The Dale Coyne No. 18 wins the Firestone Pit Performance Award in Texas
The No. 18 Carlos Huertas Entry wins the battle in the pits and brings home $10k for his Dale Coyne Racing Honda team.
In the first real surprise of the season, Carlos Huertas’ team is the first team not in the big three (Penske, Ganassi, and Andretti) to win the Firestone Pit Performance Award. The win also marks the first time a team has won the award and finished outside of the top ten. There is an upside however, last race we began tracking the position differential from start to finish for the winning teams, and based on this statistic the Dale Coyne Racing team did quite well. Carlos Huertas improved is position six spots, making that the second best improvement of the season for a Firestone Pit Performance winner. Only Will Power and his Verizon Team Penske team improved more during a race this season. I think as the season continues it will be increasingly important to look at a teams position differential instead of simply the finishing position. Ultimately the data will show how important this award is to improving on track position throughout the race.
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Race | Winning Team | Driver | Start | Finish | Ave. Finish | Pos. Diff |
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1 | Target Chip Ganassi Racing Team | Scott Dixon | P5 | P4 | P4 | +1 |
2 | Verizon Team Penske | Will Power | P14 | P2 | P3 | +12 |
3 | Target Chip Ganassi Racing Team | Scott Dixon | P5 | P3 | P3.33 | +2 |
4 | DHL Andretti Autosport | Ryan Hunter-Reay | P3 | P2 | P3 | +1 |
5 | UFD Andretti Autosport | James Hinchliffe | P2 | P6 | P3.4 | -4 |
6 | UFD Andretti Autosport | James Hinchcliffe | P2 | P5 | P4.4 | +3 |
7 | Dale Coyne Racing Honda | Carlos Huertas | P22 | P16 | P5.4 | +6 |