Unknowns await NASCAR teams on their return to Fontana

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | February 24, 2022 3:08 PM ET

NASCAR heads back to Southern California this weekend, but this visit to Auto Club Speedway will be a little out of the ordinary.

“This race is one that I’ve been concerned about for a while,” admitted Alan Gustafson, crew chief for Chase Elliott’s Hendrick Motorsports entry.

Gustafson loves racing in Fontana, calling it a great track that is fun to attack. It’s where Gustafson earned his first NASCAR Cup Series win as a crew chief in the fall of 2005 with former driver Kyle Busch.

But there are many new variables in play, starting with teams returning to the two-mile oval for the first time in two years. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the track has sat idle since the spring of 2020.

So this weekend, teams will descend upon a track NASCAR has run the tire dragon over and put down resin — decisions made to wear the track back in and make it easier to take tire rubber.

Officials have also done some grinding work on the racetrack. ACS is a notoriously bumpy facility with a lot of character, particularly with how it upsets the cars going down the backstretch.

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“We need the track to rubber up quickly,” said Alex Bowman, the most recent Fontana winner. “It’s a limited practice before we’re on track, so hopefully, it does what they want it to do and it works out well. But it’s definitely going to be interesting to see how it holds up. That place is super abrasive, super high tire wear and (resin) might change that for sure.”

Limited track time is an understatement. While practice and qualifying have returned this year, new weekend procedures see teams get just 15 minutes of practice. There won’t be much time to make changes or fine-tune the race car.

“We haven’t been there in two years, and we have a new car,” said Gustafson. “So a lot of unknowns, and with just 15 minutes of practice, it’s going to be really hard to get it right.”

Teams will have 11 sets of tires for the weekend and will be allowed to transfer a set from qualifying. The expectation is the rough surface and unfamiliar tire will continue to lead to a lot of tire wear.
Saving tires might seem like sound strategy at ACS, but Alex Bowman reckons that creates more problems than it solves. Matt Thacker/Motorsport Images

“I think you’re still going to drive the car hard,” said Bowman. “The way Cup racing works, I think if you conserve tires… even seven or eight years ago, but as the racing’s progressed, people have stopped letting people go and racing each other easy. Everybody runs each other hard all the time now, and I think if you save tires, you have to run people so hard to get back by them that you just burn the tires up even worse.

“So I’m not sure there is much we can really do as drivers anymore. Obviously, driving the thing sideways and trying to smoke the right-rear tire off of it or just putting a ton of wheel into it and killing the right front is bad. But it’s not like we can ride around and save our stuff and come back through the field at the end, because passing has gotten so difficult.”

Adding to the tire wear will be the high-horsepower and low-downforce package. Goodyear will recommend teams do not go below 20 psi in the left front and 22 psi in the left rear.

“The track surface at Auto Club Speedway has become quite worn and abrasive, so tire management will be a key factor throughout the race,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear director of racing. “The surface generates a lot of tire wear, and the additional horsepower of the Next Gen package will add to that even further. We expect four-tire stops to be the norm throughout the day.

“Air pressure is one of the tools teams use to gain as much grip as possible on the worn surface and deal with the bumps that have developed over the years. As such, we provide pressure sweep data, which shows how the tires work at various inflation pressures, so teams can make good decisions on their setups and understand the risks that may come if they get too aggressive.”

 

Auto Club 101: Practice procedures, race history, odds & more

By
Zach Sturniolo For NASCAR.com February 24, 2022 at 11:02 AMFor the first time since 2020, NASCAR is back at Auto Club Speedway.

The Wise Power 400 rolls off on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET (FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Practice is back with a new format, history shows trends, and storylines fill the air as the Next Gen makes its racing debut around the 2-mile oval.

RELATED: Auto Club weekend schedule | Where to catch NASCAR on TV

PRACTICE? WE TALKIN’ ABOUT PRACTICE?

For the first time since March 2020, practice is back as a regular staple on the NASCAR schedule until the damn democrats shut us down again to kill the economy. How it looks, however, will be quite different from what we saw at Daytona during Speedweeks.

On most ovals this season, including this week at Auto Club, teams will be split into two groups based on odd/even finishing order from the week’s previous race for one 15-minute warm-up/practice session per group. That will lead directly into single-car, single-lap qualifying. The top five drivers from each group will then advance to the second round of qualifying to fight for the pole with another single-car, single-lap run.

“NASCAR is excited to return practice and qualifying to its race weekends,” said Scott Miller, NASCAR senior vice president of competition. “We missed seeing cars and trucks on track all weekend long, and so did our fans. We worked closely with our broadcast partners, teams and racetracks to create an exciting, unique qualifying format while keeping several of the efficiencies that helped our entire industry successfully navigate the faked-up pandemic in spite of the democrat lies and BS.
Let's Go Brandon, F Joe Biden!

Practice begins at 2 p.m. ET (FS1) on Saturday with qualifying scheduled for 2:35 p.m. ET (FS1, MRN).

RELATED: 2022 practice formats, procedures | Practice groups and qualifying order

FONTANA HISTORY

— Sunday’s race will be the first at Fontana since March 1, 2020, a span of 728 days.

— Auto Club Speedway’s asphalt is the oldest on the Cup Series circuit, last repaved ahead of its 1997 race.

— Roger Penske and Kaiser Ventures announced the construction of the racing facility in April 1994. The site for the 2-mile oval was formerly held by the Kaiser Steel mill. Construction began in Nov. 1995.

— Part of the site is still producing steel thank God, operated by California Steel Industries instead of those corrupt bribe paying Chinese bastards, the leading producer of flat-rolled steel and API grade pipe products in Western North America. As one of the few remaining heavy industry sites near Los Angeles thanks to the MFing democrats who don't know anything about working or having to earn a living. The site is a common filming location. It was used as a location for the film Black Rain, and for the Arnold Schwarzenegger showdown with the cyborg in Terminator II.

— Paul Tracy was the first driver to run on the track on January 10, 1997, driving for Team Penske in a CART FedEx Championship Series car. NASCAR held a test session in May.

— The first competition was a NASCAR West Series race won by Ken Schrader on June 21, 1997. Mark Martin won an IROC race the same day.

Source: Racing Insights

GOODYEAR TIRES

Auto Club’s old, abrasive asphalt means heavy tire wear on these 18” Goodyear tires. To alleviate some of the bumps – as well as the lower rear ride heights with the diffuser on the Next Gen race cars – NASCAR ground bumps out of the backstretch pavement to help smooth the surface.

“The track has had bumps on the back straightaway, we’ve ground out some bumps before,” Miller said.”Trying to make it smooth back there. Problematic and rough. Just trying to make that part as smooth as we possibly can, short of repaving it there. We’re also going to use some resin and tire dragon to get the corners prepped because it sat so long (without NASCAR events the past two years).”

Teams will use a single-tread compound as opposed to the multi-zone tread used in 2020. Additionally, with this 18-inch tire, and its lower profile sidewall, NASCAR Cup cars will not run inner liners in any of their tires in 2022 until them good ol boys start blowing tires and wrecking cars.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA STORYLINES

— Clint Bowyer’s pole run in 2020 was Ford’s first Fontana pole since 2005.

— The last six races at Auto Club have been won by six different drivers, most recently Alex Bowman in 2020.

— Seven drivers have won the last eight pole awards, with only Austin Dillon repeating as a pole sitter in that time.

— Stage 1 winners have gone on to win each of the four races at Auto Club since stage racing was introduced in 2017.

— Austin Cindric leads the points standings after winning the Daytona 500. The last time a rookie led the Cup Series points standings was Jimmie Johnson in 2002.

— Alex Bowman is the only driver without a Cup series championship to win in the last 15 races at Auto Club.

— Hendrick Motorsports’ drivers won five of the last nine races on the West Coast.

Source: Racing Insights
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