On Sunday, Martin Truex Jr., in his first official lap as driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet, won the outside pole for the Daytona 500. Interestingly, it was just his third lap of Speedweeks at that point. He ran only two laps in the opening, pre-qualifying practice and none in the second session. And his Denver-based team skipped the open test session at Daytona in January.
Todd Berrier, Truex’s crew chief, admitted in the post-qualifying news conference, that superstition played as much a part in his practice strategy as anything. In 2007, Berrier skipped the preseason test session at Daytona International Speedway then won the 500 with Kevin Harvick as his driver. And this wasn’t the first time Berrier made a decision based on his luck, or lack of, in past instances.
“Absolutely I’m superstitious,” he said, adding that he steadfastly avoids potentially unlucky items like 50-dollar bills, anything green and things he believes have brought him bad luck in the past.
“I don’t know how many races we’ve run bad or whatever and I leave my shoes at the track and walk home in my socks or whatever,” he said.
But Berrier also said there were other reasons he lay low at test time. For starters, his Furniture Row Racing team is closely affiliated with his old employer, Richard Childress Racing, and he has access to testing results and data from his old co-workers.
“With that being said, I still felt really good about continuing to work in the wind tunnel, continue to work in the shop and do all the detail work that it takes to make the cars go fast,” he said. “I feel you’re better suited to do that work in the shop, and while those guys are down here testing we were back there (at the shop) beating the car up trying to get just a little bit more out of it.
“Obviously we should have started a week sooner, I think, but at the end of the day we were pretty close.”
But as Truex pointed out Sunday, a lot can change at Daytona during the week between qualifying and the 500.
“You can start dead last and win this thing, so it’s not over,” he said. “There’s a lot of work to do.”
Foreboding wrecks? The most recent points-paying Sprint Cup restrictor-plate race, at Talladega Superspeedway last fall, was relatively tame. The race, known for producing multicar crashes, saw only three caution periods for 10 laps, with only three drivers wrecking. And two of those, Austin Dillon and Casey Mears, didn't wreck until the last lap.
Then last weekend at Daytona International Speedway in the non-points Sprint Unlimited, wrecks knocked out more than half the field, leaving only eight of the 18 who started on the track at the finish.
So what kind of race will fans see in the Daytona 500?
Carl Edwards, who was among those who wrecked out of the Unlimited, said the Unlimited might serve as a wake-up call for some drivers.
“I see cars hit one another, turn sideways, people save it, just crazy stuff,” he said. “Sometimes you get away with it and sometimes you don’t.
“I think the (Unlimited) reminded us that it can go bad. In a way, pushing that car up on the hauler, watching my guys, I think everyone realized we’ve got to protect these cars a little bit.
“You have an offseason, and everyone gets wound up, and it’s hard to bring everybody back to reality and realize, ‘Hey, we have to make it to the end of 500 miles.’”
But he also said the relative calmness of 2013 on restrictor-plate tracks normally known for producing “Big One” crashes might be a thing of the past.
“It did seem more tame last year, and I don’t know exactly why, but I think we’re right back to normal now,” he said. “It should be entertaining at least.”
Promoter can drive: Clay Campbell, the 53-year-old president of Martinsville Speedway, was all smiles all week as he attended promoters meetings and such at Daytona International Speedway. On Saturday he finished third in the Lucas Oil 200 ARCA race at Daytona International Speedway.
““It was a great day, and Ken Schrader gave me a great race car and that’s what makes the difference,” said Campbell, who has raced Late Models for years. “A driver can only do so much, and if he doesn’t have the car, then you can forget it. But to come out of here with a third-place finish, I’m ecstatic.”
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