Track conditions tough at new Phoenix
At Phoenix International Raceway, it’s all about getting a grip.
With the new pavement, the greatest complaint from the teams is the lack of rubber on the racetrack.
“It’s all about getting the track into condition,” said NASCAR vice president of competition Robin Pemberton. “Talking to the garage area, the guys are here doing their job and they’re doing everything they can to run their best laps. Well, the preferred line is on the bottom, and that’s where they’re rubbering it in. In order to help prepare for the race, where there will be a lot of double-file (racing), we need to help along with rubbering in the second groove.
“We’ve got a plan in place to have cars on the track the week leading up to the event.”
PIR plans of having the driving school cars make multiple laps with a softer compound of Goodyear tires to “rubber up” the track.
Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage offered to send his track’s “tire monster,” a contraption basically consisting of a truck pulling a trailer with 16 tires mounted to lay rubber on the track.
Gossage said officials from Goodyear contacted him to see if the tire monster was available to use at Phoenix.
“I told them they were welcome to use it free of charge,” Gossage said. “They seemed surprised since there was the issue where the general manager at Michigan popped off so unprofessionally over the problems at Kentucky this summer. But I told them if the tire monster made the race there better, the whole sport would benefit.
“A few days later, we were notified that they would not be using it. They didn’t give a reason but it’s still available if they would like it. There is no question that it would help put rubber in the new asphalt. I know if we had new asphalt we would put it to work 24 hours a day.”
Pemberton said he was aware of the tire monster, but believes with two companion tours to lay down rubber along with driving school that the track should be fine for the race on Nov. 13.
“We feel right now that it’s best to do cars on the track with tires that are compatible with what’s out there,” Pemberton added.
Kurt Busch, who was one of the five original drivers who tested the control tires for Goodyear, doesn’t feel that the tire monster “scrubbed in the rubber the right way” and it was heavier in some areas than others. But he offers a solution.
“It needs to actually scrub the tires sideways, that’s what I would do,“ Busch said. “I saw it. I would put tires on it in yaw and scrub ‘em. You take what they have for their axle line, instead of being perpendicular to the track, it needs to be set at a 45-degree angle — almost like the angle you grill your steaks on. It needs to be turned and scrubbed across. If I were in charge for a day, that‘s what I‘d do.”
Busch said he hopes the track is ready come November. He believes teams will be able to pick up clues by watching the companion series' race on Friday and Saturday. Although the track was green earlier in the test session, Busch was encouraged by seeing rubber accumulate later on Tuesday.
“The track finally started to groom in a little bit (Tuesday) afternoon and so everything you did to tighten the car up, now you have to do the opposite to loosen it up because the track is taking rubber,“ Busch said. “It’s still real narrow, and it feels real slick, but every time we make more and more laps, the better it gets.”
Teaching a veteran new tricks
Two-time Phoenix International Raceway winner Jeff Burton set the early pace during testing on Tuesday and early Wednesday.
While topping the speed chart (134.852 mph) doesn’t pay anything, the veteran says he “doesn’t want to be the slowest car, either.”
“I think the track is pretty cool,” Burton said. “Obviously, it took a little while to run on but once it was ready, it was a lot of fun. The back straightaway is completely different than anything we’ve ever been on before. It’s going to be really interesting in the race.”
The track still measures 1 mile, but the configuration on the backstretch differs greatly with the added banking and moving the curve in the dogleg out by 95 feet. It’s almost as if the track has five distinct corners.
“It’s different,” Burton said. “You had to get out of your head a little bit about what racetrack you were in and just think about it as a new racetrack. Once you got there, then it just turned into a new racetrack where you just had to learn to do what you had to do.
“There’s a lot of things that are similar to the old racetrack. To me, (Turns) 3 and 4 is 3 and 4. It’s kind of the same thing. The exit to (Turn) 2 is tremendously different. Of course, the back straightaway is different. It’s the only track I’ve ever been on where the straightaway has more banking than the corner. But it’s fun. It’s cool. It’s something different.”
Cereal switch
Richard Childress Racing announced that Wheaties will become a co-primary sponsor on Burton’s car next season. General Mills’ Wheaties brand will replace Cheerios, which has sponsored one of the RCR cars since 2009. RCR’s relationship with Wheaties dates back to the No. 3 Chevrolet with Dale Earnhardt in 1997.
Rookie run
Richard Childress Racing opted to test with Austin Dillon in the No. 33 Cheerios Chevrolet on Wednesday before the 21-year-old attempts to make his Sprint Cup debut at Kansas Speedway this weekend.
Clint Bowyer tested Tuesday and was ninth fast with a lap of 133.561 mph after 122 laps.
“I think it’s a case of economics right now and they wanted to get Austin some seat time,” “Clint ran a lot of laps yesterday knowing this was going to happen. We felt like at least he had some laps and the track is going to change from when we come back to race. He got over a 100 laps yesterday, so that doesn’t put him at a big disadvantage going into the race."
Say what?
David Ragan on driving on the redesigned Phoenix International Raceway for the first time on Tuesday: “It’s better than what I thought it would be, but it will be great in two years.”