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."

The challenge that Childers and all the other crew chiefs face is getting the wider, taller car to turn well while maintaining the balance necessary to come up off the corners in good shape.

"It can be a challenge at times," Childers said. "The thing that people struggle with the most is getting the cars to turn well. They punch a pretty big hole in the air, and when you get in traffic and don't have any downforce on the front, a lot of people struggle getting into the turns. That's one of the things we work on the most. You also have to have the back under it to where you're not loose getting in. We've had pretty good success with it so far."

As is often the case, fuel mileage plays a big role at Michigan. Dale Earnhardt Jr. stretched his fuel to the end to win the race in June. So if you're listening in on the team radio, you'll hear crew chiefs screaming all day about saving fuel.

"You're pretty much running flat-out," Childers said. "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. At least you want to get the mileage the other guys are getting.

"I felt like, in the first race, we got worse mileage than the other guys because we were going for all-out power and trying not to give up anything. We'll see how our mileage is this weekend."

Michigan is one of those places where you don't back off a lot during the race, and that can place undue stress on the engines. But another factor tends to be brakes, Childers said.

"It can be hard on engines, but normally you don't see too many engine failures," Childers said. "If you had to pick something, the engine is the first thing. In the first race, it looked like we had a lot more brake wear than what we have had. You'd think a place that's as big and wide-open as Michigan is, you wouldn't have a lot of brake wear, but we did. We got back last time and our brakes were used up. We went to a different package this time to make sure we don't run out of pad."

There's a reason for that, Childers said. Handling, or the lack thereof, is that reason.

"Most of the time when the car doesn't turn the best, you end up using the brakes to try to get it to turn," he explained. "If your car is loose getting in, you'll use the brakes up trying to make yourself feel more comfortable. You'll end up riding the brake a little into the corner. The handling part probably affects it more than anything else."

As if there weren't enough pressure on Childers and the rest of the No. 19 team, there's a $1 million bonus riding on this race. If Sadler ends up winning on Sunday, sponsor Stanley Tools will donate $1 million to the Children's Miracle Network.

"It doesn't change anything as far as the team goes," Childers said. "It's really cool that Stanley and all those people are doing something like that, knowing that if we do win that $1 million, it will go straight to charity and help out a lot of kids. It doesn't change what we do as a team. We go every week to win and do the best we can do, and that's still our goal for the weekend.

"The biggest thing for us is to try to get the 19 car in the top 20 in points, and try to get to 15th-18th by the end of the year. We're picking one off every week, it seems like, and we need to keep getting top-15s, top-10s and top-fives every week. That's what we've been doing."