Martinsville Speedway, for all its small size, creates giant problems for crew chiefs. Track position, normally the 800-pound gorilla in the Cup Series, is amplified by the fact that passing on the .526-mile paperclip is more difficult than at other places.

Steve Boyer, crew chief for the No. 96 Toyota driven this week by Ken Schrader, says that while track position is important, there are a couple of other primary concerns for his team.

“

The most important thing, anytime you go to Martinsville, is that your car has to stop. It has to stop for all 500 laps.

”

-- STEVE BOYER

"The most important thing, anytime you go to Martinsville, is that your car has to stop," Boyer said. "It has to stop for all 500 laps. It's a combination of making sure that you have enough cooling for the brakes and making sure the driver takes care of the brakes through the first couple hundred laps and doesn't burn them off too much.

"That's primary concern No. 1. As far as handling characteristics, you want a car that will turn fairly decent through the center, but also has good forward bite coming off the corner, where you normally have the opportunity to pass people, or get passed or give other people the opportunity to pass you if you get loose and spin the tires coming off. If you're having trouble, that will hurt you more than being tight in the center. If you have to give up a little in the center to make sure you're good off, that's what you do."

The new car, making its fourth start at Martinsville, has a higher center of gravity than the old cars, and even those were hard to get handling well.

"It's fairly hard, a little harder than the old car because the center of gravity is higher," Boyer said. "You lose some of the grip from the left front tire that you used to have. We've had this car at Martinsville, this will be the fourth time, so everyone has a chance to get their setups better."

Engines are in for a long day anytime they go to Martinsville. It's hard on the gas off the corner and all the way down the straights, then off the gas and hard on the brakes through the next corner. Boyer said the increased rpm of the engines are hard on the engine.

"You run such a high gear you end up running a lot of rpms, especially at the end of the straightaway,' he said. "A lot of guys use a rev limiter, especially in qualifying so you don't overdrive the corners, but also to make sure you don't get too high on rpm. It can hurt the engine if you get on the limiter and stay on it for an extended period of time. If it's just a driver aid, then it's not a big deal."

Back to brakes, Boyer said a significant portion of the brake pads are used up during 500 laps at Martinsville.

"We use Raybestos 15A pads on all four corners," he said. "We put new pads on for the race that are a little over an inch thick. When we get done, if we have a good day and the car is handling, you'll still have a little less than half an inch left. If we have a really hard day, you can get down to where it's a quarter-inch or less. The biggest thing that's going to wear the pad out is heat in the pad itself.

"The brake ducts cool fairly well, but with the low speeds, the biggest thing you find at Martinsville is the nose doesn't bring as much air in as it does at bigger, faster places."

Another factor that tends to annoy teams is the pit area --it's small, cramped and features stalls at both ends of the track as well as down the front stretch. Getting in and out of the pits unharmed is quite a task at Martinsville.

"One of the keys is qualifying well," Boyer said. "If you qualify well, you get to start in the front and not battle for track position all day, and you get a good pit selection. The pit stalls are so tight at Martinsville with all the curves, and you have a hard time getting in and out. It's pretty difficult getting through pit road there. It's always an adventure.

"Sometimes it's easier for drivers to be on the straightaway, and obviously the closer you are to pit out the better. You can miss your pit stall pretty easy, and you give up all the track position you've made up."

One positive aspect of the races at Martinsville is that if you do crash, you don't have to spend so much time putting on new body panels.

"You can cut off body panels and it's not going to hurt you much, with the average speed being so low," Boyer said. "It's different from Charlotte, because if you wreck a nose there, you have to put a nose back on or else you won't make minimum speed. At Martinsville, you can cut the whole nose off and it's not going to hurt you so much."

Tires have not been a problem at Martinsville, at least in terms of wear. But the pressures are unlike most other tracks.

"Guys try to run as low a tire pressure as they think they can get away with," Boyer said. "The lower the pressure, the more grip you have at the end of a run. You'll see guys not turn a fast lap until about 10-15 laps into a run because it takes that long for the pressures to build up."

Given that scenario, taking no tires at the end is a viable option but not standard protocol.

Asked if there was a case where he wouldn't put tires on at Martinsville, Boyer temporized, "rarely, but there are cases. Track position means quite a bit. If your car is driving well and you had a problem that put you in the back, you can probably make up a lot of ground [by not taking tires]."