No. 4 driver also explains why they can’t just put his setup in teammates’ cars
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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick says his team will approach today’s team test at Charlotte Motor Speedway with caution, and avoid trying to read too much into the details as teams prepare for the series’ stops here in late May.
In Harvick’s view, today’s test, which is scheduled to run from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on the 1.5-mile track, "is just a big-ticket item" for his Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 team.
"You’ve got to really be careful as far as what you think you’re learning, for Charlotte in particular," Harvick said Tuesday during an appearance at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. "By the time we go back … so many things are going to change and evolve.
"You cannot be scared to do something different than what you did there last time just for the fact that this sport evolves on a weekly basis," he said.
Teams pay close attention to what others are doing, and none are more closely watched than those that are successful.
And few have been as successful as Harvick and his team. Fresh off a victory last weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Harvick’s riding a six-race run dating back to the close of the ’14 season that’s seen him post three victories while posting three runnerup finishes.
That’s an average finishing position of 1.5. Eye-popping stuff. Envious stuff. Folks notice.
"The next thing you know," he said, "everybody’s doing what you’re doing and if you aren’t forward thinking, you’re going to get left behind pretty fast."
Crew chief Rodney Childers will tinker, but as Harvick said, so much will change before teams return here in two months.
Try "to hit on something that improves what we’re doing and not really worry about characteristics for Charlotte," Harvick said, "because it’s going to have more grip, it’s going to be faster; all those things will be different … in May."
Goodyear conducted a tire test at CMS on Tuesday, with drivers Martin Truex Jr. (Furniture Row Racing), Aric Almirola (Richard Petty Motorsports), Kasey Kahne (Hendrick Motorsports) and J.J. Yeley (BK Racing) participating.
Those four teams are expected to return today, and will be joined by Harvick (SHR), Joey Logano (Team Penske), Jamie McMurray (Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (Roush Fenway Racing), Clint Bowyer (Michael Waltrip Racing), Denny Hamlin (Joe Gibbs Racing), Ryan Blaney (Wood Brothers Racing) and Michael McDowell (Leavine Family Racing).
Although no official announcement has been made, it is expected that this year’s Sprint All-Star Race at CMS (Saturday, May 16) will feature the 2016 rules package, which includes even less downforce on the cars than the 2015 package.
Harvick says that would be a "great way to understand what needs to be changed; you get to see some real racing environment stuff.
"It allows everybody to kind of get their arms around was it good, was it bad, was it better?" he said.
Thus far this year, a combination of less downforce and horsepower hasn’t slowed the cars down and in some cases they’re actually turning faster lap speeds.
"As drivers you obviously realize that the corner speeds are way up this year and the only way to get them down is to make a really big change like they’re talking about making," Harvick said. "It’s taken awhile to get everybody on the same page when you start taking 600, 700, 800 pounds of downforce off the cars, and … understanding how that’s going to affect the teams, the financial commitment, what will they have to change on their cars to get this rules package to where it needs to be?"
Less downforce means it’s back to the drawing board for tire supplier Goodyear, which ran its Tuesday tests at CMS with the ’16 rules package. Several other tests with the setup are scheduled throughout the season.
"When you start taking those corner speeds and slowing them down by 15-20 mph, the tires can do a lot of different things than they do right now," Harvick said. "We’ve been to Atlanta where corner speeds were up 13-14 mph and Vegas they were up 15-18 mph compared to last year.
"I know the track (qualifying) record went down at Las Vegas … that’s just a result of the entry speed not being as great as it was and the corner speeds being up; you can just maintain that entry speed all the way through the corner."
While Harvick’s team has been the class of the SHR organization, owner/driver Tony Stewart has struggled, posting finishes of 42nd, 30th and 33rd this season. He heads to this weekend’s stop in Phoenix 34th in points.
Because drivers have different preferences for what they want their car to do and how they want it to feel, it’s not as simple as putting Harvick’s setup into Stewart’s No. 14 entry, he said.
"As you look at the packages and the way we all drive, they’re drastically different in throttle traces and steering traces and fields," said Harvick. "Whether it’s myself or (teammate) Danica (Patrick) or Tony, everybody wants something different in their car.
"So much to do with it is style, and a lot of that is just communication between you and your engineers and everybody being on the same page. If we just put my stuff in Tony’s car, it would be hard to just say that that’s going to fix all the problems.
"I think right now everybody is just in an analyzing phase of really trying to understand exactly what direction we need to go to help and that’s what we’ll continue to do."
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