Like a drummer in a band, the pit crew on a race team doesn’t always get the recognition it deserves. The drummer is responsible for holding down the underlying tempo, creating the backbone while the lead guitarist gets lost somewhere high up on the fretboard. If the job is done correctly, the result is so seamless you hardly even notice it (unless, of course, your name is Neil Peart, Danny Carey, Buddy Rich or Joe Morello, but that’s a different story).

That said, this is Top Speed, not Top Sticks, so let’s get down to it. This video->ke278 compares pit stops from a variety of top-echelon motorsports,->ke447 including Formula 1,->ke190 IndyCar,->ke1559 Formula E,->ke4660 NASCAR,->ke3635 and the World Endurance Championship.

At about five-and-a-half minutes, it’s a pretty sweet series of juxtapositions, offering up a few examples from each series in a variety of angles, as well as the peculiarities of the rules associated with each. I particularly enjoyed the first-person perspective for the NASCAR tire swap.

Watching the video, you realize just how much is riding on each crewmember. Like a misplaced roll or oddly timed fill, one screw-up could bring the whole operation to a screeching halt.

Which begs the question – are there pit-crew groupies?

.