Friday, August 24, 2012
Irwin Tools Night Race
Dodge PR
Bristol Motor Speedway
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Keys For Success
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KEYS FOR SUCCESS: IRWIN TOOLS NIGHT RACE
BRISTOL, Tenn. (Friday, August 24) – 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 Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Track: Bristol Motor Speedway (Race 24 of 36 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series)
Race: Irwin Tools Night Race (500 laps / 266.50 miles)
Trivia Question: Name the driver who gave Dodge its first victory at Bristol. (Answer Below)
HOWARD COMSTOCK (SRT Motorsports Engineering)
The New Bristol: “Very few guys braved that upper line. You can clearly see that the rubber goes halfway, maybe two-thirds of the way up the racetrack, but it doesn’t go two lanes wide. And that’s troublesome. If you looked at the times, they were very similar to what we run here all the time. Everybody that ran faster ran in the bottom groove which is the same that it’s always been.
“As far as being able to turn fast laps and get around the racetrack on the bottom, that’s fine. The problem that I see is that we don’t have a second full groove yet. That’s going to work itself out in the Nationwide race tonight or in the Cup race tomorrow.”
Front or Back Pits, That is the Question: “The first stall on the frontstretch is preferred, that’s number one. The first stall on the backstretch is number two. Being able to get off pit road unencumbered is important. Maybe the first stall at pit in is third and the third stall on pit in on the back road is fourth. Then we fill in and wherever there is an opening, it helps. But the fact they’ve got so many loops now has taken away some of the advantage of a couple of the stalls that people used last year.”
Strategy: “If you look at the history, only four times has a Bristol race ever been won from somebody who qualified outside the top 25 so I think it starts with qualifying. I think you’ve got to qualify well which gets you in the top half of the field. I think it gets you away from the potential for crashing as much as possible. It gets you in with drivers who have cars that are under control. The guys in the back are in the back because they haven’t figured out how to keep their car under control yet. So consequently, you spend less time around those guys and more time up there with the good guys. If you’re running fast and the guy that you’re racing is running fast, it’s easy. The problem is if you’re running fast and the guy in front of you is running slow, that’s where we’re going to see trouble.”
Should We Expect More Cautions? “I think getting closer to the Chase plays into the fewer cautions scenario. Maybe at the end of the race, some people will take some chances but you’ve got to finish to win any of these races. Every one of these guys knows that. You can’t be tangled up, knocking the fenders off and gouging at lap 100 or 200 or 300 or 400. Lap 500 is where you’re going to see guys mixing it up, trying to desperately get that win. If you hurt your car here and have to pit out of sequence for any reason, you’ve just about sealed your fate.”
TRIVIA ANSWER: David Pearson, who won the 1967 Southeastern 500 in a Dodge owned by Cotton Owens.
