News

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

News Story

INSIGHT: THE ART OF REFUELING

Andrew Bruckler and Brian Larson will never be mistaken for Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. But what they do on each and every pit stop is just as much a dance as anything the world’s most famous hoofers ever tried on screen.

Bruckler is the gas man for the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Home Depot Toyota Camry in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and Larson is the catch-can man (also known as the fuel vent man). Together, they wrestle up to 180 lbs of fuel, adjustment wrenches, a bulky catch-can and more, all while staying out of the way of the fast moving tire changers and carriers.

It begins when driver Joey Logano hits pit road. Bruckler and Larson are already on the wall, poised to move.

“You have to coordinate your movements,” Bruckler says. “I’m sitting on the wall with the gas can, and when Joey’s one stall away, all seven of us leave the wall. I stand up and wait for the car to come to me, then hit a four-inch hole with a 90-pound can of fuel.”

Consider that for a minute. The gas can weighs nearly 100 lbs, and Bruckler has to hit a moving target with the dry-break fuel nozzle at the end of it. Larson, moving at the same time and trying to stay a step ahead, has to hit his vent opening at the same time to break the vacuum and allow the fuel to flow into the tank.

If it’s a one-can stop, Bruckler watches the vent opening to see when the tank is full. A two-can stop has Larson holding the empty while Bruckler goes to retrieve the second can. When it’s full, Larson begins pumping the empty up and down as a signal to Bruckler that the car is full.

“I can see the opening and I can see when the fuel starts to flow out,” Bruckler says. “If the tire changers are coming around, I have to disengage and step back to let them come around, get out of their way.”

Larson, known as Shaggy for his resemblance to the cartoon character in the Scooby-Doo series, has to hold the can in place when Bruckler steps back, and that can be tough work. It still weighs a lot, and Larson has to hold with one arm while still engaging the vent opening.

“It can be pretty physical,” Larson says. “It looks easy, but it isn’t, really. That fuel can weighs 90lbs, and I can’t drop it when I’m waiting for Andrew.”

Add to that fact that as he’s moving to open the vent, if there’s an adjustment to be made, Larson has to put the proper wrench in the proper hole and make the required number of turns in or out.

“That’s not easy, either,” he says. “It takes some strength to get the wrench in, grab the can when needed and get the bolts to turn. You have to get over the spoiler, too.”

The change from the wing to the spoiler made that a little easier, but since Larson is 6-foot-6, he can make the reach. Bruckler used to be a vent man, but since he’s six inches shorter than Larson, he was forced to switch to fuel man when NASCAR introduced the wing on its new car back in 2008.

Once all that happens, and keep in mind that this is taking place in about 10 seconds, the disengage is important as well.

“I have to pull the can out without spilling anything,” Bruckler says. “If you have fuel on the ground when the changers and carriers are coming around, it isn’t a good thing.”

Bruckler notes that it’s happened before. “If the changers hit the fuel, they slide all over the place,” he says. “It’s slippery.”

At Watkins Glen, the road course that hosted last weekend’s Sprint Cup race, there’s an added degree of difficulty: everything is on the opposite side of the car.

“It kind of throws you off,” Bruckler says. “I carry the can on my right shoulder, which works when the car is coming counter-clockwise, but the car at Watkins Glen is coming clockwise. The opening is angled to the left side at The Glen.

“It’s just completely different.”

It’s just as different for Larson, though generally it’s a matter of using the other side of his body to get his job done.

When the stop is over – hopefully without spilling a drop of Sunoco Racing Fuel, the attention turns to measurement.

The gas is weighed in the can before the stop. A gallon of gas weighs around eight pounds, and if it’s full, that’s 96lbs. The teams know how much the can weighs, and they subtract that out of the total weight.

Once the beginning weight is established, the can is used on the pit stop and placed back in its cradle. Larson then stands the can back up, removes the dry-break nozzle and pours the gas in his vent can back into the big can.

The can is then weighed again. How much is left determines how much fuel got into the tank, and that figure goes to engineer Adam Stevens, who uses it to determine the mileage the Camry is getting out on the track.

The next time you see one of the Toyota Camry teams make a pit stop, keep all this in mind. As Larson said, it might look easy, but it really isn’t.

Average Rating:

Rate This:

1 2 3 4 5