Tech Q&A: Mike Beam

DARLINGTON, S.C. -- Venerable Darlington Raceway is the first recollection of stock car racing that veteran NASCAR Winston Cup mechanic Mike Beam has.

More than 35 years later Beam, the crew chief for driver Jeff Green's No. 30 Richard Childress Racing AOL Chevrolet, has his share of success at the track "Too Tough To Tame."

	Mike Beam

While preparing for the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Beam took time to sit down with NASCAR.com's Dave Rodman and talk about the mystique of Darlington, and its technical challenges looking ahead to the Carolina Dodge Dealers 400.

With a lot of tracks you have a "love-hate" relationship. Where does Darlington rate on that scale for you?

It's probably my favorite racetrack, just from the standpoint of the history that's there. I just like the place. One of the first races I ever remember listening to on the radio, I guess, was when Richard (Petty) won in 1967 or something like that. I used to read a lot about the place and I remember going to the beach (Myrtle Beach) with my parents and going by and seeing it. It was pretty cool for me. It's definitely a challenge, but it's a lot of fun.

Does the current generation of race cars present any particular challenges in terms of setup?

It's still the same racetrack, car-wise. The biggest challenge for everyone, especially us older guys, is when they shifted everything to the backstretch -- or what used to be the backstretch. It's still the backstretch to me, even though they've shifted everything around -- the garage area and start/finish line is over there.

When you're talking to your driver and you say, "So you're tight down in (Turns) 1 and 2?" They say, "Yeah," but really it's (Turns) 3 and 4. You've got to turn yourself around here and say, "Yeah, now I've got it."

You'd be surprised, but we still run the same rear springs at Darlington as we did back in 1990. I remember racing with Bill (Elliott) here and sitting on the pole and winning the Southern 500 with pretty much the same springs we run to this day. So setup wise it really hasn't changed that much.

In terms of the race car that you use at Darlington, do you use one that is unique for Darlington or not?

ALSO  •  Beam's Crew Chief Page  •  Green's Driver Page  •  Beam goes to RCR as Green's crew chief

It's basically what we call an intermediate car but it's one that you know you'll have to put a right side on when you come back. It's a car in which you put extra door bars in the right side because you know you're going to bounce off the wall. A good short-track car runs very well there. It's a car that you put a lot of downforce in -- similar to something you might take to Martinsville or Richmond.

Is testing critical at Darlington, or is it less critical than a lot of places because of the number of races you've run there?

Budget-wise it's tough to test at Darlington, even though it's close to home, because it eats the tires up so much. You've got to use so many tires. You can't make a change on the car and have the driver tell you it's any different unless you put tires and tires and tires on it. That's why you don't see a lot of people test for the spring race. You'll see a lot more people testing for the Southern 500 because they've run more races and they've got tires left over.

I like testing there just because I like going there, to the area. I like going to eat at the Raceway Grill, going to the museum and whatnot. The people are just wonderful here and it's just a neat place for someone like me. Some of these younger guys I don't think really understand the aspect of what they're getting to enjoy, here, but maybe someday they will.

A large percentage of Darlington race winners have started near the front. With qualifying being so critical, do you put extra emphasis on it?

Yeah, we definitely do because you can get behind pretty quick at Darlington, because it's so narrow and everybody's got to be on their best behavior. You've got to wait for cautions and beat people off pit road. If you start in the back, it takes you quite a while to get back up through there.

As crazy as the weather has been every weekend this season, and as strange as the weather can be at Darlington, how nerve-wracking is that for you?

I watch the weather channel about 80 percent of the time -- I drive my wife and kids crazy with it. At Darlington, you've got to read the racetrack, especially in practice. If you know it's going to be a sunny day and you're practicing at 11 in the morning, the track temperature is gonna go up farther and farther and farther and you have to keep adjusting.

From my standpoint with the weather, I've been doing it for so long you kind of just take the good with the bad. You hope you don't get struck by lightning and you just go on.

Late in the race at Darlington, do you go for tires or track position?

VIDEO CLIPS Jeff Green wins the pole for the Daytona 500. Play video

It's a deal where you kind of have to play it by ear. I remember in 1994, that Southern 500, we were hot. The water temperature was hot and the oil was hot but we had to wait until there were not that many cars on the lead lap before we could stop to work on the car.

We were fortunate to win the race, but you have to have tires, because they'll drive right by you if you don't. In certain situations you might gamble, but it's not much of a gamble at Darlington because you're talking a second or two seconds and it doesn't take long to make that up.

What's your take on this whole aero decrease and tire-softening movement that is going on?

I know they're working on the big greenhouse and the softer tire and things like that, but I don't know if they can accomplish what they need to. With the softer tire you're still going to run faster through the center of the corner and there you're going to tear tires up.

They did some testing that way and when they went to Kansas and were so fast through the center of the corner, they said, "Wow, maybe this isn't the way to go?" Then they went to Charlotte with the big greenhouse and the car up front and the car in the back were pretty good but when you put a car in the middle it was pretty ugly.

Goodyear does a pretty good job with what they've got to work with. For myself, I'd like to leave it pretty much alone. Everyone's done all this wind-tunnel testing and they've got a common template now and everybody's adapted to the tire. The guys that are really good are doing well with it.

Every time they have any kind of rule change it just costs the owners a lot of money, and right now we're just spending way too much on things we shouldn't be.

If they do that you'll have to go to Kentucky more to test and to Gateway to test. I think if everybody was real honest about it they'd say, "Let's just stick with our guns and use the money to hire more people and give people more time off than a half-day a week." Maybe my career will be over before they do anything like that (laughing).