the winner. (In the race, the car finished 39th overall after mechanical issues.)

“Right now on Sundays [in NASCAR], we've broken below nine seconds,” Kureczka told Road & Track. “Our fastest stop is an 8.99, and these guys can go pretty fast too. They can run 9-second pit stops NASCAR style. Here, not quite as fast. We ran a 10.3 for the pit-stop challenge, which is probably one of our fastest stops we've run.”

A pit stop may only take 10 seconds, but a lot happens during it. Let’s break down the tweaks Kureczka’s team made for Le Mans, requiring his crew to relearn muscle memory for one race:

Here’s a video of a traditional NASCAR-style stop and a Le Mans one. I’ve labeled the major differences below: