Andy Warhol said, “In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.” In NASCAR Winston Cup racing, every pit crew is allotted a maximum of 15 seconds of fame, as they service a race car, often in full view of a television audience. If the stop is any longer, the driver loses valuable time, position and maybe even the race. Shorter pit stops, obviously, are a plus for the driver.
The big job in just about every pit stop is changing the tires. And that’s where the impact air wrenches from Ingersoll-Rand Air Tools play such a vital role in helping skilled mechanics dismount and mount a set of tires.
Each second lost in the pits translates to 100 yards on the race track — often the distance separating cars at the finish. And, during most of the race, NASCAR drivers usually work in much narrower distances between cars. It’s no surprise then, that competitive pressures have dropped pit stop times for changing all four tires from 17 seconds to 14 seconds in the past five years.
Developments in pit stop technology, such as Ingersoll--Rand’s, have been responsible for shortening these times. In fact, IR has developed the Thunder Gun air impact wrench designed specifically for instantaneous tire changing operations in racing. According to Mel Poole of Sponsorlogic, an auto racing marketing firm, headquartered in Mooresville, NC, the Thunder Gun is used by 98 percent of the NASCAR pit crews.
Because it doesn’t market direct to the consumer, Ingersoll-Rand is, like NASCAR team sponsors Caterpillar and W.W. Grainger, not exactly a household word — unless your household has 75 psi air. In the world of construction maintenance, however, Ingersoll-Rand is very well known for its lines of vehicle service and assembly tools, as is the company’s line of construction equipment, which includes air compressors, air drills and compactors. Ingersoll-Rand is an $8.7-billion company with corporate administrative and several divisional headquarters in New Jersey and has been a fixture in the state’s corporate world for more than a century.
Almost from Day 1 of NASCAR, mechanics have used IR air impact wrenches.
In the early 1960s, Howard Hurd, of H.M. Hurd Pit Tools & Equipment Inc., began servicing NASCAR customers out of his Volkswagen minibus, usually parked in the corner of the garage area at NASCAR races. According to Ingersoll-Rand, virtually every NASCAR race winner and champion used the company’s air tools in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s. Ingersoll-Rand still supports a mobile service and sales facilities operated by Jim Hurd, of H. M. Hurd Pit Tools and Equipment, that is present at every NASCAR Winston Cup Series race.
According to Ingersoll-Rand, the Thunder Gun air impact wrench “represents the latest evolution of IR racing tools. It complements the instincts of the fastest tire changers by delivering an almost instantaneous blow of torque that removes lug nuts with incredible speed and retightens them with equally startling precision.” It is sold only through H.M. Hurd Pit Tools and Equipment.
Since 1996 Ray Evernham, owner of Evernham Motorsports, has been a spokesman of IR Air Tools, both on and off the track. Evernham is the primary race car developer for Dodge and Evernham Motorsports has two drivers in the Winston Cup circuit — Bill Elliott and Jeremy Mayfield. Ingersoll-Rand products are the Official Air Tools and Air Compressors of Evernham Motorsports.
Ray Evernham first became familiar with IR air tools while working at his father’s service station in New Jersey. In his early racing career he was a standout modified car driver at the Wall, NJ, track. Later, as a crew chief with Hendrick Motorsports he joined with driver Jeff Gordon; their partnership resulted in 47 Winston Cup race wins, three championships and two Daytona 500s. Along the way he helped set a new standard for today’s pit crews.
Two other Ingersoll-Rand business units also are Evernham Motorsports sponsors — Club Car Inc., of Augusta, GA, and ThermoKing, of Minneapolis, MN.
While Club Car is best known for its line of golf carts, the company also has a line of commercial and industrial off-road utility vehicles, several of which can be equipped with beds or dump bodies for light hauling. Its newest Pioneer Line is designed for rugged off-highway applications, such as found in construction, as an alternative to pickup trucks.
ThermoKing is the dominant marketer of refrigeration units for over-the-road tractor-trailers, or “reefers.” While not exactly construction-related, they’re familiar to many mechanics who may have worked on over-the-road trucks.
Ingersoll-Rand also continues its technical relationship with Hendrick Motorsports, the most dominant team in Winston Cup racing in the 1990s. Hendrick’s drivers include Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Terry Labonte and Joe Nemechek in the Winston Cup Series and Brian Vickers in the Busch.
Beyond that, Poole noted, IR Tools makes its presence felt in the mechanics’ areas of just about every NASCAR team, not only on the Winston Cup, but also the Busch and Craftsman series, resulting in tremendous exposure from Friday through Sunday of every racing weekend.
Ingersoll-Rand tools are featured at Daytona USA, an official NASCAR attraction on the grounds of the historic Daytona International Speedway in Florida. Fans are invited to simulate pits stops on an authentic Winston Cup Series race car using Ingersoll-Rand impact wrenches. They can compete against each other for the fastest pit stop time.
Racing also has been a “driving force” in IR product development. In the open wheel racing circuits such as CART, Formula 1 and Indy Car, where tires are mounted with a single lug nut, pit stop times need to be even shorter — 10 seconds max for Formula 1, for example. For these circuits Ingersoll-Rand has developed the companion Lightning Gun 1-in. (25 mm) drive air impact wrench, designed for use with special racing sockets. It has an equal left/right torque output to suit the needs of pit crews using right or left-threaded lug nuts and is said to be several pounds lighter than comparable equipment.
For those who don’t quite need that speed, Ingersoll-Rand has developed the TNT, Titanium ’N Torque, a half-in. (13 mm) drive air impact wrench that develops 1,000 ft./lb. (4,448 N) of torque and weighs just 4 lb. (1.8 kg). It loosens a tight nut in just 6 seconds.
So while the construction equipment mechanic changing the tires on a wheel loader may not be under the same pressure as his or her racing counterpart, or have the 15-second television fame, they’re both using the same Ingersoll-Rand racing-developed technology.
Today's top stories
