Richmond International Raceway is just three-quarters of a mile around, but it races much bigger ... sort of like a mini-Atlanta.

It's wide enough to race side-by-side, fast enough to keep it interesting and yet small enough that things still happen in a real hurry. It's a short track with a big-track feel. Oh, and there's a lot of attention focused on the Chase this weekend, too, so there's an added element of danger and drama to deal with.

For Jeff Meendering, crew chief for Bobby Labonte's No. 43 Dodge, he's looking to learn as much as he can for the next 11 races, including how to solve the teething problems of the new car.

"The design of the racecar induces a loose-in, tight-center, loose-off condition," he said. "That's something we fight every weekend, but everybody is getting a little closer on their setups, figuring out ways to bandage that. Everybody fights the same handling characteristics.

"Tight-center, the only way you can fix that is to loosen up the racecar, and to do that you have to really free it up. You almost have to live with a loose car to be fast anymore.

We're constantly testing the Kentuckys and Nashvilles and Iowas ... just to see what this car likes. We're definitely getting closer and closer to getting the drivers more and more comfortable. Some people have gotten there already. We haven't, but we're getting closer."

Meendering said that Richmond is wide enough for good racing, but you definitely need brakes to compete at a high level.

"It definitely races bigger than it is," he said. "The width promotes really good racing. From a setup standpoint, though, we look at it like more of a short-track setup ... something like Loudon. You run your short-track brake packages and things like that. The calipers are bigger, thicker rotors and bigger-diameter rotors, and that promotes a lot of heat, so we have all our cooling ducts in and a lot of fans blowing on them."

At Bristol, several cars were eliminated after brake heat melted the bead on the inside of the tires, which is the reason for the ducts and cooling fans, Meendering said.

"Usually, brake heat causes the bead to melt, and you can get the shoulder of the tire really hot by running too much camber also. If you blow the sidewall of the tire out, it's usually a function of too much camber or blowing the bead out."

Getting a car to run fast at Richmond is a process of turning the center of the corner.

"You want to have your car turning the center of the corner as good as it can, and you sacrifice a little drive-off, but the momentum you gain from rolling through the center of the corner actually makes for a faster lap than with a car that doesn't turn well in the center but has a lot of drive-off," Meendering said.

As has been discussed, the new car is taller than the old one, and that translates to problems getting it to turn.

"The car has a higher center of gravity to it and more right-side weight," Meendering said. "The biggest thing you can do is run a higher track bar, which will raise your roll-center, and stiffer right-side springs and softer left-side springs to take roll out of the car. There are consequences to everything, and if you raise the track bar you lose a lot of drive-off because it's too high."

As for the Chase, Meendering isn't thinking about it. He's thinking about winning the race.

"It doesn't affect me at all," he said of the goings-on this weekend. "We're going to Richmond to win the race. We don't have any teammates we're trying to work with to help get in the Chase. We're not really concerned about the Chase or the points."

What he is concerned about is making this car work.

"We're getting more and more aggressive on our setups," he explained. "The points position we're in, we're not going to make the Chase, and we're safely in the top 35, so we can afford to be aggressive and learn something for next year to hopefully make the Chase."

The new car does have one thing Meendering likes: door foam on both sides of the driver. It not only promotes safety for Labonte, it eases the burden on his fab shop.

"One good thing about this new car is it has the door foam in the sides of it," Meendering said with a chuckle. "That gives the driver the ability to bounce it off the wall a little bit and not hurt it too much. You can flat-side one, but it keeps it out of the suspension pieces and keeps the wheels from hitting the wall."

Pit road is a dangerous place if you want to keep the wheels intact, he said.

"Pit stalls there are kind of tight, the same way it is at all the smaller tracks. If you're pitted in the center of that pit road, it gets real congested. The crew chief and spotter have to be on their toes. The crew chief has the best view. It gets a little hectic."