If you have read my columns, you know I’ m big on preparation. Same goes for the pit. The pit should be set up so everything you need to turn the car around is out and in the proper place. You definitely should not have to go into the trailer to start pulling equipment out to service and cool the car.

Depending on the type of maintenance you do to your car, you may or may not put the car on jacks every run. Regardless, a couple of things need to happen. If you have a dragster with zoomies, make sure you are using some sort of header covers towing back from the big end. I have seen rocks find their way into an exhaust valve before. Whatever car you have, it’ s never a bad idea to take a blow gun and blow off the engine. This helps make sure a rock or any other debris doesn’ t fall into something.

In many cases, how hard you are running a car will dictate what between-round maintenance you do. Ideally, a team will have three or four crew members to focus on certain areas of the car. Regardless of what specific jobs they may have, there are several“ first checks” that need to happen quickly.

Obviously, the plugs need to come out ASAP. It’ s very easy to get complacent and not check the plugs for anything besides getting a reading on the cylinder temps. However, the plugs can give us an early warning to lurking engine damage. The electrode could be burned off, or closed up from debris. The plug could be peppered from debris. Also, something to let crew members know

is if a plug does not want to come out, it’ s usually best to just leave it. Ninety-nine times out of 100, there is enough damage below that plug to warrant pulling a head anyway. Forcing a plug out of the hole will only increase your repair bill, as they may have to fix the threads of the plug hole. Sometimes, once you pull the head and have access to the other side of the plug, some simple“ trimming” will remove whatever is obstructing the plug from coming out. Aside from damage, if the plug looks shiny new, it may have been a dead hole, never firing.

Getting the valve covers off quickly will allow a quick inspection of the valve train. A quick glance will

tell you if any push rods or adjusters are galled or show heat. Same with valve springs. Are there any broke springs or tips? Any tips lying in the bottom of the head? From there, the quicker someone can check the valve lash, the better. If the lash is way loose, you may have lifter problems. If it’ s way tight, you have tuliped a valve. Either one requires a lot of work to fix. Putting off setting the valves may result in normal service work being performed that will be wasted in the instance of an engine swap.

If you are in a class where you are dropping the pan and changing oil, I like to have someone check the oil filter as soon as possible. If

it has a lot of metal, you most likely have problems somewhere. When I started crewing, my job was to clean the filter and the pan. I had the filter out before they had the pan dropped. There was as much metal as there was oil in the filter. I alerted the crew chief and owner. By the time the pan was off, it looked just as bad. We didn’ t waste any more time on that engine and just started putting the spare in. It turned out to be the rear main, but we made the next round because the oil filter helped us identify a problem quickly.

Speaking of rear mains, if you are dropping the pan on a Hemi with a clutch, it needs to be the first check. The newer style bearing support clutches are a lot easier on the rear main, but if anything in the clutch gets out of balance, it takes it out on the rear main in a Hemi. Many times I have seen new teams check all the rods, sometimes even check all the mains in order, only to find a spun or blackened rear main.

Once the coupler is out or the car is in neutral, I like to roll the tires backward to feel for any rough spots, especially if the car shook the tires. If you start to get a tight spot, depending on how tight, you can usually finish the race with it, but it’ s something to keep an eye on. Rolling the tires backward will give you a heads-up of a problem. It never hurts to give the tires a good inspection while doing this. Inevitably, if you race long enough, you will run over something big enough to ruin a tire. It’ s much better to figure this out in the pit rather than on the track.

Obviously, there may be other checks specific to your combination that may need to be performed. Even when the last run of the weekend is made, I like to perform as many of these checks as I can before the car is loaded so I know if there are any pressing issues that need to be addressed as soon as the car gets to the shop.

One saying you never hear in racing is,“ That car’ s problem is just being over-maintenanced.” DI