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Mayfield Diary Qualifying is crucial at Lowe's Motor Speedway
Posted: Wednesday May 24, 2000 12:23 PM
We've sure had our share of tragedy lately. First of all, everyone on the Mobil 1 team - myself, Michael Kranefuss, Roger Penske, all the guys on the team - our hearts really go out to the fans who were injured on the walkover bridge Saturday night. It's terrible that a night that should have been a lot of fun ended that way for them. We're thankful the injuries weren't worse than they were, and we're all praying for a speedy recovery for those who were hurt. Our fans are like family to us, and something happening like that to them hurts all of us. It's going to be kind of tough to go back to Charlotte this week for the Coca-Cola 600. I think we're all thinking the same thing, and hoping those fans are ready to at least watch the race on television Sunday night. It was a freak thing, and as loyal as our fans are, I have a feeling NASCAR racing is still their favorite sport. If you're going to have a good finish or win the race Sunday night, it all starts Wednesday afternoon. A lot of people look at the schedule at Charlotte and think, "Man, they are there forever," and they might think that Happy Hour practice on Saturday is the be-all and end-all. The truth of the matter is that, next to Sunday night, Wednesday is the most important day of the whole race week. Wednesday sets the tone for everything. A good Wednesday doesn't always guarantee a good Sunday, but a bad Wednesday can pretty much lead to a bad Sunday. Wednesday night is going to be the best chance to get up front in a hurry. You spend all day Wednesday trying to get your car to the point where you can start near the front. Track position is so crucial at Charlotte. Well, good track position starts Wednesday night in pole qualifying. You spend all day Wednesday trying to get your car to the point where you can start at the front or near the front. Every track is a "track position" track, but Charlotte is more of one that just about any superspeedway. It's hard to stay up front at Charlotte but it's hard to get up front too. Still, I'd rather be working on staying up front than working on getting up front anytime, especially at Charlotte. Qualifying well at Charlotte gives you a lot of advantages. First of all, you start on the inside of the front row if you win the pole. You get a better pit spot because you are one of the first to pick a pit. And you start with a lot of cars behind you which, believe me, a much better than starting with a bunch of cars in front of you. Every team out there, whether they think they can win the pole or not, is concentrating on qualifying well. They might have two rounds of qualifying scheduled at Charlotte but there is only one round that counts. We (qualify) Wednesday night at 8 o'clock and Thursday night at 6 o'clock. That's a whole lot better than it used to be when they had second round qualifying at 1 in the afternoon but it's still going to be different. It pretty much boils down to this - you want to qualify as well as you can. If you can't get the pole, then you want to be on the outside; if you can't get the outside, then you want to start third. The main thing you want to avoid is being outside of the top 25. Qualify 25th or better, then you don't have anything to worry about but the race. The speeds will be close. They always are. Blinking an eye at the wrong time can mean the difference in the pole and 15th. But once we're done Wednesday night, I'd say we're done as far as setting the lineup is concerned. The race itself is nothing but adjustments. You run as hard as you can for awhile, and sit there and decide how to make the car better. Even if you feel like you're perfect, you're going to end up changing before the night is over. If your car doesn't change, the track will. The guys and I will spend a lot of time talking back and forth on the radio before 600 miles is through. The track changes from the start of the race, when the track temperatures are one thing, and then keeps changing more and more as the sun goes down and the temperatures drop. It gets a little more consistent then. You just want to start from a good base on your setup, have an idea of what the track is going to do, and then do everything you can do to keep up with the race track. We're pretty excited about what we can do. We tested pretty well here and we think we have got a great Charlotte car. We feel like we have a real shot at winning the race. I know we're going to do everything we can to do just that. This Mobil 1 Taurus team has come through a lot this season, and we feel we can do some pretty good things again at Charlotte this week. Jeremy Mayfield is in his third season driving the Penske-Kranefess Mobil 1 Taurus on the Winston Cup circuit. His column appears weekly on CNNSI.com.
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