Adapting to this track

• You want a neutral car -- not too tight and not too loose. You can't have one that is tight because if you're pushing at Charlotte, the car will keep getting tighter and tighter as the race wears on. You have to back off the throttle to get it to turn, and you'll lose your momentum coming off the corners, which will make your straightaway speeds slower.
• Downforce plays a major role because almost two-thirds of every lap is spent turning. If you've got good downforce, you can work the gas better in the corners, make up time and gather strong momentum on the straightaways.
• The motor guys have an important job on this track. You've got to have good acceleration and good low-end torque. You also have to have good top-end horsepower. And you have to maintain good gas mileage.

Plotting strategy

• The cars run about 65 to 68 laps on a tank of fuel, and you won't see many teams short pitting for fresh tires before they need fuel. For the most part, teams will come to pit road and get four fresh tires. You run in the low 32s on fresh tires. Later, on those same tires, you'll be running the high 33s. It's not a huge difference, but it makes a big difference when racing for track position.
• If there's a caution near the end, and the tires have only 20 or 25 laps on them, you may see teams come in for two right-side tires -- not necessarily to make the car drive better but to hang on to track position. If your car has a push, changing just two tires may make the push worse. You normally have to make some adjustments to the cars to compensate for that push.
• The pit boxes at Charlotte are kind of small but workable. There are several openings in the pit wall, and that's where I always looked to choose my pit stall. A lot of teams want to be near the exit, but you go into the races here knowing there will be several long green runs. It takes so long for the driver to get up to speed off those last couple of stalls that pitting under green will hurt your track position. Back around pit 15 or so, you can get a good amount of speed before leaving pit road. You want an opening in front of or behind you so you have more room to get in or out.

Where the action is

• Most of the passing takes place in Turns 3 and 4 because there are two grooves. But you can pass just about anywhere at Charlotte. You can get momentum off the corners and pass going down the straightaways. If you can outdrive the others getting into the corners, you can make passes in the corners.
• You'll see some incidents with drivers pinching off other drivers getting into the corners. And you'll see cars get into each other racing off Turn 4. When you come off Turn 4, the track really narrows, and it's hard to race side-by-side there. A lot of times, you'll see cars spin and crash coming down the front stretch.