When the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series begins two weeks of racing at Lowe's Motor Speedway (LMS), it will do so on a new track surface at the newly paved 1.5-mile oval. Additionally, the series will be competing with a smaller fuel cell.
Lowe's Motor Speedway, home to the longest race on the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series schedule with the Coca-Cola 600, has been the site of many of the sport's best races. The temperamental track surface was notorious in its ability to affect the handling of a race car by mere cloud cover and the slightest change in the weather. The track was repaved in early 2005, prepped and ready for its annual Memorial Day weekend race schedule.
Officials ground the track surface prior to the May races and while speeds increased, so did the number of cautions. A record-setting 22 cautions slowed the racing action in May.
To ease some of the pain felt in May, officials set about grounding the surface even more, only to generate another increase in speeds when the Nextel Cup Series returned to LMS in October for its annual 500-mile event. Additionally, 15 cautions resulted.
The speedway elected to resurface the track in early 2006, creating a smooth and fast track. Anytime a track features new pavement, speeds inevitably increase. As a result, Goodyear, the official tire of NASCAR, set about building a new tire specific to LMS and its surface. Initial results were not good, as reigning Coca-Cola 600 champ Jimmie Johnson crashed during the first of two separate tire tests. Dale Jarrett and the #88 UPS Racing Team were one of two teams that tested a few weeks later with another tire compound and Jarrett said he was amazed at how much the cars could be slowed simply by utilizing a different tire.
"I was surprised that they thought we could slow the cars down that much with just the changing of the tires," Jarrett said. "But they put a harder compound on the left side and on the right side, and as we put that combination together it definitely made it more of a challenge. It looked like once we got through and found what Goodyear wanted, it slowed us down close to a second in our lap times and that was quite a bit. We went from tires that they thought were going to be the right ones, which could only get about 25 laps out of them before they were worn out, to one where I put about 80 laps on a set of tires. It wasn't all at one time, but through different runs I ended up having 80 laps on them. The speeds were considerably slower and the car slid around a lot more."
Despite the efforts by Goodyear, NASCAR announced in early April that it would use smaller fuel cells when the Nextel Cup Series returned to LMS for the Coca-Cola 600 in May as well as for the previous weeks' non-point event, the All-Star Challenge on May 20th. Teams will use 14-gallon fuel cells. Smaller fuel cells have typically been reserved for restrictor-plate races at Daytona and Talladega where teams are required to use 13-gallon fuel cells.
The change in the fuel cell size will increase the number of pit stops that take place at the All-Star race and more importantly the Coca-Cola 600. The 600 is the longest race on the NASCAR schedule. The long night just got longer with the reduction in fuel cell size which will require more stops for fuel.
"It certainly will make for an even longer night that is already the longest race on the schedule," said crew chief Slugger Labbe. "It puts a little more pressure on our pit crew guys but this is what they get paid to do and I'm sure they'll be up for the challenge."
"More importantly, the extra stops change the strategy and way we go about running the 600," Labbe added. "We may do some two-tire stops rather than getting four tires each time we come in the pits. It's one of those things we won't know until we get to Charlotte and see what kind of tire wear we're getting. It's going to be interesting though."
NASCAR officials hope the reduced fuel cell size ensures a safer race at Charlotte, opposed to the most recent Nextel Cup race at the 1.5-mile track where 15 caution periods collected a number of cars in October 2005.
"We had some problems at Charlotte last year in October," said Jim Hunter, vice president of corporate communications for NASCAR. "The speedway has resurfaced the racetrack and it is really smooth now and it is very fast. New pavement will usually generate more speed. We want to be safe. It's more of a caution than anything else. With the new pavement, the shorter the run combined with the new tire, vis a vis the gas, is a safe way to do it."
"One of the things that may come out of this is that they change tires every other pit stop instead of every pit stop or change two on one side during the race and the other side on the next stop," Hunter added. "We just want to make sure that we have a good, safe race at Lowe's."
