Jimmie Johnson, the centerpiece of midweek drama at Lowe's Motor Speedway's tire-testing, rebounded from that crash and from a tough Sunday at Bristol to win the pole yesterday for Sunday's DIRECTV 500, beating Jamie McMurray, Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman.
And if pit road means as much as it usually does here, then it may take an unusually strong car or some good pit-road gambling for anyone else to have as good a shot at winning as these four, who get the four best pits.
"Pit road here is the most treacherous, and Bristol is a close second," Johnson said. "Track position is really important here, and that makes pit position important."
This flat half-mile track is the slowest track on the tour, and one of the most frustrating, and while lingering feelings from Bristol's many bump-and-runs may still be on everyone's minds, yesterday there was more talk about this week's tire testing at Charlotte. Goodyear engineers are going back for a second round of testing next week.
Drivers like Michael Waltrip said that Charlotte speeds are very fast: "Yes, too fast.
"What NASCAR should do is get rid of these 830 CFM carburetors we're running and put those (smaller) 390 CFM Truck carburetors on our cars to slow us down. That would take away a lot of straightaway speed.
"Now I'm sure Jack Roush would start crying, because he's winning every race. But NASCAR doesn't need to be listening to people who are winning every race; they need to listen to reason ... and reason says those smaller carburetors would make for safer racing at Charlotte. We all build engines with those smaller carburetors already.
"Or NASCAR could just make us all run those 400-horsepower Daytona plate engines at Charlotte."
Doug Richert, the crew chief for Greg Biffle, one of the Charlotte favorites, is worried about Charlotte speeds: "If you're running 197 like they say they are, it is too fast. We keep getting faster and faster, and that just induces tire problems.
"I want to keep my guy around and walking on the legs he was born with. I don't want to see these guys get hurt.
"These races now are just about how lucky you can be and not have a tire failure, and that's a shame."
That was precisely the scenario at Hampton, Ga., two weeks ago, where most drivers had tire problems and only two or three were actually racing each other down the stretch.
So Johnson's Wednesday crash was a major topic here.
"The first day I was really pleased with the tire," Johnson said. "It was a new mold (design), and I thought it really improved the feel. The second day, I was on my second 30-lap run when the tire went down. I was really surprised at that tire problem."
Goodyear engineers are still studying the remains of the right-rear tire from Johnson's car that blew out 23 laps (32 miles) into a run, apparently when it was cut. That incident, plus high speeds on the new asphalt, has a lot of drivers scared, and skeptical about safety at the Charlotte track.
At first it appeared that Johnson's tire might have been cut by a broken bracket used to hold infrared tire-heat sensors.
While no speeds were officially announced at Charlotte this week, engineers at the test report the fastest speeds entering the corners were 205 mph. The quickest average lap was apparently at 192.034 mph (28.12 seconds). However some crews report average speeds as high as 197, and 205 at the start-finish line, and close to 210 at the end of the backstretch, and say that neither the track nor NASCAR wants to reveal true speeds because of liability concerns. Others dismiss those claims as too high. NASCAR has a dozen speed-sensors embedded in the track.
Regardless, drivers and crew chiefs worry that Charlotte speeds are simply too fast to be safe ... and certainly too fast for good racing, predicting follow-the-leader races.
"Bobby Labonte (in tire testing at Charlotte) was running within three-tenths of the track record (193.216 mph) while in racing trim," Richert said. "Imagine how fast we'll be at 7 o'clock at night. Do we need to run that fast to put on a good show? Probably not."
Jimmy Spencer agreed with Waltrip, but said NASCAR should go a step further and mandate heavy-duty 1,000-pound front springs, instead of the current lightweight 375-pound springs that are so exotically designed they cost $1,800 apiece and essentially force the driver to run without any suspension, to run on the tire itself."
NASCAR officials are telling crews to load those smaller 14-gallon Talladega fuel cells on their haulers, and be ready to install them, if the speeds are too fast. Smaller fuel cells would force teams to pit more frequently, which might be one way to keep teams pitting for fresher tires.
However, crews said that might only exacerbate the problem, by keeping speeds very high, with the fresh rubber.
"NASCAR probably has something in their back pocket they might throw at us," Richert said, referring to speed-slowing rules. "They've been taking a lot of motors from these tracks over to their R&D center for testing. I don't think they're running 'em just to find out who has the most horsepower.
"So maybe they've been anticipating something at Charlotte. How could they not be anticipating something at Charlotte?"
Robbie Loomis, the general manager for Petty Enterprises, is more cautious, and said that Goodyear engineers are still studying Charlotte: "My question was how does the new surface compare to last year's? And I think that remains to be seen, even for Goodyear. There was tire wear at Charlotte testing, and there were some blistered left-sides, too.
"Jimmie's (blown) tire didn't seem worn out. Chad Knaus (Johnson's crew chief) said it looked OK. There were two tires like that at Atlanta (two weeks ago), on Ryan Newman's car and Kyle Busch's. So I don't know if they had a puncture that eventually caused it to tear the sidewall, and then the tread came off...."
On new asphalt there is typically high heat in the tire, which must be dissipated by shedding rubber through wear. If that heat isn't dissipated, tires will blister. However, Goodyear usually can't put a thicker layer of rubber on the face of the tire, because that creates excessive internal heat, which also leads to blisters.
"The challenge for Goodyear is that track wants a lot of rubber on it.... so you need a soft tire. But Goodyear needs a hard tire that doesn't wear," Loomis said.
Kyle Petty: "If we went to Talladega today to test, the first set of tires might only last 12 to 15 laps. And the second set, too. But when you get everybody out on the track, there are no tire problems.... It's a tough guess for Good-year."
So is Charlotte now too fast? "It's too fast to race," Petty said.
"It's not too fast when your car is sticking and handling well," Loomis added. "But it's too fast if you're not stuck."
Goodyear is putting together a second test for next week, under pressure to get cracking on production of the new tires. Some 5,000 will have to be made, and several hundred will be needed for the major NASCAR team test in early May.
Kevin Harvick and Dale Jarrett are the two doing this week's tire test.
