Inside the Garage: Grubb

Crew chief Darian Grubb took a calculated gamble on fuel economy during May's Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway and it paid off with Casey Mears' first Nextel Cup victory. Now the series heads back to Charlotte, and Grubb discusses what it will take to once again run up front.

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Mears and Grubb

• Superstore: Casey Mears

Q: What is the biggest difference between the fall race at Lowe's Motor Speedway and the Coca-Cola 600 in the spring?

Grubb: It's a completely different animal going back this time because all of the racing is at night. When we actually start, it'll be dusk already. You don't have to do the daytime running and then switch over to nighttime setup. You won't have to have as much adjustability in there, but you still have to be able to adjust on it, because it's such a long race. There are a lot of dynamics in play out there, with pit strategy, fuel mileage, track position and things like that, are very critical.

Q: How much has the tire situation abated as the track has begun to age?

Grubb: I'm curious to see that. We're going back to a different left side [tire] here than we did last year. I'm curious to see how it's changed. The track is definitely getting older. It's losing some of that new, fresh asphalt grip so I think the racing will probably be even better this time around. I'm not sure about the tire life. We'll probably be able to judge that a little better when we get there.

Q: What's the most critical thing about setting up a car at Lowe's?

Grubb: Just overall balance and driver comfort for a long run. The handling changes quite a bit from the beginning to the end of a run as the fuel burns off and things like that. With the tire wear we were seeing, there's a strategy to play out whether you want to change tires or not. Now we're going to have practice during the daytime and race and qualify both at night, so it'll be an interesting dynamic to see who figures out the setup between day and night.

Q: Can you take the notes from May as a baseline?

Grubb: You can, especially the way we ended the race there at night, the way the speeds pick up as the sun goes down. That's what we have to bias our setups toward, the way we plan on finishing the race out. We're using a lot of our notes from last time. We're also going to try a lot of the things we've learned since, going to all these other tracks. We've done some Kentucky testing and some other things, too. We've got a lot of things to roll into the mix, but we're looking forward to it.

Q: Strategy played a big factor in the May race. That must make it more fun for the crew chief in determining the outcome.

Grubb: We were in the top five the whole second half of the race, so that gave us the opportunity. We weren't really trying to push that strategy. It was more a gambling move because of where we were in points, we could go and make that gamble to win. And even if we didn't, we would still be the first car a lap down if we ran out of fuel or something. So we still had a top-17, top-18 finish, wherever that was at that point. So it was more of a gamble in overall strategy, but it was definitely something that played out in our favor.