If Saturday’s performance in the Sprint Showdown is a preview of how Travis Kvapil will run in this weekend’s Coca-Cola 600, look for a strong run from this Front Row Motorsports team. Crew chief Steven Lane and the $1 Baja Fish Taco Ford team put a racy car on the track for last weekend’s Showdown at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway, with Kvapil earning a ninth-place finish.
This Sunday, the No. 38 $1 Baja Fish Taco Ford team looks to expand that performance for the longest race of the NASCAR season - Sunday’s 600-miler at the 1.5-mile oval.
The Coca-Cola 600 will be Kvapil’s seventh Sprint Cup Series start at Charlotte Motor Speedway. His highest finish is 17th.
Comments from $1 Baja Fish Taco Racing team driver Travis Kvapil on the Coca-Cola 600:
“The 600-mile race at Charlotte is the longest race we go to during the season, with the extra 40 or 50 laps. It’s unique because we start off in the daytime and typically end up in the night. So your car is changing. Your crew chief and pit crew need to be making changes as the night goes on, pulling spring rubbers or putting spring rubbers in, changing shock adjustments.
“It’s just that so many things can happen there in that amount of miles. It’s really tough on the engines, too. Luckily we have Doug Yates and the Ford horsepower under the hood. So that should be a lot of power and very dependable, so hopefully we won’t have any trouble there.
“It’s just such a long night. You have to try really hard early just to have a decent balance in your race car. More importantly, you have to have a great balance in your race car towards the end of the night as it turns into nighttime. We had a test there a few weeks ago and I thought things went really well. Atlanta and Texas have gone really well for Front Row Motorsports, and those are similar tracks, plus we have the information from All-Star weekend. I think we are going to have a lot of good ideas going into this race.
“We had a good run in the All-Star Showdown. We had the car pretty decent by Segment 2 and were able to shoot up through the field pretty good, so I think we’ve got a good starting spot with the car for the 600. We don’t have much time at the shop on the pull-down rig this week to see how we can tune it further, but we’ve definitely got a good starting point. I think we can go to the 600 and have a good car.
“The 600 is such a cool event. Of course, we want to run well in every race, but the 600 is a big deal. It’s a showcase event for NASCAR, so you want to make sure you have a good showing. And it’s home to most of the race teams. So we’ll have lots of friends and family and other supporters there. We’re looking forward to putting on a good show for them.”
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