Pocono's distinct turns a challenge for all crew chiefs (cont'd)

"It's just a very long race, and it takes them forever to get around there. I like Pocono. A lot of people hate Pocono, but I kind of like it. The area is real pretty, and the track is cool and different, but the motor guys still kind of hate it.

"It's not really tough on engines because you sustain the RPMs for a while. The other corners, you're still dropping RPMs down pretty good and then pulling back up through. It's not like other places where you sustain the RPMs a lot longer and the corner speed doesn't drop down that much. It's more friendly to the motor men because we don't shift gears anymore."

Brian Vickers

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Pocono's unique layout means that drivers have to find a place to run and stay there. There's no changing lines at Pocono.

"Indy has two long straights where Pocono has a big long one, then two medium-sized straights," Hamlin said. "We call it three corners. At Indy, two corners are kind of the same, and the other two corners are kind of the same. At Pocono, it's three different corners and the track is so rough you have to find where your car wants to run. That might not be where someone else wants to run."

One thing that Hamlin and all of the other crew chiefs are sweating is the bump-stop setup.

"When we shifted gears here, it was a lot harder on valve springs than it should be in theory, now," Hamlin said. "Of course, you also had to worry about your transmission breaking there, too. Anymore, it's such a different thing. With the bump-stop thing now, since one corner has bank in it and the second one is flatter and the third one flatter still, it's a hard thing to figure out how much bump-stop load you want to run there because you have three different situations you have to get through."

One of the keys to any race at Pocono is being able to save fuel, which drivers hate to do.

"It's a driver thing, and it's that way everywhere we go," Hamlin said with a chuckle. "They let off the gas earlier and they ease back into the gas. It's a finesse thing when they want to save gas. You can draft a little bit there and still save fuel."

If it comes down to the end of the race and Vickers is in the hunt, Hamlin will use a couple of those strategy ideas to get the No. 83 Toyota team its first victory.

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