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AVONDALE, Ariz. – Everyone had their checklists, some longer than others, and all left with more information than when they arrived.
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series teams wrapped up a two-day organizational test here at Phoenix Raceway on Wednesday, and now all that data is in the hands of laptop-wielding engineers. Let the deciphering begin. It will be six weeks before teams return to put to use the majority of what was learned here.
“We … kind of put a test plan together based on all the different departments within Team Penske,” said Todd Gordon, crew chief of the No. 22 Ford driven by Joey Logano. “Some of the stuff the aero group wants to test; there’s stuff the motor group wants to test, there’s stuff that we as the competition side in mechanical want to test. It’s how you take all those pieces and put them into a test plan so that we can actually gather data.”
Logano won here last November; this week’s test, with a different rules package, produced somewhat similar results. You don’t “win” a test, but Logano did his best. His Ford was among the fastest both days.
Kyle Larson (Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates), Kevin Harvick (Stewart-Haas Racing), and Dale Earnhardt Jr. were also quick. Consistently so.
Such testing opportunities are limited – the organizational test was the first of only five provided to teams for the 2017 season. Another won’t arrive until midpoint of the regular season, at New Hampshire at the end of May. Twelve races, nearly half a season’s worth, will have been run by then.
“On a race weekend we can gather driver feedback but at a place like this we can gather all sorts of measurements on the car,” Gordon said. “We’re working through all the pieces that are hard to quantify when you don’t have a data system on it.
“That’s the biggest part here. I’ve gone through brake cooling pieces because it’s a braking race track. Tire usage and what’s going on there. Just gather data that we can bring forward to the next race weekend and look at in our development of the package that we’ll come back with.”
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Thirteen teams couldn’t pass up the chance to get a fender up on the competition. There were rookies and veterans and those who fall in between.
Some drivers want to be privy to the changes made on their cars as teams work through their checklists. Others do not. Dale Earnhardt Jr. falls into the latter category. Not because he does’nt care, but it’s a carryover, he said, from his Late Model racing days. If you know the changes ahead of time, it might impact your feedback to your crew chief.
“A lot of times when we go through a certain section of changes I ask Greg (Ives, crew chief) not to give me what we’re doing so I’m giving him direct, unfiltered feedback,” Earnhardt said. “Then, when we get done, at the end of the day we’ll go through the changes and comments. Then I can start to understand why those comments are the way they are, why I said what I said, start to understand how that particular change is working with the car.”
Earnhardt missed the final 18 races of the ’16 season, the result of concussion-like symptoms following a pair of crashes. Getting back in the car this week wasn’t a chore.
“I feel like I’ve had my vacation and it was over a long time ago,” he said, “and I’m ready to go back to work.”
