What to watch for in today's NASCAR Cup race in Mexico City

NBC Sports

9 hours ago

MEXICO CITY — With a forecast that could include rain during Sunday's race at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, the challenge for drivers will increase.
'I absolutely hate racing in the rain, but I'm good at it,' said Shane van Gisbergen, who starts on the pole for the first Cup race held outside the continental United States since 1958. 'I'd rather it didn't rain, but if it happens, we put the wets on and go.'
How can van Gisbergen dislike something he's so good at?
'I just don't enjoy it,' he said. 'It's just never fun. You're always sliding around, and it just turns stuff into chaos. It's fun to watch, but I don't really enjoy driving.'
Dustin Long,
Michael McDowell, who starts fifth can relate.
'I like what SVG said because I feel the same way,' McDowell told NBC Sports. 'I'm good in the rain. I have a lot of experience in the rain, but I'm never super pumped for the rain because it's hard. It creates variables that are tough to overcome.'
One of the challenges in wet conditions is the water spray that cars in front create. The Weather Underground forecast calls for a 38% chance of scattered thunderstorms near the start of the race, increasing to about 60% by the end of the event.
Should the track be wet at the beginning of the race (3 p.m. ET on Prime), it will make a front starting spot even more important. That makes his third starting spot even more valuable to Ross Chastain.
'You'll just get gapped out just from the spray being part throttle on the straightway, not being able to have any vision if you're back in the field,' Chastain told NBC Sports. 'I've been there and it's terrifying when you can't see. It's like driving blindfolded.'
Wet conditions at the start also present opportunities.
'You want to be aggressive, honestly, in the beginning if it is raining to get up front, be the first one or two cars so that you have the best vision you can,' McDowell said.
The right (pit) decision?
Trent Owens, crew chief for AJ Allmendinger had an interesting choice to make when it was time for him to pick his pit stall Saturday.
Pit stalls are selected in order of how a team qualifies, so the pole-sitter gets the first pick and on down. Allmendinger qualified eighth, giving him the eighth pick of stalls.
Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez's pit road is limited to 40 stalls. There will be 37 cars in the race. That leaves only three openings (and a small opening across the start/finish line).
Teams prefer to have an opening either in front of their stall (for easy access out) or an opening before their stall (for easy access into their box).
When it came time for Owens to pick his pits, he had two viable options. He could pick the second pit stall — near pit exit. That would put Allmendinger in the box behind Shane van Gisbergen and in front of Kyle Larson.
Or Owens could have picked pit stall 13, which was further away from pit exit but had an opening before it for easy access into the box.
Owens chose pit stall 2, meaning the first three pit stalls — van Gisbergen, Allmendinger and Larson — could have three of the top cars in the race. That could mean they could be pitting together. Add to it that the pit boxes are 26.5 feet long — the shortest in the series — and it could get tight.
'Our biggest reason is (van Gisbergen) is in stall 1 and we feel like he's the dominant car,' Owens told NBC Sports for his reasoning in picking stall 2. 'So we feel like when we pit we're not going to get blocked in.
'We could have chose (stall) 13, which has a small opening in, but it's also a narrow pit road, short pit boxes. We just feel like pit stall 2 can potentially limit our errors because (Larson), which is behind us, has a full pit stall opening behind him, so if (Larson's crew chief Cliff Daniels) plays nice, he'll stop back at his stall and give us enough room.'
That is likely to happen because that would allow Larson to exit his stall without being blocked in by Allmendinger.
Much goes into winning a race, but could Owens' decision to pick pit stall 2 help Allmendinger get to victory lane?
Too fast on pit road?
Another key area to watch with pit road is toward pit exit.
There are 11 timing loops on pit road used to determine pit road speeding. Pit road speed is 40 mph and with the 5 mph allowance, drivers can go 45 mph before they are penalized.
Seven of the zones are either 147-feet-7 inches long or 157-6. But the last two are significantly shorter.
The next-to-last timing zone — encompassing pit stalls 1-3 near pit exit — is 73-feet-2 inches. The last timing line, which goes to pit exit — is 46-feet-7 inches.
NASCAR's pit road speeding is determined based on time over distance. So if a driver enters a zone too fast, he can slow before the end of it and still make speed. With two shorter zones at the end of pit road, drivers won't have as much a a chance to do so.
Get caught speeding on pit road in those two sections — or any for that matter — and the pass-through penalty will cost a driver positions on the track.
'You just can't afford to speed,' Ryan Preece, who starts second today, told NBC Sports. 'Track position is obviously a huge thing no matter where it is. For me, you want to push those lights, you don't want to give up one position, but if you overdo it, you're going to give up 36, so it's kind of a risk vs. reward type of situation.'