Page 67 of The Legend
Compound – Jameson
If youwould have told me at the beginning of this season I would be emerged in theclosest point battle in the NASCAR Cup Series history ever, I would havelaughed in your face. Not only that, after Richmond, would I have told you thatyou were smoking crack because that wasn’t happening. Not this year, I was sureof that.
By thetime the series rolled around to Pocono in August that year and I managed todestroy our tenth car in the last nine races, I got the message: This was not myyear. Things seemed to turn around in Loudon and I started winning...a lot actually. So when I made it into thechase, I figured you know, let’s just stay out of trouble and finish out theseason the best we can. Winning the Monster Million helped me, and myteams confidence but we struggled those last few races. With heavy hitters likeTate, Paul and Bobby all in contention, I honestly thought I had no chance.Thankfully, once in the chase, Brody had no consistency and proved to be anaverage rookie. He needed more experience.
I won atLoudon, Dover and Texas putting me within one point of Tate going intoHomestead. Turns out, I had a chance again at another championship. But therewas only ten points separating the top four drivers. It was anyone’s championship.
Theproblem was that Tate was consistent and pulled through with top ten finishesin every race in the chase. He was going to be tough to beat.
Themorning of the final race, I was in a good mood. Mostly because of my wife’sarrival and took care of some much needed pressure release to calm the nerves.
She stoodby my side through all the race interviews and media appearances as she alwaysdid. My other mood boosting turn, it rained last night leaving the track green.
There wasnothing better for me than a green track because any rubber that was tearing upyour tires before was now gone leaving a fresh surface. It had its downsidessure, no grip but with my dirt track skills, loose was okay with me. I likedhaving a softer tire andless grip.
Kyle was anervous wreck though, having set the car up for a surface that had already beenraced on, now we had to start over with wedge, tire pressures and springadjustments.
I wasn’tworried so much about myself that morning as I was Kyle. He seemed on edge mostof the weekend.
Over theyears, Kyle hasn’t had much of a personal life and puts everything he has intothis team along with Mason. Here are two people who have dedicated their livesto Riley-Simplex Racing and stood by all of us through it all. They didn’t havefamily outside of us. Kyle got married once but that quickly ended when sherealized being married to a crew chief was worse than being married to thehotheaded driver. You never see them. With Kyle being the best crew chief inthe business, he hadnolife outside of racing. But he was okay withthat.
The thingwith Kyle was he was more than a crew chief to me. When I lost my cool, heanchored me to the tide so to speak. The rocks may have beaten the shit out ofme but he kept me from going under. I like to think I provided him with thesame but there were times when I wondered about his mental sanity. Let’s bereal, I wasn’t exactly the easiest person to work with.
“Youokay?” I asked him as we sat around the hauler eating breakfast that morningbefore introductions. “You don’t look so well.”
He didn’tanswer right away, his eyes trained on the clip board in front of him makingsure everything was in order. When I kicked his foot under the table, he lookedup. “Yeah, I’m fine,” he mumbled looking back at his clipboard chewing on theend of his pen.
Masonwalked up after that and they got into fuel mileage and what each pit stopwould do.
Fuelmileage played a huge role in race day strategy. Whether it was because ofbetter performing tires, the new Ethanol-gasoline blend or smaller fuel cellsin the cars, teams had been forced to take gambles to stretch the fuel reservesto the limit. While some may benefit from the chance, others would literallysputter out in the closing laps.
Personally,I think that it was a part of the sport and added to the whole aspect. Itwasn’t just about talent anymore. It was about being consistent and making allaspects come together.
Yourstrategy is simple. Get better fuel mileage than anybody else and make the rightpit calls, oh, and drive smart.
Every teamhas a secret. I personally don’t know ours. Kyle and Mason deal exclusivelywith that and refuse to share their secrets. I had no problem with that. The lessI knew, the more focused I was on the track. I trusted them. After all, theyguided me to championship after championship.
We’ve madesome bad calls like we did in Michigan in late August when Kyle thought forsure we could make it on one can of fuel and I ran out on the last lap. Itwasn’t exact science but we won the gamble more often than not.
When itcomes to winning races, it’s the combination of car and driver and what percentagethey provide to the mix. When you add fuel mileage into the mix you add yet athird element, the crew chief.
Pitstrategy could negate an advantage a faster car may have had on you. Crewchiefs like it or not, received little credit when calls go right and all theblame when they went wrong.
The keywas consistency and being a champion was to know when to be aggressive and whento be cautious.Two things me and my team we very good at.
Homesteadis a nasty racetrack and I mean that in a good way. It’s hard both on driversand equipment. At no point during the race can you just ride around and loglaps. If you aren’t racing another driver you’re making sure you keep your carout of the wall. For that reason, I loved Homestead just for the challenge.
My ritualbefore the race was the same, kiss Sway and then Spencer raised the window netafter telling me good luck. Tate even came by to wish me luck and let me know Iwas in for a battle; he wasn’t just laying it down. I knew that already andthat was the last thing I wanted him to do. You never want to win achampionship where the other guy just gave up without a fight. Tate should haveretired by now but with thirteen championships under his belt, I had a feelinghe was trying to match my fifteen before he retired.
I wasn’thaving that but I also wasn’t worried about it either. Of course I wanted towin but worrying about it wouldn’t help. I race my own races and that’s all Icould do.
Once thecar rolled onto the track, it was all about finding my points on the track,getting familiar with the lines they were using and where my pit stall was.With being the last race to decide the championship, I needed to be focused andon my game one hundred percent.
“You gotme Aiden?” I adjusted the ear buds when the radio cracked.
“10-4,” heconfirmed. “You’re coming up on pit entrance now. The white line is the breakpoint where the speed starts.”
“That thin one or the thick one?There are two.”
