If practice sessions and initial runs reward crew chiefs who are best able to land the race weekend’s choice setup — whether it’s the result of experience or nuanced simulation data — the ends of races often reward the gamers, those with the knack for adjusting setups on the fly in the throes of live competition.



Contrary to Central Speed for the race as a whole, “crunch time,” what we’ll refer to as the final one-fourth of each race, finds its gapping more compact. There is good reason for this. Teams like Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 18 with Kyle Busch often nail the early race setup and are less inclined to mess with a good thing. This explains why Busch’s average crunch time speed ranking (8.27) is over three positions worse than his average race-long ranking (4.93); his ranking still serves as the best of the final, deciding portion of a race, but teams with less speed early were more willing to overhaul their cars and made...