CONCORD, N.C. – Professional athletes have talked about it for generations – that feeling or headspace, when instinct takes over and the outside world melts away, leaving a singular focus on the task at hand.

Call it, “the zone,” if you will.

None of the Hendrick Motorsports pit crew members that spoke with HendrickMotorsports.com used that phrase verbatim. But several described something similar when talking about things like pressure, process and procedure.

“I like thinking about water, peace tranquility – I feel like that’s what made pitting so easy for me,” said Mike Moss, rear-tire changer on the No. 5 team. “It gets so quiet, so peaceful. My movements are so fluid.

“Obviously, you have to be very aware of your surroundings but once you’re in front of the hub you get so dialed in that everything kind of goes away. All you see is the hub and that’s the cool part about it. It’s happening so fast but at the same time it’s slow motion. That’s where the thrill comes from for me.”

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It’s hard to imagine anything coming in slow motion for a member of a race team, especially in a NASCAR Cup Series Gen 7 era in which pit crews are routinely performing four-tire stops in under nine seconds.

But Moss isn’t the only one that told tale of time slowing. Ryan Patton, tire carrier for the No. 24 team, recalled an instance in which that sensation saved his team from a possible disaster. One that nearly occurred in the five-lug-nut era at Talladega.

“My tire changer knocked the five lug nuts off the right rear and he pulled the tire and you have to think, those lug nuts, they come off and where do they go?” Patton said. “A lug nut came off of the car, spun, hit the ground and bounced back up on the hub and got stuck between two studs. So, I see this is as I’m putting the tire on and I’m putting the right rear tire on in seven-tenths of a second and still, I see this yellow thing fly up onto the hub of the car. I finished my hang but I could feel that the lug nut was smashed between the hub and the wheel.

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“There’s no possible way it was going to be tight and before my changer could come back to the first lug nut, I pulled the tire off and reached in there and flicked that lug nut out of the way and put the right-rear tire back on. I remember (then-crew chief) Chad (Knaus) being like, ‘What happened on the right rear?” He was upset. He thought we had a slow pit stop. I ended up having to show him a picture of it and he’s like, ‘How the hell did you see that?’”

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As Patton’s story illustrates, crewmen must be ready for the unknown and must be prepared to respond in the blink of an eye, all in addition to locking in on their routine, individual responsibilities. Difficult as it may be to imagine, TJ Semke, jackman on the No. 9 team, said hearing is paramount, even in one of the loudest places imaginable – pit road. 

Additionally, having a sixth sense, one that successful athletes in other sports display, is paramount as well. 

“Honestly, it kind of sounds silly, but you’re trying to use all of your senses,” TJ Semke, * on the No. 9 team said. “As I’m putting the right-front tire on, I can’t see what’s going on behind me, but I can hear it. I can hear when the gun stops. I can hear the tire slam on. I can hear the gun, and you can kind of feel that energy behind you too. You learn to trust your senses.

“You’re trying to listen but really, you feel what is going on around you and a lot of that comes with experience. A lot of the younger guys rely solely on their eyes to see what’s happening. But it’s kind of like being a quarterback in the pocket; you’ve got to feel what’s going on around you, sense where to move your body just like they have to sense when to throw or when to run without visually seeing four or five guys coming at them. You want to feel it more than anything.”

The fate of the NASCAR All-Star Race largely rests on the whims of Marcus Smith, who is giving few hints about how he’ll deploy a new “Promoter’s Caution.”

It’s the latest goofy gimmick in an event defined by annual format changes designed to goose the competition in the name of fender-banging fireworks. At a randomly selected point Sunday night during the first 220 of 250 laps at North Wilkesboro Speedway, a yellow flag will fly and possibly wipe out a big lead while bunching the field for a race-altering restart.

The decision on when to throw the yellow rests solely with Smith, the president and CEO of Speedway Motorsports, which owns the 0.625-mile track in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina.

“I’ll have a very special mystery guest with a little All-Star Race history of his own to help me out when it’s time to drop the yellow,” Smith said. “Hopefully, we’ll create a little chaos for the teams and some fun for the fans at the same time.”

It’s an attempt to restore some luster to the All-Star Race, which has lost touch with its no-holds-barred origins. The past two events at North Wilkesboro produced runaway victories for Kyle Larson and Joey Logano, who led 199 of 200 laps in 2024.

The most memorable event last year came after the race when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kyle Busch engaged in fisticuffs after tangling for a mid-pack position. It was a far cry from the furious last-lap battles that once sent an All-Star Race winner to the emergency room (Davey Allison sustained a concussion in 1992 after crashing from contact with Kyle Petty at the checkered flag).

The Promoter’s Caution won’t guarantee a slam-bang ending, but it’s in the vein of an exhibition race with $1 million but no points at stake. While other pro sports have struggled to keep all-star events relevant, Cup Series drivers pride themselves on competing as hard as they would in a race with championship implications — and sometimes harder.

“The All Star Race is not just another race,” Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell said. “Everybody is more aggressive than a normal Sunday Cup race. Everyone has that win it or wear it attitude, and it races differently because of that.”

A sense of resignation from the All-Star Race’s annual format overhauls also makes it easier to accept the inanity of a random yellow.

“I have a hard enough time keeping up with all of the different format stuff,” Team Penske’s Austin Cindric said. “It doesn’t really bother me that much that we’re going to have a Promoter’s Caution because, unless I’m the caution, I can’t control it in any way. It’s just the racing gods, but maybe they’re on earth this time.”

Though its timing could cost him a win, Logano is fine with the Promoter’s Caution because “the All-Star Race presents the opportunity to try things outside of the box.

“I don’t think we should have a Promoter’s Caution in points-paying events,” he said. “But in this case, we do something different. It’s something everyone can talk about. And I just don’t know what they’re going to do. Are they going to put Marcus in the flag stand, and he’s just going to throw a yellow flag?”

The son of late NASCAR Hall of Famer Bruton Smith, who once lobbied for random yellows as the most bombastic promoter in Cup history, is coy about how the Promoter’s Caution will be unveiled.

“I’ve had no shortage of NASCAR experts from inside and outside of the garage giving me advice on what to do,” Marcus Smith said. “I’ve got a couple of scenarios in mind depending on what’s happening with the race. Or I could just go spur of the moment with my gut.”

Odds and ends

Christopher Bell (+350) is the BetMGM Sportsbook favorite, followed by pole-sitter Brad Keselowski (+600), Logano (+650), two-time defending Daytona 500 winner William Byron (+700) and Denny Hamlin (+800). Kyle Larson, who will start last after missing practice and qualifying while attempting to make the Indy 500, is listed at +1000. … Keselowski and Bell were the winners Saturday of the two 75-lap heat races that set the starting lineup for the All-Star Race. Keselowski already was guaranteed the top starting spot for Sunday night’s main event after qualifying on the pole position Friday. Bell will start second Sunday, followed by Ross Chastain, Logano and Byron. … After sitting essentially dormant for more than 35 years, North Wilkesboro Speedway is playing host to its third consecutive All-Star Race since a $20 million makeover. Keselowski wants to move a points race from Charlotte Motor Speedway’s “Roval” layout to North Wilkesboro Speedway and shift the All-Star Race back to Charlotte’s 1.5-mile oval (the host from 1987-2019). “This needs to be a points racetrack,” Keselowski said of North Wilkesboro. “I’m very strong about the Roval has got to go.”

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AP Auto Racing Writer Jenna Fryer in Indianapolis contributed to this report.

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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