Auto Club 500 - Kyle Petty Notes

Kyle Petty Notes, Quotes: Auto Club 500
‘First and third turns key to getting around track’

Kyle Petty and the #45 Georgia-Pacific/Brawny Dodge team head to one of NASCAR’s faster tracks this week, the two-mile California Speedway, for Sunday’s Auto Club 500 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race.

Petty, 43, will be making his 688th career start this weekend. He is 10th on the all-time list in NASCAR Cup career starts, and fourth among active drivers. His eight career victories place him 45th on NASCAR’s all-time list in Cup wins. One of the most recognizable names in international motorsports, as is his sponsor, Georgia-Pacific, Petty’s driving career began with a five-race season in 1979. The native of Level Cross, N.C., has won over $18 million.

The thoughts of Georgia-Pacific/Brawny Dodge driver Kyle Petty heading into California:

“California is the kind of track that can fool you. It’s smooth, not banked like a Talladega or Daytona, and looks like it would be pretty easy to drive. And it can be if you are handling well.

“But the place is really fast, sneaky fast. We’re running just about the same speeds there as we are at Talladega, and not far from the speeds of Atlanta and Texas. When you first look at the place, sure, it looks fast but it doesn’t look like something that would compare with those other tracks. But you really build up a head of steam and move around that place pretty quickly.

“It’s a ‘fast-entry’ track. In other words, you go into the first and third turns pretty hard. That makes those areas crucial as far as set-up and handling is concerned. If you are going into those turns so hard that you are sliding up the race track, you are obviously losing speed. If you have to let off early to get a good entry into those turns, you are losing speed.

“Obviously, you have to have a ton of horsepower, a good aerodynamic package and be able to get around the entire track pretty well but, to me, the first and third turns are the key to the whole track. They set the tone for each lap. If you get through those turns pretty well, you are probably going to have a really good lap. If you have trouble with those two turns – or either one of those turns – it’s not going to be such a good lap.

“Going through One determines how well you get through the apex and how well you get through Turn Two. There isn’t much slowing down through those turns so how well you come out of them depends on how well you go into them – on either side of the race track. If a team is having problems getting good times or getting around, you will see them keep going back to the entry of One and Three. You have to get that right before you can work with much of anything else.

“A lot of people don’t think that a high-speed track can be a handling track but California is sure that way. It probably resembles getting around Daytona more than it does anywhere else. You have a lot of speed but you have to handle really well to get a good lap in. Sure, it’s a whole lot like a Michigan – pretty much the same configuration, exact same distance. But your mentality is more along the lines of how you attack a Daytona.

“The racing grooves open up but they don’t seem to open up quite like Michigan does. I don’t know if that’s because the weather is so much more severe in Michigan than it is in California or what. You get multiple racing grooves at California but the best lines seem to be the lower ones – not always next to the apron but the lower grooves. At Michigan, you can run pretty much anywhere on the track and get around the place pretty well. At California, lower is usually better.

“It’s going to be different running there twice this year because I think we are going to see two different race tracks. The race this week is going to be different than the one in September. This week, we’re looking at sunny skies and cool temperatures. In September, we’re most likely going to be looking at high temperatures and sunny skies during the day, but racing into the nighttime, so that’s going to change a lot of things. The things you did successfully a year ago here will probably be pretty helpful this week. But the things you do successfully this week with your car may or may not help you in September. That’s an unknown.

“We’re looking forward to getting out there. California hasn’t been a bad track for this Georgia-Pacific/Brawny Dodge team, and we’re excited with the possibilities.”