Drivers look for balance on slick Las Vegas racetrack

LAS VEGAS -- There's the flame-shooting volcano at the Mirage, the dancing waters at the Bellagio, and the trapeze artists at Circus Circus. But on Friday, the best show in Las Vegas was watching NASCAR drivers try to keep theirs cars pointed straight on the tricky new surface at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

There was Ward Burton, slamming hard into the outside wall in Busch practice. There was Paul Menard, losing control off Turn 4 in Nextel Cup qualifying and sliding past the start-finish line in the infield grass. There was J.J. Yeley, bouncing up the track and into the wall in the first few hundred feet of his first practice lap.

"There's more wrecks and more stuff happening now that they've made the tire harder," said David Stremme, who kept his No. 40 car straight enough to qualify second for Sunday's UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400. "It's hard to get a feel. When the car starts to break loose, you're done."

And plenty of cars broke loose Friday, as drivers in each of NASCAR's top two series worked to adapt to a surface that's been repaved and had its banking increased from 11 to 20 degrees since last season. A bevy of crashes during Nextel Cup testing last month led NASCAR to mandate a smaller fuel cell and a harder left-side tire, in an attempt to shorten runs and increase tire wear in the race.

But Friday proved that many drivers are still struggling to find the balance between grip and speed. Ken Schrader, Michael Waltrip, and David Gilliland all wrecked in qualifying, while Bobby Labonte hit the wall after blowing a right-side tire, and Yeley was forced to a backup car after a practice crash. Even slight mistakes could be costly -- A.J. Allmendinger just kissed the wall in Turn 1, and wound up being the last driver knocked out of the race.

"The racetrack is going to be a challenge," Mark Martin said. "The greatest thing that we can hope for is that these brutal summers out here in Las Vegas will weather this asphalt really quickly, and take some of the edge off it. It's a real challenge for Goodyear and the teams to handle the speeds it's producing and the loads it's putting on the tires. It's going to make things difficult for the teams this weekend."

Problem areas abounded. Drivers don't like the curved entrance to pit road, which they'll use more frequently because of the smaller fuel cells. Waltrip, Menard and Gilliland all lost control coming out of Turn 4. And then there's bumpy Turn 1, where Yeley's car broke loose as he drove onto the track to open practice.

"You get into Turn 1 a little bit low, and you can miss the bumps," he said. "But the transition into the banking really turns the car and makes a lot of guys loose. You miss that area by like two feet, the right side gets into the bumps, and the car shoots up the racetrack."

The harder left-side tire has helped to reduce speeds at Las Vegas, from the top lap of 188.772 mph turned by Elliott Sadler in testing to the pole run of 184.856 posted by Kasey Kahne on Friday. But many drivers aren't happy with changes that essentially negated their two days of testing.

"It's been a real challenge," Jeff Gordon said. "They slowed us down over a second from when we were here testing. It's been one of those things where everybody's real frustrated with trying to get the grip and trying to get some comfort back in the car."

The problem isn't grip -- the freshly-paved track has plenty of it -- but rather finding it with a harder tire.

"It's really slick. The track has a tremendous amount of grip, but you can't take advantage of it, because the tires have to be built the way they are so they'll live. That's the problem with new racetracks. You build a new racetrack with this much banking, and you can't build a tire that can fit it. So you've got to come with a tire that can live, which means it's a challenge to get the thing to drive well," Jeff Burton said.

"You just don't have overall grip. So the first thing you do is try to get it so it won't spin out. Well, then the front won't turn. If the front won't turn, and you've got too much wheel too it, you'll still spin out. Then you try to take that out of it, and it's too loose. It's just hard to hit a balance, and for drivers it's a huge challenge."