When we arrived at Lowe’s Motor Speedway Thursday afternoon, practice for Cup teams was in session. Evidently, it had been delayed due to rain the previous night and early morning. I got to observe about an hour and one half of practice from atop the hauler. During that time several short runs were made and a lot of changes were made in setup, rear end, etc. As a result Derrike’s fast lap in practice was his final lap. During that lap he bottomed out one time and to address that the springs were changed for the qualifying setup.

Saturday the weather conditions at the speedway progressively improved throughout the day. Saturday night was a beautiful fall evening for racing.

I watched the race from Derrike’s pit. In this report I will focus on pit stops, changes, etc. since you probably watched the race on TV and had a better overall view of the entire track.

Derrike pitted first on lap 24 shortly after going a lap down. At that time Derrike had reported that the car was tight and that he suspected that they may have a tire leak. The crew changed four tires and filled the number 37 with gas. The result was that handling did not improve and Derrike reported at one point that the car was all over the place and that the rear end of the car was now swinging out on turns. After another stop the team took the car behind the wall around lap 56 to check the power steering pump and to address the handling more thoroughly than could be accomplished in the pit. Derrike reentered the race around lap 90.

During lap 108 Derrike radioed the team that the car was a lot better, but that it was still a little free. Derrike pitted again around lap 150 for gas and four tires. During a caution on lap 160 the crew put a half of a rubber in the left rear and made a wedge adjustment. Derrike reported on lap 205 that the car was handling much better. In subsequent pit stops, minor adjustments were made to improve handling in addition to tires and gas.

Throughout the race the pit stops were very consistent. I didn’t have a stop watch so I can’t give exact times. However, it seemed to me that in comparison to other team stops the 37 crew was holding their own. Positive team spirit is clearly evident.

One final observation, I spent much of Thursday and all of Saturday with the team and was greatly impressed by several things. First, Derrike has assembled a mix of seasoned crew members as well as young talent that work well together. They are very positive and have a strong team loyalty. Ernie and Derrike relate exceedingly well with the team. Communication is a major key to success and it’s clearly a positive attribute of this team.