Lane preparing to help Clauson make Cup debut (cont'd)

"Atlanta now is your Darlington, because Darlington was so hard on tires," Lane said. "To me, Atlanta is now the place that's hard on tires. How you're going to get that car to be consistent over a whole run as the tires start to fade away ... that's the one thing we've got to get across to him is, it's a big momentum racetrack, it's very fast, but you can't go out there and burn the tires off it first thing.

"We've got to get him in a mode of, 'hey, this is a 500-mile race as opposed to what you're used to running 200 or 250 miles.'"

“

He's got a whole different racecar than what he's used to.

”

STEVEN LANE, on Bryan Clauson

Lane hasn't worked with Clauson much this season, just over the test at Charlotte a few weeks ago, so communication is going to be key.

"We're going to have to rely on our teammates here," Lane said of the setup. "Once we finally get something we know is pretty close, even though it may not be 100 percent, it's 'OK, Bryan, here's your bat and ball, now you've got to learn to play with it like that. I know it doesn't feel like your Nationwide car, but this is what these things feel like.'

"The ball's back in our court to say, 'hey, this is pretty close. I know it doesn't feel like it, but this is pretty close. Go out there and run fast lap times, keep your momentum up and don't burn the tires off of it.'"

Atlanta is also tough on engines, and Lane said the team will bring a new engine package to Atlanta for testing.

"It's really hard on the engines, and it's a good thing for this team to go out and help the others because we have a new engine package," Lane said. "It's important to make the race and then get this thing to live all day, because if it does, then this is our test for the next two cars so that when they show up at Texas or Homestead, they can use this package."

Given that he has a rookie driver, pit road becomes a bigger story than it would be with a veteran at the wheel.

"I don't think you're going to call the race any different than you normally would, no matter who is driving the car," Lane said. "The race is going to play out, you're going to get dealt a hand and you play that hand. What we're going to look at is, the Nationwide field is not as aggressive getting on and off pit road as these guys are.

"Let's just say that you lose a quarter of a second in and a quarter of a second off, there's a half a second that you're never going to get back on the track. We've got to get him in a rhythm and we have to go ahead and be ready for when he loses some to those veterans on pit road, ready for how we can make that up some way. He's going to lose some to them, because that's what this is, a learning experience. These cars are so close now, all the little things are going to make a big difference."