NASCAR Notebook: Can Chevrolet return to Victory Lane at Auto Club Speedway?
Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images
FONTANA, Calif.—Chevrolet is still searching for its first win in 2019.
Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Larson have won two of the last three races at Auto Club Speedway and had won seven of the previous 10 Cup contests entering last year.
Johnson holds the record with six Cup wins at Fontana—his home track. He enters Sunday hoping to end a losing streak stretching to his last victory at Dover on June 4, 2017, 63 races ago.
“There are tracks that a driver can make a difference at,” Johnson said. “Dover has always been one for me. This track has been one. The one thing that is so different right now is we’re back to a package we’ve run two other times this year. We’re on a high wear track. I look at Atlanta. It did not go well. Atlanta is similar to this place.
“So, I’m hopeful that we’ve made our car better since Atlanta for this type of environment. That’s what I think the whole Hendrick Motorsports crowd is focused on right now.”
It’s been a season of change for the seven-time champion. For the first time in 18 years, he doesn’t have crew chief Chad Knaus calling the shots. Kevin Meendering is the new crew chief for the No. 48 Chevrolet. Ally replaced Lowe’s as the team’s sponsor. And of course, there’s the new aero package.
After the first four races of the year, Johnson, 43, tops the Hendrick Motorsports contingent with two top-10 finishes. His best result came last week at Phoenix Raceway, where he finished eighth and led his first laps (four) of the season.
“I think last weekend showed that if we have a mistake-free race that we can run in the top 5 and in the top 10 and how last year went, that’s a step in the right direction,” Johnson said. “So, we do have some pride in that. Clearly, we’re putting a lot of time and work and effort to get better. So, it’s nice to have those better runs.
“But it’s not where we want to be. It’s not where I want to be, or Mr. Hendrick or Kevin or this whole team. We’re trying to celebrate the small victories, but at the same time, if you look at the speed that the No. 18 (Kyle Busch) had on the field and his ability to pass, we want that. And we’re not going to stop until we get that.”
Adapting to the new car
Brad Keselowski is off to a stellar start in 2019.
He won at Atlanta in the first race with new aero package to secure his spot in the Playoffs. The following week, after drag ducts were added to the car, he finished second to his Penske teammate Joey Logano in a mad dash to the finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
After topping the speed chart in Happy Hour at Auto Club Speedway on Saturday, Keselowski’s crew chief, Paul Wolfe, says the key is avoiding complacency.
“We have to be willing to explore some different areas and try some different things,” Wolfe said. “It is hard to get away from what you have been successful with but at the same time if you don't explore new ideas, there are a lot of options right now with car builds and getting the balance changed on your car. We will continue to explore that and hopefully build from the momentum we have started the season with.”
Wolfe is fortunate that Team Penske has been ahead of the curve in establishing balance in the new car, despite four different combinations of aero and engine packages to start the season. He has zeroed in on two elements.
“One, the body build itself and whether you build your car more towards like a speedway car with not much drag and not much downforce,” Wolfe said. “The second part is the whole rear ride heights. There is a window there where you can change your rear ride height to change your drag but that also changes the overall balance of your car. So then your mechanical balance to go with the aero balance could be different.”
Some teams have been exceptional on Fridays, where the emphasis is on qualifying and single-car runs. But some of those teams really haven’t been competitive during the race. Other organizations have just missed the balance at certain tracks this season.
Wolfe cautions against going too far off course.
“Some guys may have gone down the path of really trimming their cars out with their body build and then when you get here you just can’t put downforce back in it enough to be good at the tracks where you need to start to lift because of tire fall-off,” Wolfe adds. “There is also how you run your car mechanically and with the ride heights in general. To the point, there are a lot of options and lots of different things to do.
“It is about trying to understand not only being fast by yourself but how these cars seem to get extremely tight or they could get loose in the dirty air.”
Against the wind
Kyle Larson complimented Ganassi Racing’s new engineer Jeff Curtis on his ability to adjust the car due to adverse conditions such as wind.
Drivers experienced gusts in excess of 20mph during practice on Friday and Saturday at Auto Club Speedway. An element like that can disrupt the feel of the car.
"We've got a new engineer from the No. 78 team last year, "Jazzy," and it's been interesting to hear him talk each week about the wind and what direction it's going and how that's going to affect the balance," Larson said. "That's stuff I've thought about in the past, but never really thought about how it would affect set-up and how the crew chiefs would go about that."
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