Friday, October 12, 2012
Bank of America 500
Dodge PR
Charlotte Motor Speedway
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Keys For Success
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KEYS FOR SUCCESS: BANK OF AMERICA 500
CONCORD, N.C. (Friday, October 12) – Each race weekend, SRT Motorsports provides insight on the ‘Keys for Success’ for the upcoming race. This week Howard Comstock, SRT Motorsports Engineering, provides the keys for Saturday night’s Sprint Cup race.
Track: Charlotte Motor Speedway (Race 31 of 36 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series)
Race: Bank of America 500 (334 laps / 501.00 miles)
Trivia Question: This driver scored the first victory for Dodge at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Who is he? (Answer Below)
HOWARD COMSTOCK (SRT Motorsports Engineering)
DOES THE TRACK STAY MORE CONSISTENT HERE IN THE FALL VERSUS MAY? “If you have to compare the two, yeah, I would say it does. During the spring race, we usually get an incredible amount of sun load and warm days. The ground, the track and everything is warm and tends to stay that way pretty far into the race. For the fall race, the weather is usually moderate. Although there’s been a little bit of sun for two days, generally it’s been cloudy the last week or so and everything has tended to cool down.
“We don’t start the race until 7:30 so we’ve been in darkness for some time before the race ever starts. I would say that given all of those factors the track surface here at Charlotte, which is the most temperature sensitive in the series should be more consistent from the beginning of the race to the end of the race. However, we always see lap speeds go up as this race progresses, not down.”
IF YOU ARE A CREW CHIEF, WHAT IS ONE THING THAT YOU’RE MORE CONCERNED WITH THAN ANYTHING ELSE ENTERING THIS RACE TOMORROW NIGHT? “I would hate to run 450 miles and have the race come down to fuel economy at the end. You’re going to race hard for 450 miles. There will be a lot of green flag racing tomorrow night. The good cars will get separated from the rest of the field in a hurry. I think there will be fewer cars on the lead lap by the end of the race. It would be a tough situation if you raced hard that long, have it come down to fuel economy and you are on the wrong side of that.”
DO THE INCREASED SPEEDS DURING THE RACE AFFECT TIRE WEAR? “I don’t think tires will be a big issue. We’re not looking at any rain. The track will have plenty of rubber built up on it and even though speeds pick up as the race progresses, the amount of rubber on the track picks up as the race progresses. When we see more rubber on the track, we see fewer tire problems. There have been races here in the past where we have seen tire problems but not the last couple years.”
IS THERE A POSSIBILITY OF AN INCREASE IN ENGINE FAILURES IN TOMORROW NIGHT’S RACE? “The teams are all professionals; they have plenty of experience here. Everybody realizes that this is a long-distance race and you have to err on the side of being conservative in making the choice on gearing. So I would expect teams to run less gearing than they might have otherwise given the fact that it’s a long race. Endurance is at least a consideration and the pace actually picks up as the race progresses. It doesn’t slow down; it picks up.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI WILL START IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FIELD AND WILL PIT NEAR THE CENTER SECTION OF PIT ROAD. IS THAT A BIG DISADVANTAGE? “I don’t think once the race gets going. What we tend to see on pit road is that the top qualifiers will pick pits and leave spaces between themselves and other top qualifiers. Then as the selection process continues, the cars qualified in the second half of the field will intersperse between the good qualifiers. It tends to split up when some of those cars fall a lap down or fall out. Then you’ve got lead lap cars pitting where there will likely be a space either in front of them or behind them. That will keep the guys running at the top of the order spread out a little bit on pit road.”
Trivia Question Answer: LeeRoy Yarborough scored a dominating victory in the 1966 National 500. Yarborough led 301 of 334 laps and crossed the finish line 18 seconds ahead of second-place Darel Dieringer.
