Start your engines!
Play RPM.ESPN Stock Car Challenge!
Win a Honda S2000!
Play The CART Challenge powered by Honda!
|
|
Wednesday, July 11
Tackling the new Kansas Speedway
By Dennis Setzer
Special to ESPN.com
| |  | | | Setzer |
One of the things the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series has done in the past couple seasons is send us to new speedways being built around the country before Winston Cup or Busch. Last year we went to the new Kentucky Speedway and last weekend we visited the new Kansas Speedway.
By sending us to the facilities first, it allows NASCAR to get a feel for the track and allows the track to fix some of the problems it will be faced with as a new venue. For instance, at Kentucky last year, it rained the evening before the event and flooded 50 percent of the tracks dirt parking lots. When 65,000 people tried to get to the track, some were left walking in excess of three miles to find their seats. By the time the Busch Series arrived the problem had been fixed, so I guess you could say we're a guinea pig for NASCAR and the tracks themselves.
The Kansas City area has been part of the Craftsman Truck Series since it's inception. We have raced at I-70 Speedway and the Heartland Park road course in Topeka. Last season, the announcement was made that we were going to be visiting the new Kansas Speedway after a one-year hiatus from the area.
Thursday when we unloaded for an optional test day the beauty and resources of this 1½-mile facility took many people aback. ISC has learned from its other tracks what makes a successful speedway and have incorporated many of those things. It is truly a first-class place and may be the nicest track we visit during the entire season.
Coming to a new track offers a lot of challenges to me as well as my Morgan/Dollar Motorsports team. We often have notes from last seasons race, but at Kansas we had to start fresh. The track is configured a lot like Las Vegas, so we tried to base some of the setup to that. I was able to prepare a little bit, by watching the ARCA race held here in the spring. Anything I can do to prepare I often try, it makes my learning curve on the track less and allows me the opportunity to help the guys fine tune the truck quicker.
Our truck took well to the track from the second we unloaded it. Danny Gill (crew chief) had a good basis for a setup and our first three laps on the track in testing put us third quickest overall. We spent much of the testing day working on different setups trying to find something the truck would react too.
That hard work and dedication paid off Friday afternoon for qualifying. The field was trying to chase Jack Sprague and Ricky Hendrick all morning in the practice sessions. NASCAR once again implemented a 390 cfm carburetor for this race eliminating about 150 horsepower. The guys at Hendrick had found something and seemed to be the class of the field. The other guys lost speed as the afternoon sun heated up the track and we qualified at a time of 32.249 seconds, good enough to take the pole.
On race day the air temperature grew to nearly 100 degrees by the start of the race. I figured it was going to be a hot afternoon, so I did the best I could do to prepare myself by drinking a lot of fluids and trying to place some air vents that would blow cool air. You have to move some hoses around inside the truck to redirect some air, if you start to overheat you begin to lose your focus. The cooler you can make yourself, the better chance you have to run competitively.
Saturday the race got off to a good start and I got a out to the lead pretty quickly. Sprague challenged me hard, but when we would just get to racing a caution flag would come out. There was something like three caution flags in only the first 25 laps. After lap 50 the field started to spread out quite a bit and we had a long stretch of green flag racing. Green flag pit stops caused the field to get very spread out and it was hard to catch anyone out on the track, I think in the last 50 laps of the race I was alone on the track.
We ended up finishing in the third position behind Hendrick and Ted Musgrave. My hat goes off to Hendrick and those guys, Ricky has been working really hard and it shows by where he is in points this season. He has quite a bit of guidance with that group and seems to be handling the pressure.
I have to give the guys at Morgan/Dollar Motorsports a lot of credit for how hard they have been working. This team has been spending up to 20 hours a day in the shop trying to prepare competitive trucks for us to race and it is showing on the track. Kansas was like a homecoming for the team as our shop is based only 330 miles south of the track in Hennessey, Okla. Winning the pole and finishing third was great with all of the guests that we had in the stands.
Racing at new venues brings a lot into the sport. It allows us to reach fans that sometimes do not get big league NASCAR events and other times it allows us to make new fans for the Craftsman Truck Series. I enjoy coming to the new facilities and enjoyed our first trip back to Kansas City. I have run well at the I-70 Speedway and was fortunate enough to continue that success this past weekend.
I look forward to heading to South Boston later on this season, which is a new track to the series. Just do me one favor, don't tell anyone I have championships and wins there and we will be just fine.
Dennis Setzer, driver of the No. 46 Acxiom/Computer Associates Chevrolet for Morgan/Dollar Motorsports in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, will provide a diary to ESPN.com throughout the 2001 season. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
|
|
|
|
