DAN'S DAYTONA DIARY
Friday  February 9, 2001

Q:  Dan, Yesterday we talked about setting car up for qualifying. Can you describe for the fans, what is like to take a qualifying run here at Daytona. 

When you are in line waiting to qualify, one thing you have to remember is not to put your foot on the brake. You have to remember your brake pads have been tied back. 

When it is time to go, you have to be careful not to spin the rear wheels, because of the special qualifying gear that has been installed. As you leave pit road, you shift through the gears, in first gear you run to 7300 rpm, in second gear you run to about 7000 rpm. About that time you will be entering the racetrack. You take the car to the high side of the racetrack to the outside retaining wall. As you run through second gear, you will be up against the wall, and shifting to third gear as you enter turn two. We want to keep the car on the outside during that first lap to use as much racetrack as possible, so we can bring our speed up as fast as possible. As we enter the back straight, we shift into fourth gear, winding third gear up to 7000 rpm. We enter turn three up against the outside retaining wall, just as high as we can. As you enter turn three, you must remember there is a bump there, so you back down from the wall a little. If you stay too close to the wall over the bump, the car could get a little loose and get sideways on you. As you come into turn four, there is a bump across the tunnel. You cannot go over this flat, as it will upset the car. Exiting turn four, you enter the tri-oval; you again take the car up against the wall as far as possible. 

At this point the car is running wide open, and for the next two laps you do not lift your foot off the accelerator.  As you enter turn one, you bring the car down to about the middle of the track. The very first lap is what we call the throw away lap. The second lap is what is going to be our qualifying lap. The first qualifying lap we want to run about in the middle of the racetrack to get up as much speed as possible. As we bring the car into the tri-oval, we bring the car down to the bottom of the racetrack at the start finish line. You stay on the bottom of the racetrack from this point. As we enter turn one we concentrate really in keeping the car to the bottom of the track. It is rough ride because of the shocks we are using. The power steering pump has been disconnected, so it is little hard to steer. It bounces around a little, but as we enter the back straight, we keep the car right on the bottom line, so we do not use any extra footage on the track surface. As we enter turn three, we stay right on the white line. You are conscious of the bumps through here, but you hang on, drive through the bumps and keep the car steady. Coming through the tri-oval, you keep the car on the white line, just touching the apron as we come across the start finish line. 

At this point, we shut the engine off because it has already started to overheat. We coast the car all the way around the track to the pit area.

It sounds easy. Don’t lift and follow the white line around the track on the second lap. 

Q:  At the end, can you tell if you had turned a good lap? 

A driver uses the tachometer to gauge his speed. At Daytona, you should run a consistent 6500 to 6600 rpm all the way around the second lap. I know my normal running rpm’s. If I run say 100 to 200 more rpm’s, then I know I will have a good lap.

 Q: Was it a good lap yesterday? 

Well, as I said yesterday, we thought it could have been better. My track rpm’s were good, but the car did not improve that much over our practice speeds. 

Q: Dan thanks for that additional insight. We know you are busy setting the car back up for final practices and for Sunday’s race.

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