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Darlington Raceway is 1.366-mile, egg-shaped oval that makes setting up cars next to impossible. Teams will have to compromise this weekend; maybe be good in Turns 1 and 2, but stink in Turns 3 and 4. Teams must figure out what corners they are going to be good in, and what losses they are going to accept to be better somewhere else on the track.
More than anything else, however, Darlington is about tires. Drivers have to take care of their tires.
As for the on-going manufactures debate, it sure looked like all three makes of car were more equal last week in Atlanta. There were several really good Ford teams that were taken out of the race under different circumstances. Jeff Burton, for one, was leading the race when he cut a tire. Dale Jarrett had some problems on pit road, as did Bill Elliott. Those are three really good Ford teams right there.
|  | | Jeremy Mayfield knows all about the ills of pitting on the old backstretch at Darlington. |
Dale Earnhardt won the race in his Chevrolet. He beat Bobby Labonte's Pontiac by a bumper.
Now you can't compare Darlington with Atlanta -- those are two completely different race tracks. But just look at the momentum Earnhardt has built this season, winning last week by a nose at Atlanta and finishing second to Labonte in Rockingham. And Rockingham is also tire-management track, which can be compared to Darlington.
Earnhardt may have finished second at The Rock, but he was coming on strong. Who knows, if he had a few more laps, he might have caught Labonte. If Rockingham were a 500-mile race like it used to be, he might have a two wins already heading into Darlington. And with nine career wins at The Lady in Black, I have to count Earnhardt among the favorites Sunday.
Another thing Earnhardt has going for him this week, as does every driver in the field, is the new pit road at Darlington. And I mean road, not roads. Darlington has gone to a single pit road this year.
In years past, with two pit roads, if a driver didn't qualify well at Darlington, he might as well forget about Victory Lane. Qualifying outside the top 28 meant he was pitting on the backstretch, which made it next to impossible to win a race at Darlington -- or any other track with two pit roads.
I remember a couple of years ago at Darlington when Jeremy Mayfield would have won his first Winston Cup race had he not been pitting on the backstretch. In that race, there was a late caution with Mayfield leading. Mayfield had by far the fastest car on the track, but drivers don't have the option of staying out at Darlington. They have to go into the pits for fresh tires at every chance. So Mayfield pitted on the backstretch and by the time he came out, he was in 15th place.
The reason why pitting on the backstretch is a kiss of death in NASCAR is when a caution comes out, pit road closes. And when it opens, the cars pitting on the front stretch get dropped off at their pit stalls first. Then as those cars get serviced, the cars pitting on the backstretch are still out on the track crawling around to the backstretch. By the time those guys are dropped off, and get in and out of their pits -- usually before they even get to their pit stalls -- the guys who are pitting on the front are already out on the track. And once those cars hit the track, they can go as fast as they want.
So those cars come back around that same corner at almost race speed, passing those cars in the backstretch pits. Because the guys on the backstretch have been held up by the pace car, there is no way they can run as fast around Turns 1 and 2. They lose a lot of track position in just a half of lap behind the pace car.
But Darlington has one pit road now, so Earnhardt, who hasn't exactly qualified well this year, doesn't have to worry about qualifying outside the top 25 and pitting on the backstretch. The new pit road does wrap around Turns 4 and 1, but it should make it fair for every driver.
I think Bobby Labonte will be strong again this weekend. You also may want to look at Matt Kenseth. Remember, Kenseth replaced Labonte in his No. 18 Pontiac last spring as a relief driver at Darlington after Labonte broke his shoulder blade in a crash. Kenseth wound up finishing in the top 10 and he won the Busch Series race last spring at Darlington.
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Mark Martin is in the race, which means this race doesn't lend itself to much analyzing. Martin has won two of four Busch races this year and guess what? He's the king of Busch racing at Darlington -- which shouldn't come as a surprise.
But Randy LaJoie has the ability to run well at Darlington. His chances come down to his pit crew. They made some mistakes that hurt him in Atlanta. I think he has the ability to beat Martin, as does Todd Bodine. Bodine has had some good runs at Darlington, but I also know he's had some crashes there as well.
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Sharing the same race track isn't anything new for the Craftsman Truck Series and Indy Racing League. What's interesting about these timesharing races is to see which race draws the most fans.
In the past, when the trucks and Indy cars have raced at the same track on the same weekend, the trucks have outdrawn the Indy cars. That includes Phoenix, Texas and Homestead, Fla. -- where the trucks and CART cars used the same track.
As for the effect on the races themselves, I would expect the line around Phoenix International Raceway is different for the trucks and Indy cars. The entry into and out of the corners is different. And you've got two different kinds of rubber going down on the track -- Firestone from the IRL, and the Goodyear tread from the trucks.
I'm sure someone will complain, but I doubt very seriously it'll be the truck drivers. Let's face it, they aren't going nearly as fast as the IRL guys. I'm sure sharing the track will have some ill-effect on both races.
After two weeks off, Andy Houston arrives in Phoenix off a win in Homestead and third-place finish at Daytona in the season-opener. Mike Wallace finished second last time out and won the Daytona race. Those two guys look like the early favorites to slug it out for the championship.
Jack Sprague finished second at Phoenix last year. He's the series defending champion, but is still looking to get on track this season. Phoenix is as good a place as any for Sprague to do so.
As for the IRL race, Scott Goodyear seems to get around Phoenix really well. He won last year's race in the desert.
But Al Unser Jr., is making his second IRL start and that team says it's figured out what went wrong to cause its engine to blow up at Homestead. There was a problem with the oil temperature in Orlando. Unser, however, was very, very happy with the way the car ran in the "Test in the West" last month in Phoenix.
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