Phoenix International Raceway is a jewel of a racetrack hidden way back on a corner of the Estrella Mountains, and usually, Sprint Cup Series teams find it tough sledding to get their cars to handle on the 1-mile oval.

Like Darlington and Pocono, the reason is because it is oddly shaped, with tighter Turns 1 and 2 and a more sweeping Turns 3 and 4. Each end of the track being different, it's a challenge for crew chiefs to hit the middle.

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Brakes are pretty important. We run our short-track package there, the same we would run at Martinsville and Richmond, because you do use so much of them.

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TODD PARROTT

"Phoenix is a very unique track in that you have a long straightaway similar to Loudon going into Turn 1 and it has 10 degrees of banking," said Todd Parrott, crew chief for driver Travis Kvapil at Yates Racing. "You're able to run multiple grooves there during the race -- the bottom, the middle and then after your tires get hot you seem to move up to the high side a little bit to keep your momentum down the backstretch."

The backstretch at Phoenix, especially since the track was redone to eliminate the entrance off Turn 2 a couple years back, is still one of the most different in the sport, Parrott said.

"The backstretch is pretty unique too, because it has a dogleg in the middle of it," Parrott said. "The track seems to be about 400 feet longer on the back side than the front side. When you enter Turn 3, you're kind of turning left the whole way down the backstretch, so you tend to get loose into Turn 3 moreso than in Turn 1. Up off Turn 4, you're carrying so much speed that you need a really well-balanced car to try to keep the drive. You get freer off Turn 4 than you do off Turn 1, because Turn 1 is a tighter-radius corner, and Turn 3-4 is a more sweeping corner, and you carry a lot more speed."

Given that PIR is a 1-mile oval that races more like a Martinsville or Richmond, brakes are very important to the overall success of the day.

"Brakes are pretty important," Parrott said. "We run our short-track package there, the same we would run at Martinsville and Richmond, because you do use so much of them. You carry so much speed into the corners that you're on the brakes pretty hard."

Heating up the brakes is a bad thing if it goes too far, and being on the brakes a lot tends to build heat quickly. That can contribute to tire problems by melting the bead off the rim. Parrott said any tire problems at PIR are usually from camber, not excessive heat. (Continued)