After racing on big flat tracks at Indianapolis and Pocono and the twisty road course at Watkins Glen the past three weeks, the Sprint Cup Series makes its return to big, banked high-speed ovals this weekend at Michigan International Speedway.

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The only thing you can do [to save fuel] is detune the engine to give up horsepower and get better mileage. You don't want to do that, but sometimes you're better off.

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RODNEY CHILDERS

Like most weeks on the series schedule, it's a new challenge, and one that Rodney Childers, team director for Elliott Sadler's No. 19 Gillett Evernham Motorsports Dodge, is looking forward to meeting.

"The biggest thing with Michigan is, the cars end up being pretty spread out and you have to have a car that turns well," he said. "Clean air means a whole lot. The track usually widens out, and you have to have a car that can run on the bottom and the top, wherever you need to go. Fuel always ends up being a big deal there, just like it was in the spring. We finished eighth or ninth, but the guys in front of us all did it on fuel mileage. It ends up being a pretty good deal trying to get that worked out for the race."

Sadler raced from 27th at the start of June's LifeLock 400 to ninth at the finish, and that's a good bit of momentum for Childers and the rest of the team to put in their pocket.

"It gives us a lot of boost," Childers said. "We had a good car there last time, but we didn't get to qualify because it rained. We were second in practice before it got rained out and we thought we had a shot at the pole. We had a good car on Friday and on Saturday; we were top-10 in every practice. We had to start way in the back because of the points at the time, but the car was pretty easy to work up through there and get a top-10.

"This is the same car we raced at Indy, it was new there. It has some new features here and there that are better than what we had, so we're pretty excited."

While the new car does not feature a whopping menu of items to change, there are some things that can be done, Childers said.

"We're trying to make the car lighter, get more aerodynamic advantage over the car and under the car, stuff like that," he said. "It's just small things. With the [new car], everybody's car is pretty close. We have a little bit different [suspension] geometry package than what we had there last time. We just keep evolving with these cars." (Continued)