Tech Q&A: Jim Long

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Timing can be everything in NASCAR Winston Cup racing and for the veteran duo of driver Terry Labonte and crew chief Jim Long, their season's best finish last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway could not have been better timed.

	Jim Long

That fifth place was Labonte's best finish on an oval track in more than two years and it leaves them anticipating Sunday's Virginia 500 at Martinsville Speedway.

In 49 career starts on the paperclip-shaped .526-mile track, Labonte has 12 top-five finishes and 26 top-10s. In the 2002 Virginia 500 Labonte started fourth and finished sixth behind his brother, race winner Bobby Labonte.

Long took a break from driving back from a Hendrick Motorsports test session to talk with NASCAR.com's Dave Rodman about pit road safety, dealing with Martinsville's asphalt to concrete transitions in the corners and managing brakes, tires and tempers on a short track.

How valuable is it to be able to test at a racetrack that is similar to another, whether it's testing at Caraway for Martinsville, or at Kentucky for Las Vegas?

You can go to similar racetracks but they're obviously not the same as the track you're going to race at. What it allows you to do is try different things with the suspension and spring combinations and things like that. It enables you to pick up tendencies with your race car -- what-if scenarios -- even though you never get 100 percent like the track you're going to run on.

Still, you can learn a lot of things -- like what to do if you're tight in or loose in or tight in the center (of the corners). Today at Caraway there wasn't a lot we could do because water was leaking on the racetrack, but it allowed us to bed our brakes in, in case the weather is bad Friday.

ALSO  •  Terry Labonte's Driver Page  •  Jim Long's Crew Chief Page

Kentucky's a good place to go for tracks like Vegas, Chicago or Kansas City -- similar banked racetracks that are the same, speed-wise. Caraway is kinda not really Martinsville or Richmond -- there's really not a good place to go for either one of 'em. But Caraway and Greenville and Lakeland are pretty popular because we can work on getting the car to turn and work on getting forward bite, because that's what you fight at Martinsville.

How much does the corner transition from asphalt to concrete at Martinsville affect your set-ups?

Really what ends up happening is there's some bumps getting into Turn 1 and into Turn 3. They kind of upset the car a little bit because you're at maximum braking and you run across those bumps and it upsets the chassis. There's really not a lot you can do about that except to work on your shocks.

But when you accelerate out of the corners, out of (Turns) 4 and 2, you had really good bite and you make that transition and all of a sudden the forward bites goes away. You really have to work on your shocks to maintain forward bite, along with your spring combination in the rear. At the same time, you have to keep your car turning in the center of the corner, so it's a fine-line balancing act.

When you're at short tracks in general and Martinsville in particular -- where you're right on top of the action -- do you ever get the feeling you're watching gladiators battling?

Jim Long: (laughing) At Martinsville, with all the frustration people build up during the year, it seems like people just let it all out. Since they made that one pit road, which is really narrow, it's really changed the characteristics of that race -- and it makes it really frustrating.

If you're at mid-pack or in the back, you're doing everything you can -- two tires, no tires, this-and-that -- to get up front so you don't have to fight the aggravation back there. It's so hard to pass and it's a lot of follow-the-leader type stuff. It's such a tight little racetrack that when you line up on a restart and you're nose-to-tail, dang it you cover three-quarters of the track and the leaders are right behind you.

It's kind of frustrating, and trying to do good pit stops and pick up positions on pit road is extremely hard. Since they grooved the racetrack it seems to have opened up another lane -- maybe two lanes -- that never existed. It's made racing a little bit better, even though it's a pretty frustrating place.

What's your take on pit road safety at Martinsville, and do you do anything with your guys to promote safety?

We concentrate on having good pit stops every week. We're always aware of who's pitting behind us and who's pitting in front of us and where they're at on the racetrack at any given time. I make my guys well aware of where everyone is. The guys that go along the right side of the car on a pit stop are pretty sharp. They watch out and the drivers watch out for them. It's crowded -- and there's pretty much not much you can do except hold your breath.

How does Terry's temperament fit with racing on a short track? Do you have to serve more as a cheerleader or a calming influence?

I tend to talk a lot on the radio during a race. I try to keep Terry pumped up and my guys pumped up. I let Terry know how he stacks up compared to the leader, how he stacks up against people he's trying to run down or that are trying to catch him. I tend to talk a lot. I never really talk when he's doing some active racing, so that means it's kinda hard to talk a lot at Martinsville or Bristol because they're always racing. It's a little bit different but one of these days I think he's gonna tell me to shut up!

Terry is pretty calm on the radio. He's got a good temperament. Every driver out there has his moments, especially with racing the way it is now -- it is so close. Everybody's running good -- you could be 30th and only be two tenths off the guy that's got the pole. Terry is pretty calm. He gets frustrated every now and then but he's a pretty calm guy, all in all.

Do you enjoy racing on short tracks more and do you feel like you can have more of an effect on the outcome as a crew chief, whether it's with chassis calls, pit strategy or whatever?

Pit strategy is very important no matter where we're at. It's no different whether you're at Martinsville or Talladega. You've always got to be thinking of what that next move is you need to make to get your driver in position or to keep him where he's at. There's a lot more we can do to the car (and) I tend to like short tracks more. My past history has been very good at short tracks and Terry seems to run real well on short tracks.

Bristol and Richmond he seems to run well at so it's a good fit. Once the race starts at Martinsville if you are not in the right position at the right time -- say you're 25th or 30th and you're on a long green flag run and your car is still not right. If you haven't made the right calls as far as the chassis, or if you haven't made enough stops to fix your car if it's not right, it's a long time between pit stops and it's pretty frustrating.

Would you rather have your driver save his brakes and tires -- or is there no way you can run that way and stay competitive at Martinsville?

If you are out front and you are spaced far enough apart from cars you can run your own race. You can run your own line, you can brake where you want to and nobody's pressing you. You can get back on the gas when you want to and that produces fast lap times and takes care of your equipment.

Now, when you're nose to tail you have to watch it. I look at the front rotors and if they start glowing I tell him to back off a little bit and let them cool down. The brakes nowadays are so good you can just about run them wide open all day. You may have to save 'em five or 10 percent of the time but it's a lot different than it was five years ago.

At Martinsville you opt for track position over tires every time and it's almost that way every week, to tell you the truth.