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PHOTO COURTESY OF NASCAR
The new Car of Tomorrow is not producing enough competitive racing tike the action between Jeff Gordon (No. 24 car), Tony Stewart (No. 20) and Dale Earnhardt
Jr. (No. 8) at Richmond three weeks ago, drivers say.
Car of Tomorrow full of bugs
By Don Coble
Morris News Service
The good thing about a track-record 13 cautions during
Sunday's race at the Dover International Speedway was the
opportunity for NASCAR to hand out 13 free passes back to
the lead lap.
Even with so many chances to create a competitive fin
ish, there were only six drivers on the lead lap when Carl
Edwards crossed the finish line.
Edwards and Matt Kenseth combined to lead 287 of 400
laps. A week earlier, Clint Bowyer led 222 of 300 laps. Both
races had one thing in common - the new Car of Tomorrow.
NASCAR’s new car is wider and taller than a traditional
stock car. It's supposed to keep costs down while promoting
safety and better races.
So far it's been more expensive than many hoped. And
the competition up front has been less than promising. Or
compelling.
Drivers said it's been difficult to find a balance with the
new car.
NASCAR wanted to put racing back in the hands of the
drivers, not engineers, but so far, drivers say the new car
has been a handful.
. Either the back end fishtails through the turns, or the
front end doesn’t turn. So far, there’s no middle ground.
“We need better front-ends,” said Dale Earnhardt Jr.
after finishing third Sunday. “The cars don’t have any down
force on the front when you try to really get the car low and
seal it off get it to where it gets maximum downforce on the
front. Your car won’t stay consistent all day, and it’s either
Johnson: Defending title takes consistency
Jimmie Johnson started the Chase for the Nextel Cup as the
points leader. He finished 14th Sunday at Dover, Del., and slipped
back to fourth place -- down only by four points.
Johnson, the defending series champion, talked last week about
what it will take to win the championship. Here are excerpts of that
interview:
Question: Two of 12 drivers in the Chase don’t have team
mates in the Chase. Are they at a disadvantage?
Johnson: I’ve been through some different scenarios and I feel
like when you’re the only guy in the Chase there’s a little bit more of
an advantage because it’s to the company's best interest that you
win the Chase. Granted the engines are all the same, but you get
the engine with a couple more horsepower. You get all the focus.
There’s some small decisions that can be made that do give that
one teammate just a little bit of an advantage, not a lot, not some
thing that you can probably measure but it does make a small differ
ence.
Question: Is it better to have a teammate as the Chase draws
to an end?
Johnson: It’s a situation that I’ve been dealing with for a long,
long time and very thankful to be dealing with, that I have such com
petitive teammates and championship and race winning teammates.
... I won last year with my teammate being in it so there’s just a very
small advantage that they could be there, but having teammates is
the most important thing and having good ones and I feel that hav
ing the great teammates that I do far outweighs that small advan
tage that I had, the one year that none of the other Hendrick cars
were in the Chase.
Question: What is your comfort level in this year’s Chase?
Johnson: There’s no way it’s coast mode, not when you have a
Chase like we do and all the guys driving like they are and the
teams performing.
hitting the ground or it’s too high and you can’t really get it
perfected.”
The new car will be used 16 times this year and will
become the every-day car in 2008. NASCAR will revert back
to the traditional stock car for next Sunday’s Life Lock 400 at
the Kansas Speedway.
Rules for the new car are very restrictive. Measurements
are exact and don't vary from short tracks to bigger speed
ways so road courses. That’s supposed to drive down costs
since car owners won’t need a garage full of specialized racers.
But since the older racer can't be converted to a Car of
Tomorrow, the change has been expensive. Add testing and
engineering to the new project, and it easy costs more than $1
million a team to make the switch, car owner Jack Roush said.
If race teams can figure out a way to make them drive
better, drivers can put on better shows. Maybe then, it will
be worth the investment.
“We all, as drivers, talk about the car amongst ourselves
and there are a lot of things that we do like about the car and
there are a lot of things that we do not like,” Earnhardt said.
“And the car is really, really tight, or really, really loose.
There is no middle ground.
‘We had engineered for 30 years to get to one point and
this wasn’t so much as going to the new body style or any
thing like you normally see in the sport. This is a totally new
car. This is going to take a long time to really figure out what
this car likes. I know 15 years from now, they’ll have it fig
ured out and they’ll probably have massaged on the car and
fixed a lot of things that they’re going to hopefully assume
or become aware of that we already know.”
I’ve learned a lot over the
years. I know that 10 races is a
long, long period of time and you
need to get what you can every
day but it doesn’t mean that a
top 10 is going to take you out of
it. So I think that being smart,
trying to win when you can is
very important, trying to lead
laps is very important and it’s
impossible for us to know the
pace you’re going to need to win
the championship because
there’s still nine races left and a ton that can go on that takes people
in or out of this championship battle so I’m showing up every prac
tice session, every lap of the race, qualifying, giving 100 percent and
getting all that I can.
Question: Kasey Kahne signed last week with Budweiser.
How important is it for a driver to be familiar with a sponsor?
Johnson: I had a father that worked in the construction world so
I did work and do things and work summer jobs in construction so
the Lowe’s thing did fit. I’ve seen Kasey drink some Bud Light so I
think he’s a good representative of the Bud brand and there’s more
that goes into it from a marketing sense. There’s no doubt that
Budweiser losing Junior and what he brought to the 18 to 34 male
demographic was unparalleled and an amazing relationship between
the two but he’s obviously chosen to move on. I think Kasey has the
potential and the ability to really be a household name and a face
that everybody can relate to and associate with and there’s no doubt
that he’s a huge draw on the ladies and that demographic. So when
they’re trying to find a guy, I’m sure they didn’t want to lose Junior,
but I think that Kasey Kahne is a good replacement.
Jeff Gordon, who won two of the first five Car of
Tomorrow races, still isn’t convinced NASCAR went in the
right direction with the new car.
“It's hard for me to really say because there are guys out
there making this car work,” he said. “I think I need to hold
back whatever I want to say. I just don’t see how we’re going
to get it done under the current conditions of this car and
put on the kind of races that we need to put on.”
Fans don’t think so. Ratings for the race at New
Hampshire were the lowest for network television since the
Chase started four years ago.
Sunday’s ratings at Dover weren’t much better, accord
ing to Nielsen Media Research.
Roush has been critical of the start-up costs and expen
sive changes made on the car during the development
stage. He got so upset with building new cars, then having
to make changes, he put off building cars until NASCAR
finally made up its mind. That put his teams three months
behind at the start, but they’ve come on strong lately.
Edwards and Kenseth both drive for Roush..
“I’m not the person to say if that makes great racing and
more exciting racing or not. It is going to be the case that as
we go to Talladega the cars are going to be closer, I think,
then they’ve ever been, and I don’t know whether that’s
going to be the kind of show that we’ll be celebrating later
or not,” he said.
“Whether the racing is going to be more exciting to the
fans and will keep people riveted to the TV and keep them
on their feet at the grandstands, somebody else will have to
editorialize on that.”
NEWSMAKER
ill HH?
Jimmie Johnson
He may not be the wild guy, but he’ll certainly drink his Bud Light
and have some fun.
Question: How much are you working with Kyle Busch,
although he's leaving for Joe Gibbs Racing next year?
Johnson: I’d say that our communication and the way we work
together has stayed the same if not gotten a little bit better through
these last few weeks. I give Kyle a lot of credit. He’s been commit
ted to Hendrick Motorsports; he's been committed to this champi
onship and has been working real hard at our team debriefs to
explain what he’s feeling and doing and it's been a help so I give
him a lot of credit, a tough time.
Question: Has Kyle Busch evolved as a driver?
Johnson: I think as time goes on Kyle’s experiencing the things
that make you mature and grow in an emotional way. He's an emo
tional guy, an emotional driver and those emotions ... look like
aggression to a lot people. But when you’re able to spend some
time with him and work with him you can see how talented of a driv
er he is and you can see how hard he tries to be a better driver and
tries to make his race car handle better and give that input back to
the team. All those things are there. He does from time to time let
the emotions get the best of him and he may make a poor decision
on the track or he may say something that he probably wished he
didn’t, but those are things that you just learn as you’re in the sport
and you grow and mature and I think this year has been a big grow
ing year for him in that respect to be leaving HMS, going to Joe
Gibbs Racing. I've seen personally a lot of things changing with him
and a lot of growing going on to go with the amazing talent he has
on track.
compiled by Don Coble
HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL
|H Green Flag
News and Notes
IRL champ could make
debut in ARCA race
Chip Ganassi hopes to have newly
crowned IRL Indy Car Series champion
Dario Franchitti in one of his stock cars as
soon as next week’s ARCA race at the
Talladega Superspeedway.
The car owner said he’s working
through the final details that will allow
Franchitti out of his contract with Indy-car
owner Michael Andretti. Although the IRL
season is done, Franchitti remains under
contract with Andretti until December.
A year ago Ganassi started former
CART Champ Car champion and Formula
One driver Juan Pablo Montoya’s stock
car career at Talladega. Montoya has won
races in both the Busch and Nextel Cup
series this year.
When Ganassi gets Franchitti in one of
Ganassi’s Dodge, it will give him two for
mer Indianapolis 500 winners on the same
NASCAR team.
“We’re almost through with it,”
Ganassi said of Franchitti’s contract
“The plans are there for him to race
this year. We have him signed and sealed;
he’s just not delivered. We’re working
through some things to get him in the car
this year. We’re working feverishly to get
him in the ARCA race at Talladega. That’s
the plan.”
Ganassi said he’s not committed solely
to the Indy-car circuits to find new drivers.
But right now, they feature the best pool of
talent
“We’re all looking for that diamond in
the rough, that person that’s going to take
us to the promise land. That’s what every
car owner is looking for. It’s not that
there’s an interest from open wheel driv
ers now, it just seems that way because the
guys that are interested all have that back
ground,” he said.
“As time passes and you stay at one
series for so long, you forget that it’s hard
to break into this. This is the top level,
arguably, worldwide. This is where the
action is right now.”
Earnhardt Jr.’s crew makes
early jump to Hendrick
Tony Eury Jr. and four other members
of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s team will be
allowed to join Hendrick Motorsports
after next week’s race at Talladega, Ala.
That will allow Eury to get a jump on
building cars for Earnhardt when he
moves to Hendrick in 2008.