Racing at Bristol Motor Speedway is a challenge in itself, even for teams based three hours down the road in Charlotte.

Imagine racing at Bristol working out of a shop on the eastern face of the Rocky Mountains -- that will more than double your degree of difficulty. Add in the fact that your car isn't in the top 35 in owner points and you're looking at a mountain equal of any within view of your shop.

That's what's facing Furniture Row Racing driver Joe Nemechek and crew chief Jay Guy this weekend.

"The truck left Wednesday morning for Bristol, and we left at the crack of dawn for a test at Iowa," Guy said. "We're doing it in two different trips, going to Iowa to test and then coming back and leaving for Bristol on Thursday morning."

Friday is THE day for teams like Furniture Row, who are chasing the top 35 in owner points. It's called go-or-go-home for a reason, and home is awfully far away.

"Certainly, for us and all teams out of the top 35, it's qualifying on Friday," Guy said when asked about the biggest challenge he'll face this weekend. "That's our main focus, because you can't really concentrate on race trim until you actually make the race. Bristol ... anything can happen and it can happen real quick. We just have to be prepared, get in the show and then focus on the race.

"Fridays wear on you. The stress of trying to qualify into the races, but other than that, you always try to go out and win and do the best job you possibly can. It doesn't really wear you out on race day, it's more the anxiety of Friday, trying to make the race."

Coming from the team's shops in Denver, traveling to the Southeast means that the team is a day behind on work at the shop, Guy said.

"You lose about a half-day to a day sometimes, but next week, going to California, we gain a day," he said. "It doesn't necessarily balance it all out at the end, travel-wise, but I think we have a greater advantage working on our cars out here because our guys go to lunch and don't bump into one of their buddies and say, 'hey, we found this today.'

"Next thing you know, the things you found and worked hard on are spread across Charlotte. We keep them here in-house and we work on our seven-post rig and pull-down plates and everything. We started finding some things. The results haven't been where we needed them to be yet, but we have made a lot of gains in these cars the last month and half, two months."

Once Nemechek makes the race, it's business as usual, according to Guy, even at Bristol.

"It's changed a little bit, but it's still Bristol," he said. "It's a half-mile, high-banked fast oval. You have to really get after it, and the driver still has to be up on the wheel and get after it and drive. It's not changed a whole lot from that aspect. The setups have changed a little, but it's not night-and-day difference.

"This will be our fourth race with the new car there, so it's getting easier and easier, and we keep learning every week. I'm looking forward to going back because I think we have a pretty good racecar."

Bristol is not an impound race, but once qualifying is over, the team has to shift gears toward race mode. That's not too big a deal, according to Guy.

"It's mainly two springs, a little bit of nose weight and a little bit of cross," he said, detailing the changes that have to be made between qualifying and the race. "At the same time, you have to be pretty aggressive to make it into the show. It's still a big deal on Friday at qualifying time, because you can't afford to be too tight and you can't afford to be too loose. The driver has to be right on that edge but still in control."

On Saturday, it's an extension of that philosophy.

"It's a race of aggressive patience," Guy said. "You have to go hard, but you can't knock the fenders off to get to the front. You have to pick your passes and play out the right pit strategy and be there at the end."

In terms of strategy, it's a matter of track position, not tires.

"You look back a few years ago when the Wood Brothers won that race with Elliott Sadler," Guy said. "They went something like 140, 150 laps on a set of tires. You have to get your track position, and as long as your car is good enough, there's no need to keep coming down pit road. Use the early part of the race to get your car dialed in so at the last part you're ready to compete for a victory.

"Tires are important at Bristol, but track position is way more important than tires. The aero on these cars, the dirtier air you get into at a place like Michigan, the cars are just a handful to drive. You want that clean air. At Bristol, aero doesn't matter as much. It is hard to pass there, so you want to be up front."

Pit road at Bristol is unique in that it's the only place where cars enter the pits off Turn 2 instead of Turn 4, and like short tracks everywhere, it's not wide-open spaces inside.

"You've seen people win races from the front and the back, so it doesn't matter that much," Guy said of the pit-road positioning at Bristol. "You just want to get a good, clean stall that you can get in and out of quickly and rely on your pit crew to have good stops all night long and be there at the end.

"It is a little cramped, but it is one of the unique challenges of Bristol and one of the things you look forward to."

On the track, besides the obvious damage from crashes that occur at lightning speed, brakes are a major component for all the cars, especially since the new car seems to be a lot harder on them than the old car was.

"We've added a little extra cooling for the brakes, because we've seen the same thing the other teams have seen," Guy said. "Bristol is a big momentum track, so you don't want to be on the brakes too long, but at the same time, you need to have them to dodge wrecks and get in the corner. We've added a little extra cooling, but nothing major compared to the old car."

Guy has a victory under his belt at Bristol, with Johnny Benson, and returning to Victory Lane there would be beyond description.

"[A victory] means a lot anywhere, but Bristol is one of my favorite racetracks," Guy said. "It comes down to springs and shocks and just being a part of it, because it takes all the aero out of it and a lot of the nuances of the [new car] out. It just comes down to driver and crew chief and the setup you have. It's really a neat racetrack."