 ", at which point each car must start its engine.With the engines running, the cars sit on pit road for approximately three minutes before heading on the track for some warm-up laps before the pace car.The average number of pace laps is three, but there can be more or less depending on a wide variety of circumstances and conditions, including but not limited to track length, track drying efforts after rain, or if a car has a problem and stops on the track during those pace laps.