NASCAR Cup Series

Phoenix track could prove difficult

Published Nov. 9, 2011 12:00 a.m. ET

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Will Phoenix International Raceway get its groove back this weekend?

After the track was reconfigured following the February NASCAR events, PIR was dubbed “the wild card” event by several drivers in NASCAR's Chase for the Sprint Cup, not only for the unknown conditions of the surface but also due to its position as the penultimate race in the playoffs.

Goodyear held an initial tire test with champions Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch, along with fellow Chase racers Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch, in August to select the control tire. A full Cup tire test was held last month -- and the responses were mixed.

“Wild card doesn't start to describe what I expect out of the Phoenix race at all,” Brad Keselowski said. “I think a big question will be how the track will rubber in. I don't expect a lot as far as that is concerned because of how hard the tire compound is. I think the track, it has a coating on the top of it that needs to be worn through. The tire appears to be too hard to achieve that.

“So really, I don't see it being fixed by simply dragging tires, but I could be wrong. There are a lot of questions yet to be answered as for how the race will play out in Phoenix.

“I really feel bad. I think the championship very may well come down to a car that gets the outside lane on a restart at Phoenix and if it’s the last restart, that could be a death sentence.”

Keselowski, who is currently fifth in the Chase, struggled during last month’s test. He was 31st out of 33 cars that participated in the test and made contract with the wall twice.

Certainly, the changes in the track are dramatic. The once relatively flat track now boasts progressive banking through Turns 1 and 2, at the end of the dog-leg and Turns 3 and 4. Early reports from the test held on Oct. 4 and 5 were that conditions were “slow and slick.”

Of course both the track temperature and the ambient temperature were dramatically different between the two tests -- from 155 to 100 degrees on the track to 115 to 85 degrees in the air. This weekend’s forecast has temperatures dipping from the mid-70s into the 60s around race time.

“Phoenix is really the big unknown,” points leader Edwards said at Texas. “Nobody really knows what’s gonna happen. That racetrack could throw curves to us that no one has thought about yet, that you could be ruined by or you could take advantage of and beat the competition.

“We just don’t know what’s gonna happen and we hope that racetrack is one that’s kind to us.”

Edwards did not fare much better than Keselowski during the Phoenix test. He was 28th (133.829 mph) on the speed chart while his title rival Tony Stewart, who said "the tire is fine" at the test and felt that Goodyear would return this weekend "with something that's really good," took the top spot (137.762 mph).

But other competitors referred to the tire compound as hard in early reviews and don’t anticipate much fall off. Qualifying and pit stops will be at a premium since passing will be extremely difficult on the track.

Edwards feels that drivers will not factor into the first race on the redesigned track as much as the team’s support staff.

“It will be more of a crew chief/engineer race,” Edwards said. “You’re gonna have to really pay attention to tire wear. The setup is going to be hugely important. The track is very smooth, very easy to drive. I don’t know that you’ll be able to go there and manhandle the car and hustle it around there like you could the old Phoenix – not this first time.”

NASCAR and Phoenix International Raceway canvassed the garage during last month’s test and devised a plan for this week that included “an advanced tire dragging machine” that exhausted 80 tires over 12 days and six racers running Richard Petty Driving School cars in an effort to rubber in the track and establish a second groove above the preferred, lower line.

Randy Lajoie, Frank Kimmel, Tim Fedewa, Steve Grissom, Brad Noffsinger and Andy Thurman logged 3,000 miles over the last two days.

Lajoie, a former two-time Nationwide Series champ, said the track is “totally different” than it was before the six drivers started on Monday.

“Some drivers voiced an opinion during the test that it was a one-lane race track and the only way they were going to make it a two-lane track is to age it and put rubber down,” Lajoie said. “So you have to commend the track for bringing these guys out here.

“Whoever wins this race is going to have to work hard and will have a lot of fun. This track has a lot of grip and we definitely widened the grip out. We’ve been able to give the drivers some more options. What the track did – it’s definitely going to make everyone who tested here think it’s a whole lot nicer when they turn their first laps.”

Fedewa says the competitors will notice “a big difference.” The racer turned spotter accompanied his driver Marcos Ambrose to the October test and was well aware of the challenges before being called to duty for logging laps on Monday and Tuesday.

“We ran in the upper groves trying to lay down more rubber,” Fedewa said. “And it’s getting black. You can see the second groove. I’m confident it’s going to be better. They tried really hard to get the track ready for the weekend.”