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Hitting a new low After disappointment at Dover, it's on to Virginia again
The race at Dover was almost the same as the first race at Dover. For half the race, the Mobil 1 Taurus was the best thing out there. For the second half of the race, we weren’t out there. It’s been that kind of season. It seems like every time we get really high, something happens that sends us diving to a low. And as soon as we hit a low, we start heading towards another high. We won the pole at Dover, just smoked ‘em. I guess that should have been our first sign of trouble, huh? The race was a good one for us, as long as we were out there. I don’t think anyone could have touched us. But we lost the engine and ended the day early. Stuff like that happens, I guess. I just wish we could have run all day. I really feel we would have won the race. That would have been a pretty great feeling not just for me but for all of the guys on this team. Now it’s on to Martinsville. We’re not going to have long to hang our heads. We have to pick ourselves up and get going. Martinsville is just over half a mile in length, is flat and can be a lot of fun. Getting through the corners and having enough car left to finish the race -- those are the keys to Martinsville. How many times have you seen Victory Lane pictures from there and the car is all torn up or whatever? You just need enough car to finish the race. Any more than that and you didn’t get all of out it that you probably should have. Everything you hear about, brakes and handling and all of that, everything is setting you up for getting through the corners. Everything you do is so you can turn the car good and so you can get on the gas quicker than anybody else. Do that, and keep the car under you, and you’re going to have a pretty nice day at Martinsville. Not being able to do that means you’re having a long and frustrating day at Martinsville. Being low is everything. It’s next to impossible to pass on the outside at Martinsville, unless you’re passing somebody who is really having trouble. Even if the car in front of you is just a little bit slower than you, you can spend 10 laps working like heck to get around him. Unless you can get under him, it’s going to be a lot of work to pass the one car, even a slower car. So you try to set somebody up for a pass so you can go to the inside. Do that, and you can zip past even a car a little bit faster than yours. Of course, that goes for everybody, so if you are the car in front, you are trying to protect that inside line like crazy. Everything you do, every bit of track position you have, all comes down to that inside line. If you can hold onto that, you can have a pretty good run, even if you’re not having the best day. That doesn’t mean you can turn junk into a win but you can win with a car that’s a little off. The way that track changes throughout the race, usually, your car is most likely going to be a little bit off at some point. That’s a lot of where people’s problems with brakes come from. Watch them shoot down the frontstretch and backstretch trying to pass. A guy will pull down to the inside and they kind of drag race into the corner. Both of them slam on the brakes and it’s like a game of chicken - the first one to hit the brakes loses. Wait too long and they both lose. But you run a guy like that - or get run by a guy like that - for long enough and, next thing you know, your brakes are glowing and it’s getting a little bit harder and a little bit harder to slow the car down every lap. You race hard at Martinsville but you’d better race smart too. You have to take care of your car. That guy who is racing you into the turns, maybe you just let him go if you’re just 100 laps into the race and figure you’ll get him back. If you have 50 laps to go, then you just run hard and do everything you can to keep him behind you. That inside line is what brings out the tempers in people too. It can get pretty frustrating trying to pass somebody when they keep holding that line, especially if it’s a lapped car or something. That’s when you’ll see somebody slide a bumper under somebody sometimes, or that sort of thing. It’s usually just a result of frustration - or a payback from your earlier frustration. Keep some car under you, hold onto the brakes and keep that bottom line, and you’ll have a pretty good day at Martinsville. Fail in any of those areas, and it’s going to be pretty tough on you. We think it’s going to be another pretty good day for this Mobil 1 bunch at Martinsville. Jeremy Mayfield is on his third season driving the Mobil 1 Taurus for Penske-Kranekuss. His dairy appears every Monday on CNNSI.com.
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