Sprint Cup drivers getting a feel for newly repaved Darlington track
By Jared Turner - SceneDaily Staff Writer
Friday, May 09, 2008
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DARLINGTON, S.C. – By the end of Thursday’s two NASCAR Sprint Cup practices at Darlington Raceway, the right side of rookie Sam Hornish Jr.’s Penske Racing Dodge bore the battle scars of a clear encounter with the outside wall.
Ditto for Patrick Carpentier’s Gillett Evernham Motorsports Dodge. Such was not true, however, of Michael McDowell’s Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota, which was unscathed after turning laps around the venue known as “the track too tough to tame.”
But like most of his fellow rookies who will make their first Darlington start in Saturday night’s Dodge Challenger 500, McDowell has resigned himself to what seems almost inevitable: Newcomers to this track sustain at least one Darlington stripe – even if they manage to get through practice clean.
“I told the guys that I’m going to try to wait till the race,” said McDowell, who will make his sixth Cup start on Saturday. “It’s just one of those things where you know you’re going to get up in [the wall] at some point or somebody is going to put you in it, and that’s just a part of being here. But I’d rather not do it by myself in practice.”
Hornish, McDowell and Dale Earnhardt Inc.’s Regan Smith, another Darlington first-timer in Cup, are all guaranteed a starting spot Saturday by virtue of being in the top-35 in Sprint Cup owner points. Carpentier doesn’t have that luxury. The former open-wheel driver must qualify his way in on speed during today’s time trials.
Even though Hornish knows he will start the race, the former Indy Racing League champion acknowledges that he has his work cut out for him getting used to a track known to give even the most seasoned veterans headaches.
“I got my Darlington stripe,” Hornish said on Thursday. “I was trying to be real careful, and we were getting some pretty good lap times out of it, and I felt like I had a really good lap, so I drove it down into [Turn] 3 a little bit harder, and the front end gave up and flat-sided the car. I guess you’ve got to get that out of the way at some point in time. [I'll] keep working away at it."
The most daunting task for most Darlington newcomers is adjusting to a track where the racing groove is up against the wall, not on the bottom like at most places.
“It’s different,” Carpentier said. “It’s just enter corner one and then you’ve just got to let it slide all the way to the wall there, and it’s a good way to learn the wall. It should be fun as we get more laps and get more comfortable, and we’re running closer and closer.”
Some drivers got a little too close to the wall on Thursday. Those forced to go to backup cars after encounters with the barriers included Haas CNC Racing’s Scott Riggs and Johnny Sauter, who is driving Haas CNC’s No. 70 entry this weekend for the third time in four events.
Making the already-tricky 1.366-mile Darlington venue particularly challenging this weekend for newcomers and veterans alike is the track’s newly installed pavement, which led NASCAR to schedule two Goodyear tire tests and an extra day of practice in preparation for Saturday’s event.
The new asphalt surface has already generated higher speeds and is expected to make passing more difficult at a place where
passing is already traditionally tough.
“The speeds are pretty insane,” Hendrick Motorsports’ Dale Earnhardt Jr. said on Thursday. “The grip is good. It’s going to be interesting to see, really, how the cars are on 40- and 50-lap runs. Everybody is out there running three and four laps and doing OK, but it’s going to be interesting to see who falls off a lot and who don’t and who can maintain that kind of a pace.
“I think it’s possible for somebody to be able to maintain a really fast pace. It’s going to be very physical just driving that hard and that fast. It’s going to be very physical on your body. It’s different. It’s pretty neat though.”
Neat wasn't the word McDowell used to describe Darlington.
“It’s obviously a pretty intimidating place," he said.
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