Cassill taking on 14-mile run after Coca-Cola 600

NEWTON - At the end of next Sunday's Coca-Cola 600, when every other driver is cooling down and recovering from 600 grueling miles of racing at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Cedar Rapids native Landon Cassill will just be warming up.

Through a promotion with his sponsor, SnapFitness, Cassill plans to run 14 miles from the racetrack to the NASCAR Hall of Fame in downtown Charlotte.

'We kind of talked about it for the past year or so, and thought it would be a fun and interesting challenge,” Cassill said during practice for the 3M 250 at Iowa Speedway. 'Of course, SnapFitness is really behind it. The goal would be for it to go off without a hitch and hopefully inspire some people to get fit.”

Cassill is an avid triathlete, and competes regularly in triathlons across the country, with the goal of making the world championship Iron Man triathlon later this year in Austria. He won't be alone on the run, anticipating his triathlon coach and a fellow triathlete from the Charlotte area to run with him.

Running 14 miles is no problem for him. It's keeping his body in good enough working condition after being in the racecar for so long that will be the biggest hurdle.

'I'm not really worried about completing a 14-mile run, it's just the unknown of sitting in the car as long as I will be, my hips being tight and affecting my running form. And my efficiency can make me more fatigued and make the run more painful,” Cassill said. 'Obviously dehydration is a big issue, so I'll be sure to get hydrated and stay well-hydrated throughout the event. I need to make sure I take in some calories over the course of the (600), too.”

Those calories will come from a variety of sources, and Cassill said what he takes in during the race, in the racecar, will be easily digestible. He mentioned bananas as his go-to food for that situation.

Between the race and the run all depends on how he feels.

'There's performance gels athletes take, and I'll take in my triathlons, so I'll probably take a couple of those and maybe a banana during the race,” Cassill said. 'When I get out of the car, it just depends on how I feel. If I'm not hungry, I'll keep it light - foods that are going to be a pretty quick source of energy that will get me through the run.”

The plan is to essentially go right from the car to the run, with just enough time in between to change into his running clothes, grab that food and get warmed up.

Then it's into the night and on to the Hall of Fame.

'I'll just efficiently get out of the car and go change,” Cassill said. 'I'll likely have my physical therapist there to run my body through its mobility motions to make sure I'm mobile and warmed up. I'm thinking 30 minutes from the drop of the checkered flag to when I start running. And, I mean, that would be moving at a brisk pace.”

CONFIDENT IN RACE TRIM

The results in qualifying may not have shown it, but Cassill is excited about his racecar for the 3M 250 at Iowa Speedway on Sunday.

Cassill qualified 25th for the race, and said the team just couldn't find the speed on a short run necessary to get a better starting spot. Despite that, he remains confident his car will race much better than that.

'We haven't had good short run speed in the car today. But I'm really confident with how the car will race,” Cassill said. 'This is the same car we finished 10th with at Richmond (on XXXX date), and we didn't really have qualifying speed at Richmond either.

'I'm sure we'll drive good in the race. I'd be a lot more confident if we qualified 10th or something, but it drove so good in practice that I can't doubt it'll drive well in the race. Just a bummer we have to start 25th. Hopefully we don't go a lap down early or something.”

Fellow Cedar Rapids native Joey Gase qualified 31st for Sunday's race. His confidence level for the race wasn't quite as high as Cassill's, if only because part of the setup under his Jimmy Means Racing car is something his team is trying out for just the second time.

So-called 'pig tail” type springs are mounted on the car, and the margin for error with that package is razor thin.

'It's a new technology somebody thought of that somehow works,” Gase said. 'It's something that either works or doesn't work at all. I think we might get it figured out for tomorrow; we'll just have to wait and see.

'If you want to go faster, you have to try new stuff. You can't really test at all, so you have to do your testing here. We only had two hours of practice, which isn't a lot, so it's tough to do.”

The 3M 250 is set to start at 1 p.m. Sunday and can be seen on Fox Sports 1.

l Comments: (319) 368-8884; jeremiah.davis@thegazette.com