Saturday, July 28, 2012
Dodge PR
Crown Royal Presents the Curtiss Shaver 400 at The Brickyard
Indianapolis Motor Speedway
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Keys For Success
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KEYS FOR SUCCESS: CROWN ROYAL/CURTISS SHAVER 400 AT THE BRICKYARD
SPEEDWAY, Ind. (Saturday, July 28) – Each race weekend, SRT Motorsports Engineer Howard Comstock gives his insight on the ‘Keys for Success’ for the upcoming race. This week’s focus is on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is the Crown Royal Presents the Curtiss Shaver 400 at The Brickyard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Track: Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Race 20 of 36 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series)
Race: Crown Royal Presents the Curtiss Shaver 400 at The Brickyard (160 laps / 400 miles)
Trivia Question: In 1909, the famed Yard of Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway were laid on top of the original crushed rock and tar surface on the 2.5-mile speedway. How many paving bricks were used to cover the entire racing surface? (Answer Below)
HOWARD COMSTOCK (SRT Motorsports Engineering)
Tires: “It doesn’t look like the tires are going to wear out. It looks like it’s going to be impossible to wear out the tires but the lap times continue to fall off. To me the balancing act is going to be deciding how fast the lap times are falling off on your car versus how much track position it would cost you to get four new ones. I still think you’re going to see plenty, plenty, plenty of two-tire stops tomorrow. I think we’ve had unusually good weather, moderate weather today and the forecast for tomorrow is going to be hotter, so it’s going to be more slippery. I think the tires will have more fall-off in the hot weather.
Pit Road: “All of the frontstretch area seems narrow. That’s part of the charm of Indy, you race through that canyon or that cave. The pit boxes are not very wide but are fairly long. There’s room enough for the teams to maneuver. If somebody comes out of the pit box at you, you can’t move out of the way because of the wall that’s on the inside of the track and the outside of pit road.”
Handling or Horsepower? “Definitely handling. You’ve got to get through those corners in order to carry speed onto the straightaways. If you can hustle that car through the corner you’ll be that much faster when you exit the corner for that long straightaway. It becomes a momentum thing. Because you’re so fast at the end of the straightaways, it really kills your momentum to want to slow down in the turn. So you’ve got to hustle.”
TRIVIA ANSWER: 3.2 million
