If racing at New Hampshire Motor Speedway is tough on both men and machines, then Dover International Speedway is tougher by an order of magnitude.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that NHMS is flat as a billiard table while the Monster Mile is akin to racing in a blender bowl.

Kevin Manion, crew chief for Martin Truex Jr.'s No. 1 Chevrolet, says that Dover delivers a beating to the suspension pieces, and that makes every component on the car vulnerable to failure.

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It's just like rolling down I-20 going to Talladega. It's bumpy and you have to get used to it and find a way to be comfortable.

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KEVIN MANION

"Everything, to be honest," Manion quipped when asked what Dover was especially tough on. "It's very tough on all your suspension, mainly the right-front and the lower A-frame. People bend them there and at Bristol; there's a lot of load there. We do run a heavy-duty suspension package there, from jack screws to bump stops to lower A-frames. It's a heavy-duty, beefier suspension package."

Given that Goodyear held a recent tire test on the 1-mile concrete oval, Manion says the softer tire this weekend will help mitigate some of that.

"Dover is unique because it's concrete, and what we've had there in the past is, as the track has rubbered up, the white concrete turns to black and the rubber buildup gets the car bounding around," he said. "That was last year. The spring race, we didn't have that.

"The track never really took rubber, never changed color, and this race coming up, Goodyear has changed the tire. From everything that we can see, it looks like Goodyear's going back to a little more grippier tire and we think the track looks like it will take rubber. You'll kind of fight that rubber buildup feeling, the track getting a little tighter and the front tires bouncing a little bit more. That's the thing we're going to be fighting the most."

Grip, at a place like Dover, is important because you're in the corner so long during a lap. Manion said that the softer tire compound will have an impact not only on the grip levels, but on the competition.

"The race we won last spring and last fall's race were pretty good races," he said. "The spring race, a lot of people including us, fought no grip, loose, and I think that as Goodyear learns more about the car and we learn more about the car and it gets faster -- I think Goodyear came into the season with a little too conservative tire. Goodyear seems like they've stepped up their tire test program, and I think you'll see a little bit better racing with a little softer tire.

"You'll maybe pit a little bit more toward the end of races, and as we learn about the car and tire, they'll make significant changes to keep the drivers safe and get the cars a little racier, maybe a little more fall off, with a little more grip in the beginning and then slide around a little bit to where we would come and get tires no matter how many laps are left. That kind of makes it fun, gets the pit crews involved. It kind of reminds you of the old Darlington, where no matter if you run three laps or five or 50, you come and get tires."

One of the key factors at Dover is the concrete. Not only is it a different surface, the seams between the concrete slabs that make up the racing surface play a role as well.

"Yeah, I think for us in general for as long as we can remember, you get a harmonic bounce and you really have to work on the shock package to keep your ride as smooth as possible but also be aggressive so we can have grip," Manion said. "There's a trade-off there, for sure. It's just like rolling down I-20 going to Talladega. It's bumpy and you have to get used to it and find a way to be comfortable."

Getting the car comfortable is a matter of adjusting during the race. Prior to the race, it's about setting bump stops to limit the travel of the front end and keep the splitter off the ground. That's difficult at Dover.

"It's a fine line," Manion said. "Dover is definitely a track where it could go either way. I know there are teams that run a bump stop there, and there are teams that don't. It's one of those tracks where it could require a right-front spring in it and run as good if not better than a bump stop. There's a trade-off with the bump stop, a little bit of aero tradeoff for sure. Getting the right combination there is important."

Getting off the corners, since they are so long and fast at Dover, is critical, and Manion said the one thing you don't want to be there is tight off.

"The ideal thing at Dover is coming up off the corner," he said. "You have a lot of compression down in the corner with a lot of force, and what a lot of people fight is tight off the corner as the car unloads, and the front end wants to take off toward the wall. Ideally, you want to be neutral in the corner and you want your front end to stay down. We want a neutral car that turns good in the center with good forward bite and not tight off."

As for adjustments, Manion said it's an evolving process.

"We learn new things with this car every day," he said. "Every time we go to test, we have a test planned. Every time we go to the track, we're still fighting. As long as we keep changing the tire, we're going to keep working on different setups. As long as they bring a different tire every week, we're forever working on every corner of the car, and spending more time on the problems we're having. This year it seems to be in the rear of the car, whereas last year it seemed to be the front. We're working hard on maintaining rear grip for the whole race. That's been our problem."

Having the time to make adjustments is another key, due to Dover's narrow pit road. Manion said the confines of the pit area require him to make adjustments before the car ever leaves the shop.

"It [the narrow pit road] affects how we leave the shop," he said. "Unlike Loudon, where you're qualifying in race setup or close, and the pit road is big, we'll leave the shop in qualifying trim trying to get the best pit stall, which would be No. 1 at Dover. Dover being so narrow, there're so many things that happen on pit road there with an outside and an inside wall as close they are. Definitely qualifying is the key, and it seems like with this car it's really important, but for sure at Dover with the pit road being so narrow it's even more so."

One item that shouldn't be a factor at Dover is brakes, Manion said.

"We don't brake a lot here," he said. "This car, you brake a little more than you did with the old car. Like any racetrack, if your chassis is good the brakes are usually not a problem. It is one place that the gearing and the way you drive down into the corner, you don't use a lot of brakes."