Texas the same as Atlanta except for more grip, faster

Out of the frying pan, into the fire. Such is the case this week as the Cup Series heads to Texas Motor Speedway, which crew chief Tony Gibson calls a "faster Atlanta, a faster Charlotte."

"It has a little more grip than Atlanta, and not as much as Charlotte, and it is faster," Gibson said of the 1.5-mile oval near Fort Worth. "It's a little faster than Atlanta is, but it does have two bumps. It has one exiting Turn 1 into Turn 2 and it has one into Turn 3 that is a pretty good little bump. You have to address those two bumps, especially since everybody is on bump stops and it tends to upset the car and detach the tire from the track."

Gibson, whose No. 8 Chevrolets have been driven by Mark Martin and Aric Almirola this season, said speed was a concern as well.

"The speed is also an issue," he said. "It's very, very fast, and you don't have very much room for error."

The bumps put a new twist on the handling aspect of the car, as the bump-stop setup becomes even more crucial.

"It's really difficult, because as the race pace changes ... when you're out there in practice, everyone has a lot of grip, they're out there running by themselves, they have a lot of air on the front of the car and that generates a lot of downforce," Gibson warned. "As you start the race and you're around other vehicles, it kind of takes that downforce away. The air moves around and you really don't have the same kind of atmosphere that you do in practice.

"The car has less downforce on it, which creates less load on the bump stops. Trying to figure that out between the race and practice is pretty tricky sometimes as to how much load you have on the bump stops. That's one of the things we fight every weekend."

While there is little relief from NASCAR's mandated body templates, there are some things Gibson and his crew can do to make the car generate a little more of that all-important downforce.

"You're pretty much locked in with NASCAR's cage, and the way they have the templates now, so it's very difficult to get any more downforce," Gibson said. "The biggest thing we can do is use our bump stops to create a better attitude of the car, create a doorstop wedge, front end down and rear end up, and use a four-, five- or six-inch splitter."

On a track like Texas, loose is a predominant condition. Gibson said it's because of the speed. "The cars are trying to run so fast through the corners, the tire can't handle the amount of load or the speed it's trying to be fed. Goodyear tries real hard to make tires that will withstand this heavier vehicle that has less downforce. (Continued)