Michigan International Speedway is a momentum track, and one of the best momentum drivers around is Matt Kenseth. Crew chief Chip Bolin is counting on the fact that this weekend's LifeLock 400 will be a momentum race.

After strong finishes the past three events, it's a natural progression for the Roush Fenway Racing duo, especially since Michigan's 2-mile oval is tailor-made to Kenseth's driving style.

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A front starting spot is more of an advantage than not. Typically, the 17 car qualifies between 17th and 23rd, and that's because of the way we choose to run our program. Would we take sitting on the pole? Of course, but we're not going to sacrifice race practice to make two extra qualifying runs to tweak it that much.

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CHIP BOLIN

"Michigan is a lot like California, so we don't have a lot that's really unexpected," Bolin said. "You have to have a car that has really good speed through the corner so you can maintain momentum down the straightaway, especially down the backstretch.

"There's quite an RPM difference between getting into Turn 1 and getting into Turn 3. You really have to make sure you get through Turn 1 so you don't get beat going into Turn 3, and then you have to be able to come off Turn 4 and not be tight so you can get a good run down into Turn 1. It's very much a momentum track. Fortunately, that plays into my driver's hands.

"Matt's really good at these larger tracks where momentum and smoothness and hitting the same line every time really helps you, and it's going to help us."

The challenge for Bolin is, as it always seems to be with the new car, balance and grip.

"Mechanically, it's being able to manage the balance of the car and still have enough grip in it to make a full fuel run," Bolin said. "If you take it and do things to maximize the downforce, you end up taking some of the grip out of it, and with these cars, it seems like it's really important to have a good balance between the two. You're looking at 200, 300, 400 pounds less downforce than the last time we raced there, and there's no way to change the attitude of the car to make it make more. You're kind of stuck in a box. You get as much as you can get and then you have to start putting grip in the car so that when you slow down and lose the aero, you still have enough grip to get around the corner."

To get that balance, Bolin uses a combination of wedge, track bar and springs, and the initial shock setup is the key, he said.

"Half the garage runs coil-bind and the other half uses bump stops, and basically, you have to balance out," he said. "A bump stop is just an additional spring, and you have four springs in the front of the car as opposed to two. You have two more springs to play with."

Interestingly, the attitude of the new car with the wing on the back instead of a blade spoiler is not as hard to manage, Bolin said.

"This car is not quite as sensitive as the other car was as far as pinning the nose to the ground because you have a wing on the back of the car. With the spoiler, you had to pin the nose because in order for that spoiler to make downforce, the air had to actually physically hit it. With the wing, as long as you have flow going across it, it's going to generate downforce. It's not quite as attitude sensitive as the old car was, but you're limited in how much downforce you can make."

Despite the fact that Michigan is a high-horsepower track prone to long green-flag runs, Bolin isn't worried at all about engine troubles.

"Doug Yates gives us really good engines and the last thing on our minds at any given time is whether or not we're going to have engine trouble," he said emphatically.

Being high-speed -- the cars enter Turn 1 at around 200 miles per hour -- you'd think that brakes would be a problem as well, but they aren't. It's just a matter of keeping them cool.

"With the new car ... we do use more brake," Bolin said. "With the old car, we would never have thought about taking a car to Michigan with brake cooling in it. We have such good brake systems on this car, as long as you can keep them cool, they'll last just fine. We don't really do anything different with the system, we just have to use cooling with them now."

The cars are allowed a bead fan on either side, plus up to three cooling hoses on each side.

In terms of strategy, Bolin said it's straightforward despite the tendency of races there to become fuel-mileage contests.

"I don't think you can go into the race thinking, 'I have to do everything I can to get fuel mileage.' Michigan being a high-horsepower, high-speed, momentum track, to get really good mileage you have to give away a little bit of power. We haven't had a race go full green all the way to the end in a long time.

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"Whenever you get within two fuel windows of the end, two tanks of fuel, if you can stretch your fuel three laps one way or the other and make sure you only have to stop one more time, we'll look at it like that. But you don't call your whole race based on the fact that you can make it to the end on an even number of stops or not."

The new car has shown a remarkable affinity for clean air, so a starting spot near the front is prized. Unfortunately, starting up front has never been one of Kenseth's hallmarks.

"You're asking the wrong guy about putting emphasis on qualifying," Bolin chuckled. "A front starting spot is more of an advantage than not. Typically, the 17 car qualifies between 17th and 23rd, and that's because of the way we choose to run our program. Would we take sitting on the pole? Of course, but we're not going to sacrifice race practice to make two extra qualifying runs to tweak it that much."

Bolin is confident that the performance the team has generated the past three or four races will carry over to a track that fits Kenseth's driving style.

"From the performance of the last month or so, we're starting to understand what Matt needs in this particular car and he's starting to recognize how different things feel and he can provide a lot more direction in what he needs to get it to do what he wants it to do."