PIT CREW CHALLENGE

Air guns at 20 paces. Last Wednesday, 168 of NASCAR's best, and most earnest-looking, athletes took part in the annual Nextel Pit Crew Challenge in Charlotte, an event one crew member described as "our Super Bowl." The task at hand for the 24 teams: change four tires, gas the car and push it 40 yards. With 6,000 fans cheering, Ryan Newman's team won with a final-round time of 24.66 seconds. They won $70,300—and the right to strut at the track. "I know most of the guys on pit road," says Newman's jack man Britt Goodrich (below, left), "and this definitely gives us bragging rights."

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CHUCK BURTON/AP (PIT CREWS)

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CHUCK BURTON/AP (24 CAR)

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TERRY RENNA/AP (GOODRICH)