Meanwhile, Bickle's Ballew Motorsports crew completes a succession of air pressure, wedge, camber, sway bar, spring, and gear changes over the next 90 minutes in an effort to make the truck better. We go back out on the track a half dozen times, each time finding an open spot to gauge the changes. By the end of the practice, Bickle is running his best times of the day, but he's more than a half second behind the fastest trucks and listed near the bottom of the practice sheet.
Let's Do LunchA long walk back to the garage area follows practice. Normally, I would discuss the practice results and my observations of the truck's handling with Bickle, but he's in the Winston Cup garage trying to get a one-race ride into the show. It won't go well, as an engine failure in practice limits the team's on-track time, and that shows in qualifying when he places well down in the field and misses the Cup race.
With Bickle busy and crew chief Gary Showalter and the team thrashing on the truck, the best thing for me to do is stay out of the way. There's no better way to do that than to go grab some lunch and wait for qualifying.
Bickle is the 12th truck to go out on his time trial run, and things don't improve. He runs a 33.603-second lap as the truck actually slows down from practice. Sauter's team truck isn't much better, however, barely making the show on time, and Bickle is awarded the first provisional based on the season team owner's points standings.
Later in the afternoon, Bickle steers his truck back on to the track for Happy Hour. During the first couple of runs, I find him a spot by himself to test the changes the crew made to the truck since qualifying. Later, the focus changes as I try to gauge the speed of the trucks racing on the track while blending Bickle into a pack of competitors so we can see how the truck will react in traffic during the race.
In one instance, Gaughan, Rick Crawford, and Travis Kvapil-all in the hunt for the championship-blast by us and drive away like we're on jackstands. It's obvious as the practice comes to an end under a brilliant Miami sunset that we won't be racing them for anything when they drop the green Friday.
Race dayThe Truck Series garage opens at 9 a.m. Friday, and the race starts shortly after 3 p.m. You do the math. That's a long time to stand around and think about the race-which is pretty much all the spotter has to do on race day.
Once the truck is prepped and on the line, I meet with Showalter to discuss race strategy. He tells me our fuel window is 60 laps, so we'll have to stop at least twice for gas to make the full 134-lap distance. Tires, meanwhile, won't be an issue because we ran one set of left-side tires nearly 90 laps in practice. Depending upon where the caution flags fall, that could set up a right-side-tires-only stop late in the race to gain track position. Given we're starting 33rd, the key will be to stay on the lead lap, if possible, so we have pit road and strategy options late in the race.