Speedway, Ind. — There’s no soft selling it, the crew chiefs who manage these Ford Tauruses aren’t very keen about the schedule swing that Indy brings. The Brickyard 400 schedule is unique in that it more closely mimics a two-day schedule, just that it takes three days to accomplish.
Friday started slow, with the garages not opening until 10 a.m. Then the first and only time the cars got on the track was well past noon, from 2 to 4 p.m. The timing of the schedule is somewhat problematic for the crew chiefs because qualifying begins at 10 a.m. Saturday, slipping into a time slot when the cars had not run.
Then, once the teams are done qualifying, they’ve got to get the qualifying setups off and the race setups on – all before 2 p.m. when practice starts for the Sunday race.
But it’s not even the work or the shifted schedules that are driving the Ford crew chief force buggy. Rather it’s that most believe that there is far too much dependant on the draw for the order of qualifying and those who get lucky and get an early draw will be the ones who start at the front for the Brickyard 400.
“Everybody looks at it differently,” Robbie Riser, reigning championship crew chief, began. “I like the schedule that we come in Friday morning do our qualifying practice then we go qualifying. Then Saturday and Sunday we can worry about racing. With this here the turn around is so different from the time we qualifying on Saturday to be ready for race practice that we loose a little bit of the time that we normally have getting ready.”
Riser added, “I don’t really care much when we go out to qualifying because it’s all set by the draw, the earlier you get to run the more advantage you got. They’ve done such a good job making everyone equal and they have a qualifying time of 10 o’clock in the morning. That’s not really equal. I guess I don’t like that. But it’s the same for everybody.”
With a chuckle Riser added, “Being we’re more into the racing and not into the qualifying I’d rather see it the other way,” then headed towards the No. 17 Smirnoff Ice car.
Conversely, Pat Tryson said, “I don’t necessarily like [the schedule] so much,” adding a shrug of the shoulders. “If I draw an early number I’ll like [the schedule]. It really puts a premium on a good number more than anything. If you draw the first half you’ll have a great day tomorrow. If not you won’t.”
Tryson didn’t do bad – he’ll go out 15th with his Viagra Ford.
“It’ll be just like last week at Pocono,” added Greg Biffle’s crew chief, Doug Richert. “We went there knowing we couldn’t run the second Happy Hour because of the Busch Series race [in Colorado where Biffle was also running].
“We elected to run all of our practice Friday in race trim. We never did any qualifying practice at all until he made his qualifying lap. Here we’ll do the same thing. We’re going to start in race trim and get some laps and check our base line from the test. Then we’ll make some qualifying runs this afternoon.
“We’re going to take the first hour and race practice. Then we’ll end our day with qualifying runs. Then tomorrow we’ll qualify and run only the first Happy Hour. That’s going to be about the time the race starts.”
Richert’s plan was ripped to shreds when Biffle backed his No. 16 National Guard Ford into the wall, destroying what had been a strong day. Biffle said that his backup car was fine, and didn’t see where his Sunday plans for a good run had gone too far off track.
The unflappable Jimmy Fennig offered, “I’d just a soon practice and qualify on one day then practice and be ready for the race the next. I’d like to get back to our normal way.
“The draw is going to be important,” Fennig added. “It always is. No matter how many days of practice it’s all about the draw.”
Fennig was happy with his draw, considering that he’ll be just the fifth car to go out to record a time.
“It rushes everything,” said the crew chief of the No. 21 Motorcraft Ford, Ben Leslie. “You know you practice at a different time that you qualify which is different from our norm. But you adapt. The hardest part is on the crew. For this being one of the crown jewels that we race this year to try to jam qualifying and race practice in is kind of tough.
“You do so much to these cars in the hopes that you get a decent qualifying draw to take advantage of everything,” Leslie added, who clearly wasn’t hoping for the 34th slot in time trials the team drew. “Obviously everyone wants to start up for the Brickyard. It’s just rough on everybody.”
Stoically Leslie then added, “It’s no different than a 38-week race schedule. It’s just something you have deal with. You have to get through it.”
Todd Parrott, crew chief of the No. 38 M&M’s Ford, approaches this weekend a little differently, saying that it was what happened a few weeks ago during open testing that’ll set the stage for who’ll be strong for Sunday’s race.
