As expected, new surface means faster speeds

By Shawn Singleton
Media General News Service
Published: May 11, 2008

DARLINGTON - All week, the talk heading into Darlington has been how the Lady in Black’s new $10 million surface is going to produce higher speeds and more cautions.

Thursday’s practice did nothing to quell such talk.

Thirty-one cars eclipsed Ward Burton’s track record of 173.797 mph set in the first race after the track was repaved in 1996.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr., turned in the second-fastest time after the second Sprint Cup practice behind A.J. Allmendinger, who ran 178.64 mph.

“The speeds are pretty insane. The grip is good. It’s going to be interesting to see, really, how the cars are on 40- and 50-lap runs,” said Earnhardt, who is looking for his first Darlington win.

“Everybody is out there running three and four laps and doing okay, but it’s going to be interesting to see who falls off a lot and who doesn’t and who can maintain that kind of pace.”

Ryan Newman had the 12th fastest time after the first practice session, hitting nearly 174 mph.

“(The track) is quicker than when we tested here last month. It’s quick,” he said. “It’s a lot better race track than the ones that we go to. We knew that it was going to be quicker from when we came back from the test.”

Longtime Sprint Cup driver and Darlington veteran Bill Elliott immediately felt the difference as soon as his No. 21 Ford hit the track.

“It’s not the same Darlington. It’s going to be a little bit harder to race on it because everybody seems to be running closer to the same speed,” he said. “The new car has probably made that a lot more apparent, but the cars aren’t going to give up as much and the times are not going to slow down as much. It’s just different.”

Sprint Cup rookie Regan Smith is looking forward to Saturday’s race. As the only member of the Raybestos rookie class that has experience at Darlington, Smith’s best finish in four Nationwide Series races was a 12th-place finish last year.

“I think in testing (the other drivers) said they were two seconds quicker (on the new surface),” he said. “But I know they had tried some different compounds on the tires and stuff like that.

“I’m sure they said some really soft ones (on the track) at one point were really fast.”

Many drivers are thinking the faster surface is going to bring out more caution flags.

“I expect a lot of crashes on Saturday night. The track is real narrow and real fast,” Sprint Cup driver Michael Waltrip said. “As the surface wears out, you can’t really go for it. You can’t dive in a little gap because you will wreck yourself.

“Now everyone is going to have a Superman complex. There will be a lot of grip out there, so the other drivers will be more aggressive.”

Waltrip remembers the last time the track was paved and he thinks the outcome will be similar on Saturday.

“We wrecked almost every lap,” he said. “The same thing will basically happen on Saturday night. You’re going to see a lot of cautions because of all the grip.

“In the past, it was all about self-preservation. Now that’s no longer the case. Guys will be going for it.”