Texas the same as Atlanta except for more grip, faster (cont'd)

"Guys are still running just as fast as we were with the old car, but the tire's harder so it will last, and when you have that, the tire can't accept the speed and the loads the car is trying to feed it. We don't have the downforce we need to plant the car, which plants the tire, which gives you grip."

The speed at Texas, Atlanta and Charlotte make it tough on suspension pieces, especially, Gibson said, ball joints and A-frames.

"The ball joints are top of the line, Moog does a very good job with them, but the ball joints and lower control arms, they take the beating, take all the load. As the wheel travels, it puts that ball joint at a different angle than just static, and it tries to tear it out of its socket.

"If you're coil-bind or have a bump stop, all that energy is sent through the lower control arm, so that thing is trying to bend and break all the time you're running."

Gibson said beefed-up control arms and new suspension pieces solve some of that problem, but the loads are immense.

"We'll see wheel loads up to 3,500 pounds on the right front wheel, so it's amazing that our parts hold up as well as they do," Gibson said. By the way, 3,500 pounds is 100 more pounds than the total weight of the racecar.

As always, track position is the key element of strategy for Gibson.

"Track position is huge," Gibson said. "These cars are so equal now that after about 10 laps, everybody is running the same speed. If you have a car that's a tick or two faster on new tires, you need to do your passing within the first 10 laps or so, that pretty much sets the stage for the rest of that run."

Gibson said Jimmie Johnson's call to take four tires at the end of the race at Atlanta was huge. "You were so loose after about 10 laps and the pace slowed down so much ... we would run 30.60s on stickers, but after about 10 laps we were in the 34-second bracket. When he bolted those stickers on, it was just a matter of time. They were sitting ducks."

Fuel mileage is also a big factor at Texas.

"It'll come down to fuel mileage unless you get a late caution," Gibson predicted. "If a guy's running 15th, he's going to take two or maybe no tires and try to come out first or second and try to roll the dice that he can hold them off for 10 laps, and the worst he can finish is back where he was."