[media-credit name=”doverspeedway.com” align=”alignright” width=”100″]
[/media-credit]Saturday, June 2, 2012
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
FedEx 400 benefiting Autism Speaks
Dover Int’l Speedway
Dodge Motorsports PR
KEYS FOR SUCCESS: FedEx 400 benefiting Autism Speaks
DOVER, Del. (June 2, 2011) – Each race weekend, selected SRT 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, SRT Motorsports Engineering, provides the keys for Sunday’s FedEx 400 benefiting Autism Speaks.
Track: Dover International Speedway (Race 13 of 36 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series)
Race: FedEx 400 benefiting Autism Speaks (400 laps / 400 miles)
Trivia Question: What former Dodge driver set the track qualifying record at Dover International Speedway with a lap of 161.522 mph? (Answer Below)
HOWARD COMSTOCK (SRT MOTORSPORTS ENGINEERING)
Back In Black: “We noticed yesterday that there was an incredible amount of rubber build-up on the track. Throughout the day, teams tried to adjust their cars to deal with the increasing amount of rubber. Last night, we had heavy rain that washed all the rubber off. We have only two laps of qualifying today which aren’t going to mean much. And then we have the Nationwide Series race today, which will be interesting to watch. For Sunday, are we going to have the track that we raced on during Friday practice with a lot of rubber build-up or will we see a clean track? That’s a lot of changing over a two-day period and that’s tough for the teams to adapt to that.”
Pit Road Woes: “This year, week after week we’ve seen good runs by quality teams go bad on pit road – mistakes by the driver getting on and off pit road, collisions on pit road, equipment being taken out of the box. Now we come to the halfway point to the Chase and we’re on the narrowest pit lane in Sprint Cup racing. I think the drivers are going to have to concentrate on their pit road etiquette and teams are going to have to be careful in their boxes. I’d give up a tenth of a second on pit road versus serving a drive-through penalty on pit road. We’ve seen too many times this year that good runs have gone bad because of penalties on pit road. You can’t afford that here.”
Two Lane Groovin’: “Generally speaking, if you can get your car to work on the bottom at Dover it will be good on the top groove as well. It’s harder to make your car work low here. If you’re car won’t work low and you have to move up, then it’s trouble because the guy that can make his car work in the low lane is going to pass you every time.”
Answer to trivia question: Jeremy Mayfield – 2004.
