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Sprint Cup
CUP: Under The Hood - Talladega
Hendrick Motorsports drivers Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin have combined for 14 race victories at Talladega...
“Under The Hood Presented by Quaker State” is a series of behind-the-scenes articles about Hendrick Motorsports.
Editor’s Note: “Under The Hood Presented by Quaker State” is a series of behind-the-scenes looks at what Hendrick Motorsports does to remain at the front of the hyper-competitive world of NASCAR Sprint Cup racing. This week, the Hendrick team tackles Talladega Superspeedway, site of Sunday’s Amp Energy Juice 500.
From the shortest track in NASCAR, 0.526-mile Martinsville Speedway, the Sprint Cup Series this week heads to the largest and wildest track in the series, the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway. It’s a place where the threat of a high-speed, multi-car crash is omnipresent for all 188 laps, and it’s a place where Hendrick Motorsports drivers Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin have combined for 14 race victories, tops among any active team in the series.
Talladega, along with Daytona International Speedway, is one of only two tracks where the NASCAR Sprint Cup cars run power-robbing restrictor plates that cut horsepower by about 40 percent, from roughly 800 to 480 horses. The restrictor plates also dramatically hamper throttle response, one of the main reasons drivers try not to ever lift off the throttle going around the track.
Hendrick Motorsports devotes untold dollars and hours towards building its restrictor-plate motors, which are among the very best in the business. And they count on their technology partner Quaker State to make sure those engines can survive 500 miles of 190 mile per hour laps.
But at the end of the day, Talladega is one of the few tracks where strategy might be even more important than technology when it comes to winning and losing. Of course, you need a strong and capable car at Talladega, something the four Hendrick drivers know they have every time they buckle into their Chevrolet Impalas.
Strategy, though, that’s a little trickier. Like a haunted house on Halloween, there is absolutely nowhere on the Talladega racing surface where drivers can be assured they can avoid “The Big One,” the large multi-car wrecks that happen when one car hits another, triggering a domino effect.
“There is no safe place,” says four-time defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion Jimmie Johnson. “We see a lot of teams trying to be conservative and smart and get to the end of the race and go from there and the problem we have now is when everybody decides with 20 (laps) to go, that it's time to race, you have to race. You need the best finish you can get and that's where the crashes are.
“So I think we all feel better if we go 480 miles and then get crashed,” Johnson says. “It really sucks to crash at five miles into the race or something. I think that's what we've done over the years is there's no need to push the envelope now if something weird went on, we could miss that. But at the end you've got to pull (the belts) tight and drive through there and try to get the best finish you can.”
Alan Gustafson, crew chief of the No. 5 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet believes in being prudent until it’s go time in the late stages of the race.
“There's no reason to take unnecessary risks,” says Gustafson. “You can be a maverick or a cowboy or whatever you want to be and beat the doors off of your car all day long, and you may make it. I just don't think that's the smart thing to do. You have to have the car to get there and be on the lead lap. You can't be wrecked in the garage. We don't have anything to lose, but we still want to get the best finish we can get. We want a chance to race for the win. That's our objective. How we get there will change throughout the race. Your strategy has to change as the race changes, and you have to evolve with it.”
Gustafson’s driver, Mark Martin, says he’ll be ready on Sunday.
“It’s madness,” says Martin. “Controlled at times, and sometimes not. I just want to get through it. I want to get a good finish for this race team. We finished fifth here in the spring and that, to me, is like winning at Talladega. We’ve got a good restrictor plate program and fast race cars. So we’ll just try to stay out of trouble and cross the finish line with a clean race car and hopefully a good finish.”
Read more... “Under The Hood Presented by Quaker State”
From the shortest track in NASCAR, 0.526-mile Martinsville Speedway, the Sprint Cup Series this week heads to the largest and wildest track in the series, the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway. It’s a place where the threat of a high-speed, multi-car crash is omnipresent for all 188 laps, and it’s a place where Hendrick Motorsports drivers Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin have combined for 14 race victories, tops among any active team in the series.
Talladega, along with Daytona International Speedway, is one of only two tracks where the NASCAR Sprint Cup cars run power-robbing restrictor plates that cut horsepower by about 40 percent, from roughly 800 to 480 horses. The restrictor plates also dramatically hamper throttle response, one of the main reasons drivers try not to ever lift off the throttle going around the track.
Hendrick Motorsports devotes untold dollars and hours towards building its restrictor-plate motors, which are among the very best in the business. And they count on their technology partner Quaker State to make sure those engines can survive 500 miles of 190 mile per hour laps.
But at the end of the day, Talladega is one of the few tracks where strategy might be even more important than technology when it comes to winning and losing. Of course, you need a strong and capable car at Talladega, something the four Hendrick drivers know they have every time they buckle into their Chevrolet Impalas.
Strategy, though, that’s a little trickier. Like a haunted house on Halloween, there is absolutely nowhere on the Talladega racing surface where drivers can be assured they can avoid “The Big One,” the large multi-car wrecks that happen when one car hits another, triggering a domino effect.
“There is no safe place,” says four-time defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion Jimmie Johnson. “We see a lot of teams trying to be conservative and smart and get to the end of the race and go from there and the problem we have now is when everybody decides with 20 (laps) to go, that it's time to race, you have to race. You need the best finish you can get and that's where the crashes are.
“So I think we all feel better if we go 480 miles and then get crashed,” Johnson says. “It really sucks to crash at five miles into the race or something. I think that's what we've done over the years is there's no need to push the envelope now if something weird went on, we could miss that. But at the end you've got to pull (the belts) tight and drive through there and try to get the best finish you can.”
Alan Gustafson, crew chief of the No. 5 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet believes in being prudent until it’s go time in the late stages of the race.
“There's no reason to take unnecessary risks,” says Gustafson. “You can be a maverick or a cowboy or whatever you want to be and beat the doors off of your car all day long, and you may make it. I just don't think that's the smart thing to do. You have to have the car to get there and be on the lead lap. You can't be wrecked in the garage. We don't have anything to lose, but we still want to get the best finish we can get. We want a chance to race for the win. That's our objective. How we get there will change throughout the race. Your strategy has to change as the race changes, and you have to evolve with it.”
Gustafson’s driver, Mark Martin, says he’ll be ready on Sunday.
“It’s madness,” says Martin. “Controlled at times, and sometimes not. I just want to get through it. I want to get a good finish for this race team. We finished fifth here in the spring and that, to me, is like winning at Talladega. We’ve got a good restrictor plate program and fast race cars. So we’ll just try to stay out of trouble and cross the finish line with a clean race car and hopefully a good finish.”
Read more... “Under The Hood Presented by Quaker State”
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