Short track beating and banging at high speed

Larry McReynolds / CREWCHIEFCLUB.COM

Three out of the next four races are with the Car of Tomorrow, and the fourth is a carburetor restrictor plate race at Talladega. Most of the Car of Tomorrow races this year are at short tracks.

Phoenix is a one-mile racetrack, but it's still a short track. Your car is going to get beaten up. It's much more intense and time-consuming to turn around these Cars of Tomorrow vs. the current cars because of the tight tolerances on the templates. As we noted last week, the new nickname for this car in the garage area is the Car of Overtime because it's quite a workload for these guys.

Ryan Pemberton, who crew chiefs the No. 01 Ginn Racing car, said his team is beaten to pieces. He said that they used to fight for performance, and while they're still thinking about performance, they're just trying to survive and get to the racetrack with a primary car and a backup car.

Phoenix is a one-mile racetrack, but it's still a short track. Your car is going to get beaten up. It's much more intense and time-consuming to turn around these Cars of Tomorrow vs. the current cars because of the tight tolerances on the templates. As we noted last week, the new nickname for this car in the garage area is the Car of Overtime because it's quite a workload for these guys.
Ryan Pemberton, who crew chiefs the No. 01 Ginn Racing car, said his team is beaten to pieces. He said that they used to fight for performance, and while they're still thinking about performance, they're just trying to survive and get to the racetrack with a primary car and a backup car.

Who to Watch

Denny Hamlin and Tony Stewart: Joe Gibbs Racing is going to be the group to watch because they run well at Phoenix, and they have run well with the Car of Tomorrow. So I'm going to say that group is going to run well there. As we get excited for the race, I'm glad Virginia native Hamlin is keeping Virginia Tech and the people of Blacksburg, Va. in his thoughts as he wears a Tech cap.
Hamlin's career Cup stats at Phoenix International Raceway

Stewart's career Cup stats at Phoenix International Raceway
Jeff Gordon: Even though it's a track where he's never won a Cup race, Gordon has won a Busch race at Phoenix. Plus, he can learn from his teammates. Gordon's 8.6-place average finish is behind only Jimmie Johnson (7.7) while Kyle Busch has a win at the track and won the Car of Tomorrow race at Bristol.

Gordon's career Cup stats at Phoenix International Raceway
Jamie McMurray: I get a sneaky feeling that you might want to keep an eye on some of those Roush guys. McMurray's team has its arms around the Car of Tomorrow. He's got some momentum on his side, and he won a Busch race at the track. Don't completely take your eye off of that No. 26 car. I'd also keep an eye on Car Edwards and Greg Biffle as well. Plus, you've always got to keep an eye on Matt Kenseth. He's a lot like Johnson and Tony Stewart. If you're fantasy racing, and you take those three guys every week, you'll probably do just fine because they're so solid every week.

McMurray's career Cup stats at Phoenix International Raceway
Kevin Harvick: I would consider all of the Childress cars, too. All three run well at Phoenix, and all three ran well with the Car of Tomorrow. If I had to pick one, it would be Kevin Harvick. He swept both races there last fall and ran well at Martinsville in the Car of Tomorrow.

Harvick's career Cup stats at Phoenix International Raceway

What to Watch

50 pounds in a 10-pound bag? It's the first Car of Tomorrow race with inspection, practice and qualifying all in the same day instead of opening a day or half a day early for inspection. With 50 cars on the entry list, the good thing is practice and qualifying will be a little later in the day so that gives NASCAR a little more time for inspection, but it's certainly a concern for those teams that are well back in points. Can we get these things inspected and ready to roll when the track opens for the first practice? This is not like Richmond or Bristol. They've not tested the COT there.

Aero matters: Racing at Bristol and Martinsville is about getting your chassis to handle. Aero doesn't play a huge role. Now, we're going to a one-mile racetrack where aero is pretty important. Drivers will roar down the straightaways at faster speeds than they did at Bristol or Martinsville. Yeah, you've still got to get your car to handle, but aero certainly will play a bigger role.

Turning point: The big challenge at Phoenix has always been getting the cars to turn through the middle of the corner. Even though they've learned a lot in the first two COT races, this race presents the biggest challenge because it's a different setup than the ones they used at Bristol and Martinsville.

Braking point: Even though this is a relatively short race — 312 laps/miles — this place can be harder on brakes than Martinsville because you're entering the corner at a higher rate of speed than you enter the corners at the Virginia bullring. And you don't have a low gear to slow down the cars when they roll out of the throttle.

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