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Tuesday, April 24
Next stop: Fontana
By Royce McGee
Special to ESPN.com
Lowe's Racing is in the middle of a pretty packed week right now. Not only did we run one of the most mentally exhausting and stressful races of the year at Talladega last Sunday, now we're testing at Sears Point Raceway on the way to this weekend's event at California Speedway.
The Lowe's team got back from Talladega Sunday night and hopped on a plane for Sonoma, Calif., early Monday afternoon. When the test at Sears Point is complete, we'll climb on another plane and head for Fontana, Calif.
|  | | The No. 31 team might not get many chances in the pits at Fontana on Sunday. |
Sunday's race at Talladega was a very frustrating one for the Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse Racing team and many other organizations. We had one of the best cars on the track but finished 29th. Mike easily took the lead early in the race and led for eight laps, but he lost it when another pack of cars came charging past the Lowe's Chevy from the back.
We saw that scenario countless times during those three hours. Sterling Marlin definitely had one of the best cars on the track. Although he led the most laps, he still finished 23rd.
It really didn't seem to matter how good or how bad your car was on Sunday. Where you ended up was pure luck, for lack of a better word. Competition is so tight at Talladega and Daytona now under the new aerodynamic rules package.
I thought that Saturday's Busch race was a good one because they didn't have 40 cars running three and four-wide in one huge pack all day like we did. Instead, there were seven or 10 cars in a small pack. But the Busch Series rules are different than the Winston Cup ones. When Mike and the other drivers got in the big pack, they could shuffle around and maneuver but some shuffled forward and some shuffled backward. With 10 laps to go, the cars in the middle and back of the pack just got boxed in and couldn't go anywhere.
A lot of people were frustrated because many of the stronger cars, including ours, were shuffled to the back when it really counted at the end of the race. With 25 laps remaining, we were fourth and we ended up 29th. At one point, Nemechek was leading the race and went back to 28th in two laps.
I don't even think it was a benefit to have the best car on the track. We had a bad pit stop and ended up drafting with a pack of three other cars. We trailed the big lead pack but we were drafting faster than them because they had so many cars bunched up.
Our pack was seven seconds behind the lead pack, but we ran them down, and we got all the way back up into fourth position. That just goes to show that the last-place car could come all the way to the front of the field at the drop of a hat. It really didn't help to have a great car. What counted was what other cars you were running with and which line was moving faster at that moment.
As frustrated as the drivers and teams were with the race, it was a good show for the fans because they never knew what was going to happen next. You couldn't even begin to predict who was going to win the race. But for the teams who had worked so hard on preparing competitive race cars, it was very hard to watch the race knowing you've got a good car that you can't do much with.
Mike drove his tail off and our spotter's jaw was probably sore from talking so much. Next to the drivers, the spotters had the toughest job of the day because the cars ran so close together all day long that everyone had to be 100 percent on his toes. The race went caution-free, so the drivers and spotters didn't even get 10 seconds to rest or even take a drink of water.
But we were fortunate that we didn't have the big wreck that many feared would happen. We did have a couple of close calls when some cars got loose in the middle of the pack, but the drivers were able to hold onto their machines. My hat's off to the drivers because they were so patient. But that still was not racing to me.
But Talladega's behind us and we're testing at Sears Point and preparing for 500 miles at Fontana. We have struggled at Sears Point the past two years trying to find a good setup. The Lowe's Chevy needs to handle well, get good fuel mileage and have good tire wear at Sears Point. Lots of things you do to improve one of those categories hurts another one.
As competitive as Winston Cup racing is nowadays, we can't just take the attitude that we'll just suffer through the two road course races each year and take what we can get. Teams can't do that anymore – the points we earn at Sears Point and Watkins Glen are just as important as the points we earn at Talladega or Lowe's Motor Speedway. That's like saying we'll just go to Talladega or Daytona and take what we can get. Everyone knows we can't do that.
So, we're hoping to learn a lot at the test this week that we can put into the Lowe's Chevy for the June race at Sears Point Raceway. We planned this test early in the year before our season went like it has. Hopefully the extra time at Sears Point will give us another opportunity to make up some ground this year.
The key at California Speedway this week is going to be fuel mileage. Last year, Dale Earnhardt ran out of fuel because they miscalculated the fuel mileage a bit. Dale ran out on the backstretch and lost several positions by the time he coasted back around to the pits.
Fontana is similar to Michigan Speedway in that respect. We've got to pay attention to fuel mileage and make sure the car is handling well because it's so important to stay up near the front as long as possible. Just like at Las Vegas and Michigan, which are both large, flat tracks, the cars at Fontana get strung out all around the track for a couple of hundred miles. For that reason, the race usually tends to have long green-flag runs because many of the cars aren't really racing anyone. They're just driving around by themselves.
Track position is also going to be so important, just like we've seen at several tracks this year. If the race goes green for a couple of hundred miles and the caution finally comes out, it may be the last chance we've got to gain positions on pit road. We don't have the chance to capitalize on pit road at Fontana like we do at a lot of other tracks because there are not very many cautions.
The Lowe's pit crew is going to be very important this weekend. They won't have the opportunity to help Mike out too many times, but when they do get that opportunity, it's going to be crucial.
Royce McGee is the crew chief for Mike Skinner and the No. 31 Lowe's Chevrolet on the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. He is providing a weekly diary to ESPN.com throughout the season. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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