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Hurry up and wait Canceled qualifying makes crews shift gears
By Lee Geeker, CNNSI.com DARLINGTON, S.C. -- It was supposed to be an early morning for Winston Cup teams, with the first cars set to roll onto the track for practice at 7:45 a.m. Saturday. Instead, Mother Nature took over, shrouding Darlington in a thick blanket of fog. Walking through the pits about 9 a.m., no one was ready to go anywhere. Crews were frantically working on a myriad of adjustments should they eventually get on the track. With NASCAR trying its shortened schedule for the Winston Cup teams this weekend, none of the 46 cars in the garage had yet gotten the opportunity to drive on the "Track Too Tough to Tame." Qualifying was set go off at 10:30, but shortly after 10, the announcement came that it was cancelled to allow the teams plenty of practice time. With that announcement, one would think that this would have lessened the load even more on the teams. But what it meant was that the rest of the day Saturday was destined to be an incredibly busy one until the 7 p.m. garage closing time, and even after.
Following the change in schedule, teams quickly had to shift gears, scrapping qualifying setups, changing engines, and getting set for race conditions. James Ince, crew chief for Johnny Benson’s No. 10 Valvoline Pontiac, looked on the bright side of things. "For us, it actually saved us money [Saturday] because we kept laps off the qualifying engine.” Stacy Compton wasn’t too worried either. “We came here in a qualifying frame of mind [Saturday], but everybody is in the same boat,” said Compton, who drives the No. 92 Dodge for Melling Racing. “We’ll work on our race stuff and try to get ready for Sunday.” At 10:30, as the first cars finally made their way onto the track, the sun finally broke through the clouds. For anyone that had not been around during the morning, it must have been a great mystery as to why the cars out on the track were practicing, not qualifying. Of course, there weren’t even that many cars running at 10:30. Most were still in the garages, their crews not yet ready to let their prize possessions out onto the track, where it was inevitable that some would pick up the notorious "Darlington stripe" after a brush with the wall.
Compton didn’t seem concerned that his crew would have any problems getting his car out quickly. “It usually takes about 45 minutes to an hour and a half to change the qualifying package over to the race setup. [Saturday], they probably did it in 30 minutes. “They did everything in the shop, so all we’ve got to do is swap some things around and double-check, but you’re always prepared for this.” Cars continued to file in and out of the garages during the hour and a half session, with drivers finding what worked and what didn't, then coming in to have the crew make the necessary adjustments. Following that mad hour and a half scramble, teams had the time during the Busch race to make whatever other adjustments they wanted before heading out for one final practice session -- their last chance to see what the car would do on the track before heading out for Sunday’s big show.
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