Some teams upset with COT's brake system setup

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Setups appeared to be critical to brake life and performance and the presence or absence of brake heat-related issues Sunday at Martinsville Speedway.

Not surprisingly, the cars that finished at the front, the Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets of Goody's Cool Orange 500 winner Jimmie Johnson and runner-up Jeff Gordon and the Joe Gibbs Racing Chevy of third-place Denny Hamlin were stopping fine at the end of 500 grueling laps on the half-mile bullring.

Lap-by-Lap

For every move Jeff Gordon made, Jimmie Johnson countered in a thrilling finish at Martinsville. But before that, the first 499 laps had to play out.

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But behind them, there were enough issues in brake packages to prove the ongoing development and fine-tuning of the Car of Tomorrow, which Sunday was raced for only the second time, will continue for quite some time.

"We ran the same brake package that we typically would run here in the front," winning crew chief Chad Knaus said. "We did run a larger package in the rear, to try to slow the car down just a little bit more with the rear brake.

"And then we just made sure that Jimmie was easy on them. Starting 20th, we had a long way to go, and we had to be patient because it would have been easy for him to go out there and burn the brakes off trying to get to the front real quick -- but fortunately enough we didn't."

Hamlin's crew chief, Mike Ford, wasn't satisfied, saying, "You always want to win," but said his car's brake issues were nil.

"We didn't have any brake issues all day long -- the brakes were good," Ford said. "We didn't seem to have any brake issues and usually Denny is real sensitive to that, so if we had an issue, he would have said something right up front.

"We didn't see any excessive temperature or [brake] dust [in the wheels Sunday], and there were no complaints [from Hamlin] about the peddle. Everything seemed to be good [because] that's one thing we really work with, is to stay off the brakes.

"I know he was off the brake [Sunday] -- he used more in practice [Saturday]. And that's one thing, if you can be off the brake, you ought to be. That was one of the things we lacked last year, but Denny's gotten better about taking care of his equipment and if we had an issue, I know I would have heard about it."

A red flag to dry the racetrack after a brief flurry of rain allowed brakes to cool. That was only a plus for the teams that needed it. (Continued)