Tire wear, bump stops can make or break it at Kansas (cont'd)

"We didn't test there," he said. "We pretty much will use the data we've gathered from the other tracks that are similar."

A midweek test at Lowe's Motor Speedway, Carter said, might play a role in finding some things to help at Kansas.

One critical aspect of tuning the new car -- and the Roush-Fenway Racing cars seem to have solved this in spades -- is the bump-stop settings. If they aren't right when they unload, then it's a cast-iron pain to adjust at the track.

Bump stops are devices that limit travel on the shock absorbers so as to keep the car's attitude at an optimum angle for aerodynamic performance. Considering the new car's lack of downforce compared to the older car, that's important.

If the bump-stop setting is too low, the splitter drags the ground and upsets the handling. It also scrubs speed. If it's set too high, air gets under the car and the nose lifts, which makes it more difficult to steer. That's also important.

"We run this car on bump stops, and the settings are pretty critical on that part," Carter said. "This car is a little more difficult to adjust on, too."

As for the team, Carter said there has been solid improvement in all phases of the game. He did mention, however, that a couple of slow pit stops turned a fast racecar at Dover into a mid-pack finisher.

"I think the No. 26 team is looking forward to Kansas this weekend," he said. "We had a couple slow stops last week that put us in a bad position. So to say that we are looking forward to getting back out there and hopefully having a good run would be an understatement."

Slow pit stops at Dover are nothing new. The narrow pit road is tight, and more mistakes happen as a result. The pit road at Kansas, however, is wide and long and doesn't have an outside wall to choke off traffic.

"Hopefully we can have another fast Ford Fusion from the minute we unload this weekend," Carter said. "That's how we've been for the last few weeks, just haven't had the results that we needed."