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Last one Our final chance to go to victory lane comes this weekend
Posted: Wednesday January 19, 2000 02:11 PM
Well, this is it. The season comes to a close this week. A long year is over. We have one last chance to win a race this year, and Atlanta is it. I think everybody on the team is looking at it that way. For the most part, Atlanta's been a really good track for us, especially since they redesigned it a couple of years ago. Since they reconfigured the place, I have really liked it. I liked it before too, but it's really gotten fast and gotten pretty race-friendly with the new design. Plus, I've run pretty well with the new configuration and that always makes a place a whole lot more fun to run. It's fast, no doubt about that. It's the fastest track we run on without a restrictor plate and you can tell it too. From the driver's seat, Atlanta can feel faster than Daytona or Talladega. Of course, Daytona and Talladega are around 2.5 miles and Atlanta is just mile-and-a-half, so those kinds of speeds are going to seem faster. Then again, it wasn't that long ago that we were qualifying faster at Atlanta than we were at Daytona. The speed sensation is incredible at Atlanta. You really show down the straightaways there, and you almost slam into the corners. Compare that to Daytona. Of course, Daytona is longer and you have the restrictor plates there but you're turning a lap every 48 seconds at Daytona and turning a lap every 28 seconds at Atlanta. It's going to seem a whole lot faster, whether you're sitting in the car or sitting in the grandstands. Because of that, things happen in a hurry. Atlanta is not the kind of track where you let your guard down. If you do, it won't be down for long. You let your guard down at Atlanta and, next thing you know, they crew is calling on the radio asking if you're all right.
Things happen fast, so it's easy to have multi-car accidents. You have to keep an eye way ahead of you. Is that guy 10 or 12 cars up there running a little over his head? Did he bobble a little bit? Does he look like he's having trouble. You'd better be ready if you see that because if he doesn't hug the concrete (wall) after he hits it, he's going to be in the middle of the race track about the time you go by. And there are going to be a lot of cars involved too. The corners are pretty tricky too. The banking puts them right in the middle area of not too steep but not too flat either, and that can really affect your race car. Two cars going through the corners at Atlanta side-by-side, door handle-to-door handle are going to have their hands full. Racing close that way usually takes the air off the right side of the rear spoiler of the inside car, and that tugs that rear end of around towards the outside wall. If you know that and expect it and can handle it, it can help you dust the guy you're trying to pass. If you don't know that or don't expect it or can't handle it, you're going to probably be sitting in the ambulance with that guy in a minute or two. Look at some of the biggest wrecks they've had at Atlanta over the years, the new configuration and the old, and you'll see a whole bunch of them have come from two guys taking it door handle-to-door handle through the turns and ending up with a mess like that. Atlanta's fun, though. It's a fun track to run. You have to have a really stout motor and a really good handling car. If you're not set up right, you'll have problems quick. It's easy to fall way back if things aren't right too. We found that out in March here. Still, if you're set up pretty well, like we were both races last year, then it can be a really good day for you. This is the last shot for the Mobil 1 team for victory lane this year, and we plan on making the most of it. We're pretty pumped up about our chances. Jeremy Mayfield drives the No. 12 Ford Taurus for Penske-Kranefuss Racing on the Winston Cup circuit. His column appears every Wednesday on CNNSI.com. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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