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No margin for error Precision is the key to running well at Dover
We were right on the verge of doing something great at Charlotte and the fact we didn't make it to where we wanted to go means Dover is even more important to us. For one thing, Dover is simply the next race. For another, Dover has been a really good track for this Mobil 1 team the past few years. We want to take advantage of that. Charlotte looked like it was going to be a great race for us. We started way back (34th) but we were good from the start. We moved up pretty quick and we were a top 10 car all night. We lost two laps around the 300th lap (of 400) when a wheel came loose after we got knocked nearly sideways in the third turn, but made that up at the end. And we fought off Bobby Labonte at the very end for fifth place. But just when I thought we had it nailed down, the bottom dropped. Coming out of the second turn of the last lap -- one mile from the checkered flag -- I ran out of gas. We dropped from fifth to 10th on the last lap. We feel we can make up for that this week at Dover. It has been a good track for us. We won a pole there last year and started fifth one race last year too. We led both races, and are taking a car up there that is capable of doing some pretty great things. Dover can fool you. Experience usually wins out at Dover because of that. If you just walked in the place and looked around, you'd think you might have a pretty good idea of how to get around it -- and you'd probably be wrong. In some ways it's a little like a road course. In other ways it's like one mean oval. That "Monster Mile" name they put on the place, hey, run about 100 laps there and you'll know where it came from. You don't just go hard and slam it left. You go uphill and downhill too. That throws in an entirely different twist to the whole deal. Knowing how the track is going to react and what kind of changes you can expect mean a lot to a driver and a team, which is one of the main reasons experience is so important there. The track is one mean deal, and you have to have an idea on how to handle things if you are going to be successful there. Experience doesn't give you a sure-shot on running up front, but it can sure carry you a long way. Handling is just about everything at Dover. Don't misunderstand me. You still have to have a really strong engine but you have to have a car that really handles well. Those steep banks, especially as high as they are, put a premium on how your car handles. It seems like you're turning left for most of that track, so you have to be able to stay as low as you can. You have to have a motor that's going to get you down the straights and that's going to pull off those corners but if your car isn't handling well, you're a dead duck. A car handling pretty good at Dover can mean you're going to have a pretty good day, assuming you get through any problems that happen. Everything happens pretty quickly, especially in the corners, and you run some really fast laps time-wise, like at a short track. Things happen really fast at Dover, and you have to be ready for that. A guy getting into trouble in the middle of the second turn while you're in the middle of the first is going to be a problem. The way the track is banked, you know anybody spinning or hitting the wall is going to come down the banks -- what you have to figure out is how fast they're going to come down and when they're going to start. You'd better figure it right, too, because if you're off just a hair, you're in the middle of something. You'd better hope the guy behind you and beside you figures it right, too, because if he is off just a hair, you're right in the middle of something. Fuel mileage can be a big, big deal at Dover, usually a bigger deal than you might expect at a shorter track. This race last year, we were looking at at least a sixth-place finish and maybe even a top five, but we had to drop in for fuel with less than two laps to go in the race, and we dropped back to ninth. There were a lot of people on fuel mileage runs at the end of that race. So you have to watch that on top of everything else. I have no idea why but Dover has been a pretty good track for me. In some ways it's suited for my driving style. I think a lot of it just boils down to the fact that I like racing there. I've usually been able to get around it pretty well, and that's worked in my favor. You always like the tracks where you run well and you always run well at the tracks you like. I'm not exactly sure which end that starts at, though. A qualifying lap there is awfully quick. Twenty-three seconds and you're done with it. You have to be right on the money. If you're off a little bit on the car, it's going to cost you a ton on the track. Miss your mark just a hair on the track, and it's going to cost you a bunch. The difference between the pole and the outside pole is next to nothing. The problem is, the difference between the pole and 30th isn't very much either. You can't be off anywhere for Dover qualifying. It's as much a team effort to qualify there as it is anywhere, maybe more there than anywhere. As far as the race itself is concerned, you spend the day adjusting. That's the case at a lot of tracks but it seems to be the case at Dover more than most other places. The teams that adjust the best are usually the ones you find in victory lane when everything is over -- or at least at the gas pumps (NASCAR sends the first five finishers in each race to be filled with gasoline and then weighed after the race has ended). The driver has to be able to adjust all around the track. The preferred line is usually pretty low in the corners but that's where the slower cars go too, so you have to work your way around that, and work your way around without losing your rhythm. The crew has to adjust too, and be ready when the track changes or when the car changes. If you're off just a little bit at Dover, you're off a lot. It doesn't take much. Then again, if your car is really right, you can do a lot of damage to the rest of the field. We're pretty anxious to get this Mobil 1 Taurus to Dover. Dover has been pretty good to us over the past couple of years, and that's something we think we can keep going. Jeremy Mayfield is in his fourth year driving the Penske Racing / Mobil 1 No. 12 Ford. His diary will appear weekly on CNNSI.com in 2001.
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