Crew Chief Corner: Jimmy Fennig

At most racetracks, drivers and crew chiefs worry about going. This weekend at Martinsville Speedway, they'll still be worrying about going, but they'll also have to worry about not going.

Because Martinsville Speedway has flat corners, the heavy Winston Cup stock cars don't have anything to slow them down going into the turns other than brakes. And when you haul into a flat corner 1,000 times at 130 mph, brakes get abused.

	Credit: Autostock

Technology has gotten better the last few years, but having good brakes is still a key to winning this weekend at Martinsville. So says Jimmy Fennig, the crew chief for the winning driver, Kurt Busch, last year at the paperclip-shaped track.

Fennig spoke with NASCAR.com's Lee Montgomery about the keys to getting around Martinsville.

Q: One of the first things people talk about when they talk about Martinsville is brakes. Is that the most important part of winning there?

Fennig: Yes, you've got to have good brakes there, good brakes to make it all the way to the end of 500 laps. Brakes are so important. That's about the biggest thing there, is brakes.

Q: Is it as important as, say, five years ago? Has the technology changed to where they don't wear out as much?

Fennig: Well, the brakes don't wear out as much, but if you want to run them hard for 500 laps, you still got to have brakes on the car. Technology's gotten better. Years ago, you used to run out like 400-450 laps. You'd run out of brakes. You just had to ride around. Now they're better, but you can still abuse them.

Q: How has the technology changed? What's better about them?

Fennig: There's better-designed calipers, there's better-designed rotors for coolant, more fins, different types of metals. Just new technology.

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Q: Is Kurt a guy who is naturally easy or hard on the brakes? Do you have to remind your driver to go easy on them?

Fennig: No, Kurt's actually pretty easy on brakes. We don't have to worry that much about them.

Q: Another important part is gear ratio selection. Do you change a lot of ratios there?

Fennig: No, we know what gear we're going to race with right now and what gear we're going to go qualify with. Basically, every track is the same. We know what we're going to race with. The engine department gives us an RPM range that we need to be running in, and that's what we do.

Q: Is that something that can be done on computer? Or is testing the only way?

Fennig: Basically, we just do it testing. Then, when they've got an RPM range on the engine dyno, we can figure exactly how much RPM more with what gear we've got to turn with a calculator.

Q: A driver spends a lot of time "rolling through the corner" -- off the gas, off the brakes. That may seem to be meaningless, but is it very important to get a car handling good while it does that?

Fennig: Yes, you've still got to be to turn in the middle of the corners.

VIDEO CLIPS Busch holds off Johnny Benson to win last year's race Play video  •  Busch's Driver Page  •  Fennig's Crew Chief Page  •  Roush Racing's Team Page

Q: And how do you do that? Just a balance issue?

Fennig: Just a balance issue. You've got to keep working with your springs and shocks.

Q: Do you like the tracks where there's little aero influence, and it's all shocks, springs, bars, etc.?

Fennig: "No, I like every racetrack. None of them really bother me.

Q: Have you guys worked on an escape hatch yet?

Fennig: Not yet.

Q: How come? Is that coming?

Fennig: Kurt's pretty small. Right now, we haven't done that.

Q: Is that something you'll do eventually?

Fennig: We might do that in the future.