Bristol...Back to where i(co)t all began..

So this week is the Bristol night race, which is obviously a fan favorite, and I think most of the team guys will tell you that short track Saturday night racing has a special appeal, considering thats where many of the guys cut their teeth.

This is obviously the same track that the COT debuted on, so the teams have had a fair amount of time to come up with decent setups. The first time we went to the race, it was a bit of a nitemare. It was the first time the COT had gone through the whole clam shell inspection process, and the teams had to show up on Thursday just to go through inspection before Friday practice. That, and we were worried about our bumpstops, and whether the car would slam the ground. I believe Rob finished about 10 laps down that first race, so to finish solidly on the lead lap last fall was a pretty good accomplishment.

Since the race is on Saturday, the only 2 practice sessions are on Friday, so having a good setup off the truck will be clutch. I would expect the top teams to work on race setups for half of the first session, then switch to qfy mode. A bad qfy run means you are way too close to being lapped in the first segment of the race.

From an engineering perspective, Bristol poses some interesting challenges. When the cars slam into the banking, they take about as much load as they will see at any track. So, there is always the chance that you will see some suspension failures that you would not normally. Choosing the right tire pressures can be a little tricky as forward bite is a concern, and the car is always braking and accelerating at higher rates than it would at Michigan for example. So it makes it tougher for the engineers to choose what tire loads to look at for their analysis.

Since the track got a new concrete surface last year, the racing there has changed slightly. The cars can run two wide through the corners, so there is less need for the 'bump and run' passing technique. This results in less wrecks, track position is more of a premium, and more pressure is put on the engineers, because fuel mileage has started to become and issue. In the fall race last year, we mananged to take a 30th place car and get it up to the lead with 100 to go with some interesting fuel strategy. I would expect the race to be pretty caution free, especially in the middle of the race since it is getting so close to the chase.

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Comment by Fatback McLosaw on August 26, 2008 at 9:07pm: alan4s- not a ton of difference bw qfy and race setups...little bit of trackbar and tape and good to go
TOG- I think we had like 3 wings that were ours so we could test and set the car up

Comment by Joan Forsythe on August 22, 2008 at 4:31pm: Jeremy Caution free and Bristol - isn't that a dichotomy? Bristol has always been beat'n and Bang'n and I'm sure this week it won't be any different. Robby's not qualifying well, I just checked and he's 30th - here we go again. I don't understand why he can't qualify better - maybe he's afraid to bang up his equipment - but at 119 mph he's way down near the back of the pack and that is hard to make up at this track. Joan

Comment by rick on August 22, 2008 at 11:22am: Jeremey, thanks for the great insights. If you could follow up on the questions left in the comments it would that much more helpful! Thanks again, Rick

Comment by Lance on August 22, 2008 at 10:28am: The best race Robby ever ran at Bristol was in the 2006 spring race. Started 38th, was in 12th by lap 150 and had a bogus penalty put on him for entering the pits across the blend line. In reality it was Kyle Busch who had a similar paint scheme. Robby was able to get a lucky dog after running 3rd on the track for about 60 laps and marched his way up to 14th again before having a suspension failure. Still, he must've made about 50 passes under green flag that day.

Comment by TOG on August 22, 2008 at 10:18am: How many COT wings did you keep in the shop ? I know NASCAR hands em out, but could you buy or build them ?

Comment by alan4s on August 21, 2008 at 3:27pm: Yeah, thanks. How much difference is there between qualifying and race setups for this track? It would seem to me that there would be much less of a difference here than at some of the bigger tracks.

Comment by Mike/WC77 on August 21, 2008 at 3:25pm: Great insight bro. I remember Rob making the quote "we can't get the car to turn in a 40 acre field" more than once. I've got my fingers crossed that won't be an issue this wknd. As for the tire pressure, I hope they get a good idea where to be at on Fri. The last thing any of us wants to hear is anything about a "4 wheel drift" again. My question with regard to that is how much does the grip change in the day/night transition now on the concrete surface?