NASCAR heads west to Las Vegas this weekend to begin the final round of the playoffs before the championship for both the Cup and Xfinity series. Eight drivers remain in each series, and the next three races will determine which four will get to fight for their respective championships in Phoenix.
For a technical deep dive about the intricacies of Las Vegas Motor Speedway, you can check out my first Autopian piece from earlier this season.
Teams and drivers have been grinding week in and week out for eight months at this point, but the final push begins now. These next three weeks will be the latest nights and earliest mornings at the shop for all teams still involved in the championship hunt.
NASCAR’s “win and you’re in” system of advancing in the playoffs has a unique effect on this final round. A team that manages to find victory lane in Las Vegas will know immediately that they are locked into the championship race. They could crash out of the next two races in Miami and Martinsville on Lap 1 and still be racing for the title in Phoenix. There is no home-field advantage to the championship race like there is in other sports, but this is about as close as you can get. Locking in early in this round gives that team such a huge advantage simply due to the fact that they have extra time to prepare. Let’s take a look back at two separate championship runs and you’ll see what I mean.
During the 2021 Xfinity Series playoffs I was the second engineer on the #9 JRM Chevy driven by Noah Gragson. In that season the final round of the playoffs consisted of Texas, Kansas and Martinsville. After being wrecked (ironically, by my current driver Sam Mayer) out of 2nd place in Kansas we entered Martinsville in a must-win situation.
Every ounce of effort that we could muster went into preparing Noah and our car to succeed at Martinsville. Gragson, frustrated with his teammate, ran the race with a photo of Mayer taped to his steering wheel as a reminder of why he was in that must win position.
Ultimately, Gragson prevailed. We won the race and made it into the championship.
There was, however, a moment after the race, once the confetti had settled and the car was loaded back in the trailer where we all kind of looked at each other like “shit, now we have to go to Phoenix.” It had taken so much effort and focus just to make it through that round that our Phoenix car was essentially untouched.
The build sheet for our Phoenix car was sent out late on the afternoon of 10/26 (Tuesday of Martinsville week, 7 days before the hauler had to leave for Phoenix) and the car was assembled by the shop mechanics on Wednesday 10/27.
We left the track in Martinsville, VA (just over a 2-hour drive from Mooresville, NC) around 11:30 pm on Saturday night and came into the shop ready to dig in at 7:00 am on Sunday morning. By 5:00 pm Monday we had finally gotten the car to the pull-down rig. Tuesday was a thrash to get the car ready. The final setup sheet was sent out at 10:00 am. By around 8:00 pm we were ready to go into the Hawkeye to begin our final tweaks on the body and chassis and the car was finally loaded up at 11:45 pm on Tuesday to head out west.
Photo: Author
We were okay-ish in the race but certainly never had the pace of Austin Cindric or Daniel Hemric and ultimately finished 3rd in the championship after sustaining damage when Noah made a late race Hail Mary passing attempt on the penultimate restart.
In the 2023 Xfinity playoffs, I was the lead engineer for the #1 JRM Chevy driven by Sam Mayer. The final round of the playoffs in 2023 was the same as it is in 2024; Las Vegas, Miami, and Martinsville. We managed to find victory lane in Miami to lock ourselves into the championship race.
Knowing that we had a free pass at Martinsville allowed us to dedicate a tremendous amount of time to preparing for Phoenix on both the car and driver side. Our Phoenix car was run across the pull-down rig on 10/24 (Tuesday of Martinsville race week), a full week before it had to be loaded as compared to the evening before loading in 2021.
Myself, crew chief Mardy Lindley, spotter Kevin Hamlin, and second engineer Josh Lewis spent an entire day watching back film and SMT with Sam to try and prepare him for the race. We would stop the film at various instances and point out a certain car to give Kevin and Sam a chance to discuss how they would like to communicate if they found themselves in a similar situation. Kevin could break down his sight lines from the spotter’s stand and Sam could articulate what information was essential to him in the car and what was not. For restarts, we would pause the film as the field fanned out through the Phoenix dog leg and discuss which drivers we thought had made good or bad decisions.
Our teammate Justin Allgaier is one of the best drivers in the Xfinity Series at Phoenix Raceway. When we were watching the races back, we would sync up the SMT data to the film and compare what Justin was doing versus Sam and were able to implement some of these driving techniques in the simulator leading up to the race. Prior to the 2023 Championship race, Sam had never scored a top 10 finish in his four previous starts at Phoenix Raceway with an average finish of 20th to his record.
JR Motorsports leases its engines from Hendrick Motorsports. Each of these engines is tested on the dyno before they are sent out to be installed into the racecars. As the first JR Motorsports car to lock into the championship race, the #1 car was awarded the “best” engine out of the batch. The difference between the engine that Sam received and the “worst” one may have been marginal, but every little bit counts.
As soon as our team was locked into the championship, the entire fabrication department descended upon our Phoenix car. No stone was to be left unturned. Everyone who touched that car was determined to make sure it was perfect. Every car that leaves our shop is top-notch, but when you give everyone an extra week to buff and polish on the body there is no detail that goes unperfected. There was no more “that’s as good as we can get” it was simply “I don’t care what it takes, make it perfect.”
Coming to the final restart, the Championship four drivers all lined up in positions 1-2-3-4. Sam Mayer and the #1 JR Motorsports team finished 5th in the race and 3rd in the championship. That may not seem like the fairy tale storybook ending that you were expecting, but to finish 5th at Mayer’s worst race track and to run in contention with John Hunter Nemecheck, Justin Allgaier, and Cole Custer all evening was a feat that we were tremendously proud of.
A couple of teams may have a pretty good feeling about their chances after Las Vegas depending on their points situation, but some amount of focus will still have to go into their Miami and Martinsville cars. Only the victor can afford to throw all their eggs in the basket of preparing their Phoenix car.
A bad race anywhere in this round of the playoffs can put a team behind regardless of whether or not they manage to make it to the Championship. There really is no room for error. Teams must execute three flawless races if they don’t want to find themselves in a must-win scenario.
Photos: Barr Visuals/Big Machine Racing unless otherwise noted
Blown away that I get to read this kind of strategic detail, in great, tight prose. Thank you Aedan for taking us behind the scenes!
I still haven’t watched a full race, but now often put one on while doing other tasks like washing dishes. I really like the physics of NASCAR articles, but even these Inside Baseball peeks are eye-opening.
Thanks Aedan
Awesome story about the Gragson car!
There’s a joke that the team that wins the 500 has the perfect car for Phoenix… if they make it that far.
There’s a lot of that little behind the scenes stuff that I wish got more attention
Good friend of mine is the lead designer over at Trackhouse, does all the paint schemes and designs for the team. I hear some of the crazy stories behind the scenes and wish they were out in the open. Thankfully we got guys like Dale Jr who want to maintain those stories as long as we can.
Once again, thanks Aedan. Read your stuff every time it shows up here.
Just very well written, and full of info.
A shame we don’t have more racing folks here, but guess that is life?
Would like to see more stuff during the off season. Really.
And a shout out to my late, great friend and NASCAR Champion Benny Parsons also.
Back in the day Benny could explain track and car stuff in a way that was so easy and clear for newbies to understand.
Enjoy the “cool down” laps up there Benny. And bless you friend.
Keep it up Aedan. Thanks.
I really appreciate comments like this. Glad to know these are appreciated.
Another great read, Aedan!
I doubt anyone who hasn’t actually been there has any real idea of how much work goes into prepping for a race — especially a postseason championship race — and your description is very enjoyable. For my taste, it could have run much longer….
Even though I know there are roughly a million reasons why you can’t/shouldn’t write it, I would love to see some in-depth reporting on what goes into NASCAR’s “inspection” process, both pre- and post-race, covering cars and engines alike.
I’m a bit prejudiced in how I regard NASCAR’s application of rules, inspections, etc., and am often frustrated by their use in what seems (to an outsider) arbitrary fashion, as well as apparent favoritism shown certain drivers, teams and manufacturers. Again, not something you could go into, at least until you retire, which I hope is many years — and many articles! — from now.
I second that – I’ve been wondering more about inspections after last week’s Cup Series whoa! moment. Like who’s there for them, how/where they actually do them, that sort of thing.
Maybe that could be a piece for the off season
One day the statute of limitations will expire haha
There’s not a lot of difference between how NASCAR works and rules vs our present situation in Washington and Congress.
And that really sucks. Some shit never seems to change for the better. YMMV.