By Caleb Whisler, Staff Writer
This weekend at Martinsville Speedway kicks off the start of the “enhanced schedule” for select Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races in 2018.
The enhanced schedule will take place at Martinsville, Richmond, Kansas in May, Chicagoland, Kentucky, Watkins Glen, Bristol Night Race, Indianapolis and the fall Talladega race.
With the enhanced schedule at Martinsville, teams will have about a three-hour window to prepare and set up the car for qualifying and the race.
“You will get done with final practice and have three hours to have all your race prep, your set up decisions and you will get in line for qualifying and tech the cars afterwards. Last year, we did Sunday qualifying so they want to do it Saturday night,” said Cole Pearn, crew chief for Martin Truex Jr.
With NASCAR enhancing the inspection process by combining pre-race and qualifying inspection, a challenge is provided from the crew chiefs perspective. For Pearn, the biggest challenge will be deciding what setup to put in the car.
“I think the hardest thing for is not having a lot of time to decide what you want to do setup wise. Now, from final practice to when your locked in is three hours,” continued Pearn.
“You are going to go home Saturday and not have anything to do. I think from that standpoint it will be really weird for us not being able to work on it overnight and make adjustments going into race day. It will definitely be different.”
Action from Martinsville Speedway for the Cup series begins at 10:05 a.m. ET on Saturday, March 24.