After days of preparation, thousands of miles of travel and a few nights of tossing and turning, it all comes down to just a few hours. I don't know why we call it that. There are 43 teams out there, and there's no way we can all be happy. Fortunately, we are one of the happy teams this week.
Happy hour is the only opportunity of the weekend to simulate a race.
We work on the handling package, estimate fuel mileage, monitor tire wear, test the engine's performance and evaluate how the car will change over the long run. We run with packs of cars and run in several different lines, or paths, around the track. This helps us determine how the car feels when running behind, in front of, or beside another car, as well as how it runs in different places on the track. Basically, it tells us what to expect today. We're pretty happy with the performance of the No. 92 Dodge.