Bob Pockrass
FOX Motorsports Insider
Only three Cup drivers have experience racing stock cars on the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez road course.
Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski competed in Xfinity races there when the series went from 2005 through 2008.
Hamlin won the race in 2006 and Busch in the last NASCAR race at the track in 2008. But there are two other drivers who have celebrated wins at the facility.
Daniel Suarez won three races there but on a 1-mile oval configuration used in the NASCAR Mexico Series in 2012-14. And Michael McDowell won a sports-car race there in 2005.
Do those wins matter?
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“I recognize a few of the corners as I’m running it [in the simulator],” Hamlin said. “I’m like, ‘Yeah I remember this, remember that.’
“Certainly there are some different parts of the track that we didn’t get to run. But overall, it feels pretty straightforward to me. Not much to it. I think there’s a bunch of passing zones. I’m actually looking forward to this one.”
The 2006 win was Hamlin’s first in a NASCAR national series race, so maybe Hamlin looks forward to it thanks to those great memories.
When Hamlin and Busch raced, they competed on a configuration that was a 2.67-mile, eight-turn course. Now they will race a 15-turn, 2.42-mile course, a slightly shorter version than what is used when Formula 1 competes at the track. It was the return of F1 that resulted in a reconfiguration in 2015.
“It was really cool and unique to just kind of see the fan nature and how different it can be or what it is and the energy that they bring to the track,” Busch said. “It’s a lot of fun to check that out. … For me to win the final race that we had there back in 2009, it was special.”
Suarez didn’t even win at the facility making right-hand turns, so he takes those wins for what they’re worth.
With the additional turns, Suarez said he doesn’t feel it is the same track that the few drivers who did compete in Xfinity would be used to at all.
“It only makes you feel good,” Suarez said. “I won there a couple times in an oval configuration. So is that is going to help me? Denny, Kyle, McDowell, they won on a race track that was completely different.”
Suarez believes the drivers will have to work to run well.
“It’s going to be a challenge,” Suarez said. “Honestly, I don’t think that there is a driver out there that has an advantage knowing the race track because it’s going to be something completely new for everyone.
“It’s going to be one of those weekends that there are new things to adapt to and whoever does the best job adapting and improving the quickest is going to be on top.”
One of the new things they will adapt to is the part of the course that runs through the former baseball stadium that functioned as such 20 years ago but that is still used for events like concerts.
“I’ve seen the F1 races there, so I have a good understanding [of the track],” Busch said. “I’ve raced there before, so not every corner is different, but the stadium section I know is a lot different.
“It’ll be interesting to see how all that plays out with our cars.”
The driver who might be able to correlate their experience the most will be McDowell, as the current Next Gen car is modeled after a sports car when it comes to suspension.
“It does help I’m familiar with the track, familiar with the city, familiar with getting acclimated to the [higher] altitude and what that looks like,” McDowell said. “So I think there are some advantages to having experience here.
“I don’t know how much it actually helps 20 years later, but I feel really good about going to a road course in general.”’
McDowell believes he can adapt to the new facility quicker than others.
“Any time you go to a new road course where nobody has any experience or seat time, I feel like that’s an advantage for us,” McDowell said.
“We’ve been working on it for a few weeks and feel like we’re prepared as you can be.”
The key as far as adapting to the track will come with the extended weekend schedule.
Instead of 20 minutes of practice with limited time to change parts and pieces before qualifying, Cup teams will get 75 minutes of practice Friday (a 50-minute session, an hour break and then a 25-minute session). They will then get a couple of hours to work on their cars before having to go through tech for qualifying Saturday, with the cars then impounded for Sunday’s race.
“It’s nice that we have a practice where you can adjust and change on [things] unlike a typical weekend,” McDowell said. “So we’ll have a few packages we can run through and try to make some overall gains on our road-course package. I’m looking forward to it.”
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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