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Mexico City – With a prediction that could include rain during Sunday’s race at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, the challenge for drivers will increase.
“I absolutely hate in the rain, but I’m fine with it,” says Shane van Gisbergen, who starts on the pole for the first cup race held outside the continental United States since 1958. “I’d rather not rain, but if that happens, we put on the law and go.”
How can Gisbergen not like something he is so good at?
“I just don’t enjoy it,” he said. “It’s just never nice. You always slip around, and it turns things into chaos. It’s nice to look at, but I don’t like driving. ‘
Alex Bowman finished or worse in seven of the last nine races.
Michael McDowell, who starts fifth, can tell.
“I like what SVG said because I feel the same way,” McDowell told NBC Sports. “I’m fine in the rain. I have a lot of experience in the rain, but I am never pumped for the rain because it is difficult. This creates variables that are difficult to overcome. ‘
One of the challenges in wet conditions is the water spray that creates cars before. The Weather Underground forecast calls for a 38% chance of scattered thunderstorms near the beginning of the race, and increases to about 60% by the end of the event.
If the track is wet at the beginning of the race (15:00 ET on Prime), it will make a leading starting point even more important. This makes his third starting point even more valuable for Ross Chastain.
“You will only get out of the syringe, just from the spray, and can’t have a vision if you’re back in the field,” Chastain told NBC Sports. “I was there and it’s frightening if you can’t see. It’s like driving blindfolded. ‘
Wet conditions at the beginning also offer opportunities.
“You want to be aggressive in the beginning when it rains to come, the first one or two cars so you have the best vision,” McDowell said.
The right (pit) decision?
AJ Allmendinger crew head Trent Owens had an interesting choice to make if it was time for him to choose his pit stall on Saturday.
Pit stalls are selected in order of how a team qualifies, so that the pole-sitter gets the first choice. All -policing qualified eighth and gave him the eighth choice of stalls.
Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez’s Pit Road is limited to 40 stalls. There will be 37 cars in the race. This leaves only three openings (and a small opening over the beginning/finish line).
RFK Racing posted three cars in the top -10 in Michigan for the first time since 2016, but Brad Keselowski is looking for winning.
Teams prefer to have an opening in front of their stall (for easy access) or an opening in front of their stall (for easy access to their box).
When it came time for Owens to choose his pits, he had two viable options. He was able to choose the second pit stall – near PIT exit. It would put allmender in the box behind Shane van Gisbergen and in front of Kyle Larson.
Or Owens could have chosen pit stall 13, which was further from Pit Exit, but had an opening before it had easy access to the box.
Jose Blasco-Figueroa grew up in Mexico City and his mother’s house is 25 kilometers from Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez
Owens chose Pit Stall 2, which means the first three pit stalls – from Gisbergen, Allmender and Larson – could have three of the top cars in the race. This could mean that they could fit together. Add to that that the pit cabinets are 26.5 feet long – the shortest in the range – and it can get stiff.
“Our biggest reason is (of Gisbergen) is in stall 1 and we feel like he is the dominant car,” Owens told NBC Sports for his reasoning to choose stall 2. “So we feel like we’re not being let down.
“We could have chosen (stall) 13, which has a small opening, but it is also a narrow pit road, short pit boxes. We just feel like pit stall 2 can limit our mistakes, because (Larson), which is behind us, has a full pit stall that can open behind him, as (Larson’s crew head Cliff Daniels) will stop, he will stop at his stall and give us enough room. “
This is likely to happen, as it will enable Larson to leave his stall without including the AllMender.
Much is about winning a race, but can Owens’s decision to choose Pit Stall 2, helping allmender to come to Victory Lane?
Too fast on Pit Road?
Another key area to watch with Pit Road is in the direction of Pit Exit.
There is 11 timing on Pit Road used to determine the velocity of the Pit Road. The velocity of the road is 40 km / h and with the 5 mph allowance drivers can go 45 km / h before being penalized.
Seven of the zones are either 147 feet-7 inches long or 157-6. But the last two are significantly shorter.
The next-to-last time zone-zone pit stalls 1-3 near PIT ex-exit-is 73 feet-2 inches. The recent timing line, which goes to PIT ex-off 46 feet-7 inches.
The velocity of Nascar is determined based on time over distance. Therefore, if a driver gets into a zone too quickly, he can slow down before the end of it and still speed. With two shorter zones at the end of Pit Road, drivers won’t have as much chance to do so.
Get caught on the Pit Road in the two divisions or anyone for the case-and the passage penalty costs a driver positions on the track.
“You just can’t afford to get faster,” Ryan Preece, who starts second today, told NBC Sports. “The track position is, of course, a big thing, no matter where it is. For me, you want to push that lights, you don’t want to give up one position, but if you redo it, you’re going to give up 36, so it’s a kind of risk of reward type.”
