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Tuesday, June 19
Ill-timed caution affected finish
By Royce McGee
Special to ESPN.com
Although Mike Skinner and the No. 31 Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse team got off to a rocky start this season, we're continuing to pull together and improve on our finishes and our position in the points race. We finished up at Pocono Raceway last weekend with a 12th-place finish and are on our way out to Sonoma, Calif., now to race at Sears Point Raceway.
|  | | Skinner is currently 21st in the points standings. |
When our weekend at Pocono began, we thought the Lowe's Chevrolet was pretty decent at first. When we looked at the lap times that Mike ran right off the bat and listened to his feedback about the car, we thought we had a pretty good car. But when it came time to make our qualifying run, we didn't pick up as much as we thought we would. As a result, panic set in and we made some quick adjustments to improve the car. We wanted the Lowe's Chevy to be about a half-second faster but some of the teams were one second slower than we were.
When it came time for the Lowe's team to qualify, the adjustments we made seemed to be right on track when we evaluated our segment times. But Mike said he did not get through the tunnel turn (Turn 2) very well. If we had gotten through the tunnel turn better and the other two corners had been as good as they were, I think we would have qualified in the top 12.
On a qualifying lap, the driver has to hit all his marks exactly right and Mike was trying to make up a little extra time that he lost in the tunnel turn. We ended up 26th but had to accept it and work on the race setup.
In Saturday morning's practice, the Lowe's machine was a little tight and we couldn't get it turning as well as Mike needed. We quickly tried a bunch of stuff because the weather was threatening rain and we didn't know if our practice would get cut short. That practice lasted for 45 minutes and then we had an hour break before the final Happy Hour. During that time, we sat down and evaluated where we were and we made some pretty aggressive changes to the Lowe's Chevy for the final practice.
But it started raining right before practice started and the track conditions changed a little for us. The Pocono track is pretty sensitive to weather and temperature changes. It got cloudy and cooled off some because of the rain. Cloud cover makes the car tighter. When Happy Hour was complete Saturday, the Lowe's Chevy was actually a little too loose through Turn 1 but it was still too tight off the tunnel turn and Turn 3.
I think that the tunnel turn and Turn 3 are the most critical ones because they set the car up for the long straightaway. When that practice was over, Richard Childress walked over and reminded us that the track was going to be warmer and slicker Sunday and to make sure we didn't get the Lowe's Chevy too loose based on Saturday's weather conditions.
We took his suggestions to heart when we set the car up for Sunday. On Sunday morning, we changed the left-front spring, track bar height and the rear sway bar and were ready to go racing. We had a pretty decent race car from the beginning and tried to keep the Lowe's Chevy as free as we could for Mike because we definitely didn't want to get the car too tight. The No. 29 team tightened up their car's handling early in the race but Kevin Harvick soon radioed that the car wasn't running as well then.
We conveyed that to Mike and told him the Lowe's Chevy needed to be free to be fast that day. About the fourth pit stop of the day, we tightened up the car a bit but Mike soon radioed us that it was a little too tight. We loosened up the car on the following pit stop and tried to fine-tune from there. Skinner was pretty happy with the Lowe's machine then because we knew exactly where our "middle ground" was.
With about 80 laps remaining in the race, the Lowe's team had a pretty good shot at finishing near the top-five because our fuel mileage was much better than several of the teams in front of us. We could complete the race on only one more pit stop for fuel because we were able to run 41 laps on fuel. There were a good five cars in front of us that we knew couldn't make it on only one more pit stop. The team that won the race couldn't have made it on one more stop. The Nos. 28, 88, 36, 99 and 29 could not last 41 laps on fuel.
We were listening to these teams on the radio and knew they would have to make two stops for fuel near the end and we could make it on one pit stop. Unfortunately for us, the caution flag waved at the wrong team and allowed the other teams to conserve fuel and pit under yellow for fuel. Our fuel strategy didn't mean much anymore.
The Lowe's team still logged a pretty good finish -- we took home a 12th-place showing.
We race at Sears Point this weekend and then we're off for a week. We tested at Sears Point on our way to Fontana, Calif., this year because we've struggled at Sears Point recently. We have tested at other tracks in the past in preparation for Sears Point, but never tested at the facility. We couldn't really apply what we learned at those other tracks to Sears Point, so those tests didn't do us much good.
I think that testing on the road course, gathering information and giving Mike extra time on the track will be very beneficial to us. When he gets back on the track this weekend with his first lap, the course will be fresher in his mind than if he hadn't been there since last year. Plus, we now know what gear ratios and transmission we want to run, so we won't be spending the first two hours of practice trying to figure that stuff out. We can concentrate on making the Lowe's Chevy faster.
We have struggled badly at Sears Point the past few years -- between poor fuel mileage and an ill-handling car or a combination of both. Fuel mileage is pretty important at Sonoma -- we need to be able to make three 37-lap runs to make it on two pit stops. Not all the teams will be able to make it on two pit stops but we'll be at a big advantage if we can go that far.
We gained three spots in the points last week and would like to be 15th or better in the upcoming few weeks. Realistically, we know we can do it. If you look at the teams directly in front of us in the points, several of them have had really bad finishes the past few weeks. The early part of the season was good for them but they've fallen off since then. We had some misfortune in the beginning of the year but seem to be improving the past month or so.
We're coming up on some tracks where the Lowe's team has been really strong in the past. We go to Daytona in two weeks and should be a contender if we can stay out of trouble there. But for now, we're concentrating on Sears Point and coming out of there with a stronger finish than we did last week at Pocono. Lowe's Racing will aim for the same at Daytona and we'll be back in contention in no time.
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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