Friday, July 1, 2011
Dodge Motorsports PR
Daytona International Speedway
Coke Zero 400
KEYS FOR SUCCESS: Coke Zero 400
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Friday, July 1, 2011) – Each race weekend, selected Dodge Motorsports engineers, Penske Racing engineers and crew chiefs, drivers or engine specialists give their insight on the ‘Keys for Success’ for the upcoming race. This week, Howard Comstock, NASCAR Program Manager – Dodge Motorsports provides the keys for Saturday night’s Sprint Cup race.
Track: Daytona International Speedway (Race 17 of 36 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series)
Race: Coke Zero 400 (160 laps / 400 miles)
Trivia Question: Dodge’s Kurt Busch has led 6,775 laps in his career. How many laps has he led on superspeedways? (Answer below)
HOWARD COMSTOCK (NASCAR Program Manager, Dodge Motorsports Engineering)
2-by-2: “It looks like two-by-two racing is back. Yesterday in practice, teams got out there and immediately felt that the two-by-two format still works. If you remember back to February, the only reason two-by-two racing seemed to work is because the track was so smooth that cars could hooked-up all the way through the corners. The track is still absolutely tabletop smooth. I have every expectation that we’re going to see two-by-two racing all weekend.”
Stay Cool: “If the cars are going to run two-by-two all race, a big key will be cooling. Will you be able to keep the car cool enough, long enough, when you’re the second car in the two-car draft? Teams got a lot of experience when we were here in February and they took that experience home and started working on parts for the cars to be able to “push” longer before they overheat and have to switch. If you can get just one more lap before the switch, it will be huge. If you can go four laps without switching and it’s a 200-lap race, that’s 50 changes. If you can go five laps without switching, then it’s 40 changes. We saw in February how the lap times slow down on the lap that the cars made the switch – three second slower. If you can do fewer switches, you’ll be way ahead of the game.”
Trivia Question Answer: Busch has led 4,646 of 6,775 laps on superspeedways (68%).
