Sunday, July 14, 2019
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Allmendinger wins Kansas pole despite late draw
KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Despite a late draw on a slick track that warmed throughout Saturday's qualifying session, AJ Allmendinger claimed the pole for Sunday's STP 400 at Kansas Speedway, posting a lap at 175.993 mph (30.683 seconds).
In winning the second Coors Light pole award of his career, his first since 2010 at Phoenix and his first since joining Penske Racing this season, Allmendinger edged Kevin Harvick (175.747 mph) by .043 seconds at the 1.5-mile intermediate speedway, which will begin a facelift -- repaving and reconfiguration -- as soon as Sunday's race is over.
Lineup | Practice 1 | Practice 2
Joey Logano, the first driver to make a qualifying run, was third fastest at 175.724 mph but must start from the rear on Sunday because of an engine change during Friday's practice session. Denny Hamlin, Logano's teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing, claimed the fourth starting spot at 175.667 mph, with Mark Martin (175.484 mph) posting the fifth-fastest lap.
In a disappointing session for the Fords, Sprint Cup points leader Greg Biffle qualified 17th at 174.706 mph, the fastest of all the Ford drivers.
After finishing second at Martinsville to Ryan Newman in the sixth Cup race of the season, Allmendinger was gratified to continue the momentum for his No. 22 Penske Racing team.
"More than anything, I put so much pressure on my shoulders to go out there and perform," Allmendinger said. "They [his Penske team] are used to winning, running up front, getting poles. It's good just to build momentum.
"So, hopefully, we have a solid 400 miles. It's good, but we know the bigger picture's on Sunday, and I'm happy to be part of the team."
Out Front: Miss Coors Light talks with Allmendinger
Harvick knew he had a good lap going but said he might have gotten overly excited in the second set of corners.
"That might have cost us the pole, but overall it's been a great year for us qualifying-wise so far," Harvick said. "The cars have been fast every week, and as soon as we put together a whole weekend without me making a mistake or things not going exactly right, I think everything's going to come together nicely.
"So I'm pretty happy with the way everything's gone so far this year."
Tim Andrews, Jeff Green and Tony Raines failed to qualify for the 43-car field.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Roushketeers run Texas
There were three distinct favorites for the Goody's Fast Relief 500 and they all ran strong during the course of the race. Last year, the same predictability was evident at Texas Motor Speedway as three drivers swept the top five. Equally important, these three drivers shared a car owner and that suggests the Roush Fenway organization has a great set of notes from which to work.
When a group of drivers dominates like Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin have at Martinsville or the Roushketeers have at Texas, fantasy owners are met with a different challenge than most weeks. If they place the favorites on their roster, it is impossible to make up ground on the competition unless circumstances alter the finish of the race like they did in the Goody's Fast Relief 500. Playing the long odds is equally dangerous because Gordon and Johnson were destined to finish first and second before David Reutimann stalled on track and brought out a late-race caution.
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Success predicts success
Texas provides a unique solution. While it is true that Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards will be heavily favored, there are a number of other drivers for a variety of teams who have been consistently strong. Last year, two drivers who were not racing for Roush Fenway swept the top 10 and another five earned back-to-back top-15s.*
There is an even greater reason to limit the statistical pool to a driver's Texas record. Last year, 35 racers competed in both events on this track and from the very top of the order to the middle of the pack, and they backed up one run with a similar one later in the season. Edwards and Biffle's top-five finishes in both races were within a single position of one another. Edwards finished third in the spring Samsung Mobile 500 and second in the fall AAA Texas 500; Biffle finished fourth and fifth, respectively. Casey Mears was 26th in the spring and 25th in the fall, and four other drivers finished within two positions in the pair of races. In total, nearly two-thirds of the drivers competing in both Texas events last year finished the fall race within seven spots of their spring effort. It is hard to find a track with a greater degree of consistency.
The Favorites
The three current Roushketeers were not only among the most consistent drivers last year, they were the strongest. All three swept the top five and all of them finished the AAA Texas 500 within three spots of their spring effort. Just as important, the group carried that momentum over from previous seasons, which gives them a balance of recent momentum and career strength.
Kenseth may very well be the strongest of the three at Texas. His victory in this race last year was the second on this track during his career, but the first since 2002. He wasn't simply logging laps in the intervening years, however; the driver of the No. 17 earned four runner-up finishes from 2006 through 2010, as well as another two third-place results. In his last 13 attempts, he has amassed nine top-fives and finished worse than 12th only once. Moreover, he's earned these results despite a variety of circumstances that include green-white-checkered finishes, fuel mileage races and rain-delayed events. That tells fantasy owners that Kenseth and crew are capable of adjusting to any condition, and it makes him a must have racer.
Biffle should also be on nearly every roster, even if that means fantasy owners have to take a gamble and add an extra mid-cap driver. Like Kenseth, he enters the weekend with a three-race top-five streak and his string of top-10s goes back even further than his teammate. The No. 17 stumbled once in the last three years, but Biffle is riding a current wave of seven consecutive top-10s; most of these results were also top-fives, so while he has struggled on other tracks, this has been one of his safe harbors.
Logically, as the third driver to sweep the top five last year, Edwards should round-out the list of favorites. But fantasy owners might want to look a little deeper in the record book to select their third driver. Look back to 1998 and Texas is the sight of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s first Nationwide series win in the Coca-Cola 300. This is also the sight of his first Cup victory in the 2000 DirecTV 500, and he came close to repeating it in 2002 when he finished second to Ryan Newman. This has long been one of his favorite tracks and that continued through last year. While he struggled periodically in 2011, he was one of five drivers to sweep the top 10 at Texas. Jump ahead to this season, and he's running as strong as ever; Earnhardt could break his long winless drought this weekend if he and crew chief Steve Letarte can keep up with the No. 88's adjustments.
Texas
Brad Keselowksi helps pick the studs and duds this week.
Watch
Dark Horses
Clint Bowyer is the fifth and remaining driver to sweep the top 10 at Texas last year. At the start of this season, fantasy owners greeted his move to Michael Waltrip Racing with caution because Bowyer was leaving one of the marquee teams in racing for one with fewer resources. In NASCAR's age of parity, however, the amount of money spent on a car has diminished in importance and driver skill is taking a front seat. Bowyer, Martin Truex Jr. and Mark Martin are making a difference in the cockpit of their Toyotas, and they should be judged by their records instead of the perceived value of their organization. Bowyer's second-place finish in this race last year was a great feat in itself and it was confirmed by a ninth-place finish in the AAA Texas 500. This season, Bowyer has nearly swept the top 15 again in the first six races and the only time he stumbled was at Phoenix after cutting two tires in the opening laps of the Subway Fresh Fit 500.
Fast tracks like Texas should not be particularly kind to dark horses, but they have run well on this course in the last couple of years. Paul Menard has run consistently strong in his last three events and given his modest salary cap, he could be the most pleasant surprise of the week. He finished 10th in the fall 2010 race, improved to fifth at Texas in spring 2010 and completed a sweep of the top 15 during the fall. He has not lived up to his potential in the last two races of 2012 -- with a 19th at Auto Club and a 26th at Martinsville -- but he started the year with three top-10s in his first four attempts. Menard will still have some of that momentum to carry him over into the Samsung Mobile 500.
Underdogs
Kasey Kahne and Jeff Gordon seem to have had a contest to see who would experience the worst luck in the opening weeks of 2012. Kahne has consistently sustained crash damage, while Gordon's list of misfortunes has been much more varied. Both of them have cost fantasy owners a lot of points after showing promise early in the season. Perhaps the off week will allow them to reset and hide from cruel fate, but until they get to the end of a race in one piece and earn a top-10 finish, it is best to leave them in the garage.
Joey Logano is another driver who has shown a lot of unfulfilled promise this season. He started out strong with a pair of top-10s in the first two races of 2012. Back-to-back 16ths at Vegas and Bristol weren't all that bad considering his career record on those tracks. Unfortunately, he continues to slip down the order with a 24th at Auto Club and last week's 23rd at Martinsville. He is still one of the most talented drivers in the field and, given time, he will flatten out these peaks and valleys. Fantasy owners want to cheer for him from a distance until that day comes.
When a group of drivers dominates like Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin have at Martinsville or the Roushketeers have at Texas, fantasy owners are met with a different challenge than most weeks. If they place the favorites on their roster, it is impossible to make up ground on the competition unless circumstances alter the finish of the race like they did in the Goody's Fast Relief 500. Playing the long odds is equally dangerous because Gordon and Johnson were destined to finish first and second before David Reutimann stalled on track and brought out a late-race caution.
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Success predicts success
Texas provides a unique solution. While it is true that Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards will be heavily favored, there are a number of other drivers for a variety of teams who have been consistently strong. Last year, two drivers who were not racing for Roush Fenway swept the top 10 and another five earned back-to-back top-15s.*
There is an even greater reason to limit the statistical pool to a driver's Texas record. Last year, 35 racers competed in both events on this track and from the very top of the order to the middle of the pack, and they backed up one run with a similar one later in the season. Edwards and Biffle's top-five finishes in both races were within a single position of one another. Edwards finished third in the spring Samsung Mobile 500 and second in the fall AAA Texas 500; Biffle finished fourth and fifth, respectively. Casey Mears was 26th in the spring and 25th in the fall, and four other drivers finished within two positions in the pair of races. In total, nearly two-thirds of the drivers competing in both Texas events last year finished the fall race within seven spots of their spring effort. It is hard to find a track with a greater degree of consistency.
The Favorites
The three current Roushketeers were not only among the most consistent drivers last year, they were the strongest. All three swept the top five and all of them finished the AAA Texas 500 within three spots of their spring effort. Just as important, the group carried that momentum over from previous seasons, which gives them a balance of recent momentum and career strength.
Kenseth may very well be the strongest of the three at Texas. His victory in this race last year was the second on this track during his career, but the first since 2002. He wasn't simply logging laps in the intervening years, however; the driver of the No. 17 earned four runner-up finishes from 2006 through 2010, as well as another two third-place results. In his last 13 attempts, he has amassed nine top-fives and finished worse than 12th only once. Moreover, he's earned these results despite a variety of circumstances that include green-white-checkered finishes, fuel mileage races and rain-delayed events. That tells fantasy owners that Kenseth and crew are capable of adjusting to any condition, and it makes him a must have racer.
Biffle should also be on nearly every roster, even if that means fantasy owners have to take a gamble and add an extra mid-cap driver. Like Kenseth, he enters the weekend with a three-race top-five streak and his string of top-10s goes back even further than his teammate. The No. 17 stumbled once in the last three years, but Biffle is riding a current wave of seven consecutive top-10s; most of these results were also top-fives, so while he has struggled on other tracks, this has been one of his safe harbors.
Logically, as the third driver to sweep the top five last year, Edwards should round-out the list of favorites. But fantasy owners might want to look a little deeper in the record book to select their third driver. Look back to 1998 and Texas is the sight of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s first Nationwide series win in the Coca-Cola 300. This is also the sight of his first Cup victory in the 2000 DirecTV 500, and he came close to repeating it in 2002 when he finished second to Ryan Newman. This has long been one of his favorite tracks and that continued through last year. While he struggled periodically in 2011, he was one of five drivers to sweep the top 10 at Texas. Jump ahead to this season, and he's running as strong as ever; Earnhardt could break his long winless drought this weekend if he and crew chief Steve Letarte can keep up with the No. 88's adjustments.
Texas
Brad Keselowksi helps pick the studs and duds this week.
Watch
Dark Horses
Clint Bowyer is the fifth and remaining driver to sweep the top 10 at Texas last year. At the start of this season, fantasy owners greeted his move to Michael Waltrip Racing with caution because Bowyer was leaving one of the marquee teams in racing for one with fewer resources. In NASCAR's age of parity, however, the amount of money spent on a car has diminished in importance and driver skill is taking a front seat. Bowyer, Martin Truex Jr. and Mark Martin are making a difference in the cockpit of their Toyotas, and they should be judged by their records instead of the perceived value of their organization. Bowyer's second-place finish in this race last year was a great feat in itself and it was confirmed by a ninth-place finish in the AAA Texas 500. This season, Bowyer has nearly swept the top 15 again in the first six races and the only time he stumbled was at Phoenix after cutting two tires in the opening laps of the Subway Fresh Fit 500.
Fast tracks like Texas should not be particularly kind to dark horses, but they have run well on this course in the last couple of years. Paul Menard has run consistently strong in his last three events and given his modest salary cap, he could be the most pleasant surprise of the week. He finished 10th in the fall 2010 race, improved to fifth at Texas in spring 2010 and completed a sweep of the top 15 during the fall. He has not lived up to his potential in the last two races of 2012 -- with a 19th at Auto Club and a 26th at Martinsville -- but he started the year with three top-10s in his first four attempts. Menard will still have some of that momentum to carry him over into the Samsung Mobile 500.
Underdogs
Kasey Kahne and Jeff Gordon seem to have had a contest to see who would experience the worst luck in the opening weeks of 2012. Kahne has consistently sustained crash damage, while Gordon's list of misfortunes has been much more varied. Both of them have cost fantasy owners a lot of points after showing promise early in the season. Perhaps the off week will allow them to reset and hide from cruel fate, but until they get to the end of a race in one piece and earn a top-10 finish, it is best to leave them in the garage.
Joey Logano is another driver who has shown a lot of unfulfilled promise this season. He started out strong with a pair of top-10s in the first two races of 2012. Back-to-back 16ths at Vegas and Bristol weren't all that bad considering his career record on those tracks. Unfortunately, he continues to slip down the order with a 24th at Auto Club and last week's 23rd at Martinsville. He is still one of the most talented drivers in the field and, given time, he will flatten out these peaks and valleys. Fantasy owners want to cheer for him from a distance until that day comes.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Keselowski's favorite track has competition
It's been a busy start to the 2012 season. After crossing the country a couple of times, we can use this weekend to reflect on the solid start to the season that we've had, along with spending time with friends and family over the Easter holiday.
But before we get to any of that, we spent two days in the Irish Hills of Michigan for the Goodyear tire test on the new Michigan International Speedway surface. I was expecting ridiculously fast speeds, and the track did not disappoint. Now, I'm partial to MIS as the only Michigan driver in the Cup Series, but you have to applaud everyone at the track for their continued upgrades. It really is one of the nicest places we visit. Hopefully, we all did our job during the test, and we'll go back with a tire that not only will put on a good race but also will hold up to the high speeds.
“
To borrow a phrase from golf on this Masters weekend, there is a new leader in the clubhouse with [Michigan]. It is a beast.
”
-- BRAD KESELOWSKI
And we definitely had some very high speeds. The "Blue Deuce" topped out at about 210 mph on the first day. We'll have to wait and see what rules package we come back with in June, but the track is super smooth and should be in perfect shape for the first race.
Over the years, we have seen tracks that have differentiated themselves -- risen to the top, so to speak -- as being the biggest, the baddest and/or the fastest. Places like Charlotte, Texas and Atlanta all had a legitimate claim at one time or another. However, to borrow a phrase from golf on this Masters weekend, there is a new leader in the clubhouse with MIS. It is a beast.
Now, I know a lot of us missed the off weekend that we used to have after the race at Las Vegas. I get it. We're in Daytona for almost two weeks, then we head to the West Coast for another 10 days to race at Phoenix and Vegas. That's a lot packed into a couple of weeks. For me, I like that we kept racing with no break. It allowed us to keep the momentum from the first few races when we got to Bristol.
I get asked a lot about my favorite race track. More often than not, I'll say "wherever you win." But if I had to make a list, Bristol Motor Speedway would be at the top. There is a track in Toledo, Ohio, where I ran super late models growing up. It was a half-mile, medium-banked oval. We ran around that place in 15 seconds. To me, the first lap I ever took on this race track felt just like I was in that late model car in Toledo, Ohio, and that made me really, really comfortable at Bristol from day one.
When we got to Bristol last month, I was really excited about the speed we had shown throughout the season. We were fast right off the truck, so I told everyone on Twitter that I had the best car I'd ever had in the Cup Series. Pretty strong words, but we were able to back it up by leading 232 laps to pick up the win.
There are other places that perhaps have a little more prestige, but Bristol defines a race team. It asks so much of you, whether it's just in practice being lined up on pit road and dealing with the noise and the havoc that practice can be, or the hot day of getting through tech and making those last adjustments, or as a driver, 500 laps in the bowl trying to keep your composure. This race track can really test a team, and I think that the teams that come out on top, whether it's driver or whatever, I think that they show what it takes to overcome adversity.
But before we get to any of that, we spent two days in the Irish Hills of Michigan for the Goodyear tire test on the new Michigan International Speedway surface. I was expecting ridiculously fast speeds, and the track did not disappoint. Now, I'm partial to MIS as the only Michigan driver in the Cup Series, but you have to applaud everyone at the track for their continued upgrades. It really is one of the nicest places we visit. Hopefully, we all did our job during the test, and we'll go back with a tire that not only will put on a good race but also will hold up to the high speeds.
“
To borrow a phrase from golf on this Masters weekend, there is a new leader in the clubhouse with [Michigan]. It is a beast.
”
-- BRAD KESELOWSKI
And we definitely had some very high speeds. The "Blue Deuce" topped out at about 210 mph on the first day. We'll have to wait and see what rules package we come back with in June, but the track is super smooth and should be in perfect shape for the first race.
Over the years, we have seen tracks that have differentiated themselves -- risen to the top, so to speak -- as being the biggest, the baddest and/or the fastest. Places like Charlotte, Texas and Atlanta all had a legitimate claim at one time or another. However, to borrow a phrase from golf on this Masters weekend, there is a new leader in the clubhouse with MIS. It is a beast.
Now, I know a lot of us missed the off weekend that we used to have after the race at Las Vegas. I get it. We're in Daytona for almost two weeks, then we head to the West Coast for another 10 days to race at Phoenix and Vegas. That's a lot packed into a couple of weeks. For me, I like that we kept racing with no break. It allowed us to keep the momentum from the first few races when we got to Bristol.
I get asked a lot about my favorite race track. More often than not, I'll say "wherever you win." But if I had to make a list, Bristol Motor Speedway would be at the top. There is a track in Toledo, Ohio, where I ran super late models growing up. It was a half-mile, medium-banked oval. We ran around that place in 15 seconds. To me, the first lap I ever took on this race track felt just like I was in that late model car in Toledo, Ohio, and that made me really, really comfortable at Bristol from day one.
When we got to Bristol last month, I was really excited about the speed we had shown throughout the season. We were fast right off the truck, so I told everyone on Twitter that I had the best car I'd ever had in the Cup Series. Pretty strong words, but we were able to back it up by leading 232 laps to pick up the win.
There are other places that perhaps have a little more prestige, but Bristol defines a race team. It asks so much of you, whether it's just in practice being lined up on pit road and dealing with the noise and the havoc that practice can be, or the hot day of getting through tech and making those last adjustments, or as a driver, 500 laps in the bowl trying to keep your composure. This race track can really test a team, and I think that the teams that come out on top, whether it's driver or whatever, I think that they show what it takes to overcome adversity.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
featuring a patriotic paint scheme for the NASCAR Unites program. (NASCAR)
WASHINGTON -- The annual White House Easter Egg Roll has been rolling strong for 134 years. This year's version had an element of rolling thunder to it.
The No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet driven by Dale Earnhardt Jr. made a special appearance at The Ellipse in the nation's capital Monday, helping to kick off a patriotic initiative "NASCAR Unites -- An American Salute." The six-week program is designed to unify the NASCAR industry and fans in celebrating America and supporting military families.
Adding a unique twist to Monday's celebration was the sight of an 800-horsepower race car adjacent to the National Mall, greeting the estimated 36,000 attendees at the White House event. The car debuted a spirited red, white and blue paint scheme, designed to rally support for the initiative.
Three NASCAR executives and their families took part in the festivities, which included concerts, colorful eggs, face-painting and a story-telling session with the First Family. On hand were: Marcus Jadotte, NASCAR vice president of public affairs and multicultural development; Kim Brink, managing director of brand, consumer and series marketing; and Sandy Marshall, executive director of the NASCAR Foundation.
"I cannot think of a better way to launch the program than having Dale Jr.'s National Guard car at the White House Easter Egg Roll event," Marshall said. "It was great to see the families so excited to see a Sprint Cup car near the White House lawn."
Besides Earnhardt's star-spangled No. 88, other racers in all three national series will sport distinctly American paint schemes and trim packages. Defending Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart, current Cup points leader Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski and Danica Patrick are some of the drivers already on board.
The initiative will be at its most visible at races around two traditional national holidays -- the May 27 Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway and the July 7 Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway, right after Independence Day. A total of nine tracks will be involved during the six-week span.
The significance of the announcement and the Charlotte track's long-running history of celebrating Memorial Day wasn't lost on Charlotte mayor Anthony Foxx, who attended his first egg roll with his family.
"NASCAR's support of military families is legendary," Foxx said. "There couldn't be a better time than Memorial Day to recognize our veterans and to do it in such a way that NASCAR is doing it this year. It's so appropriate given the solemnity of the day and that we are so grateful for the veterans who have given their lives and their time to our country."
The No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet driven by Dale Earnhardt Jr. made a special appearance at The Ellipse in the nation's capital Monday, helping to kick off a patriotic initiative "NASCAR Unites -- An American Salute." The six-week program is designed to unify the NASCAR industry and fans in celebrating America and supporting military families.
Adding a unique twist to Monday's celebration was the sight of an 800-horsepower race car adjacent to the National Mall, greeting the estimated 36,000 attendees at the White House event. The car debuted a spirited red, white and blue paint scheme, designed to rally support for the initiative.
Three NASCAR executives and their families took part in the festivities, which included concerts, colorful eggs, face-painting and a story-telling session with the First Family. On hand were: Marcus Jadotte, NASCAR vice president of public affairs and multicultural development; Kim Brink, managing director of brand, consumer and series marketing; and Sandy Marshall, executive director of the NASCAR Foundation.
"I cannot think of a better way to launch the program than having Dale Jr.'s National Guard car at the White House Easter Egg Roll event," Marshall said. "It was great to see the families so excited to see a Sprint Cup car near the White House lawn."
Besides Earnhardt's star-spangled No. 88, other racers in all three national series will sport distinctly American paint schemes and trim packages. Defending Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart, current Cup points leader Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski and Danica Patrick are some of the drivers already on board.
The initiative will be at its most visible at races around two traditional national holidays -- the May 27 Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway and the July 7 Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway, right after Independence Day. A total of nine tracks will be involved during the six-week span.
The significance of the announcement and the Charlotte track's long-running history of celebrating Memorial Day wasn't lost on Charlotte mayor Anthony Foxx, who attended his first egg roll with his family.
"NASCAR's support of military families is legendary," Foxx said. "There couldn't be a better time than Memorial Day to recognize our veterans and to do it in such a way that NASCAR is doing it this year. It's so appropriate given the solemnity of the day and that we are so grateful for the veterans who have given their lives and their time to our country."
Monday, April 9, 2012
The eyes of electronic fuel injection
Just six weeks after replacing the tried and true carburetor, electronic fuel injection already has proven to be a game-changing technology in NASCAR -- both in a good and bad way.
Just about everyone knows about Tony Stewart's balky circuit breaker at Phoenix, and the failed fuel pumps suffered by Penske's two drivers at Las Vegas. Those teething problems were surprising but not unexpected.
“
You can now diagnose the failure rather than presume something. It does make the end product better.
It'll probably be this summer before we fully integrate the culture of NASCAR with this new science. But it's a great opportunity.
”
-- LEE WHITE
Hendrick Motorsports director of engine operations Jeff Andrews has a different story to tell. After the seven cars with Hendrick engines practiced at Martinsville Speedway last weekend, team engineers took the data to the shop in Concord, N.C. They hooked up a test engine on the dyno, and using telemetry collected hours before, were able to make specific changes to the computer program that controls the EFI.
"We actually came back here to our shop on Saturday and did some running with some of the data we gathered from Martinsville," Andrews said. "Then we did some more adjustments to the calibration and mapping for the race on Sunday."
How well did it work? Behind a dominant performance by Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, Hendrick cars led 455 laps -- and even though the team didn't land Rick Hendrick that elusive 200th win, the engine department still had reason to celebrate with Ryan Newman at race's end.
As the seven-post shaker rig has revolutionized chassis setups, the EFI telemetry that's available every time a car returns to the garage area isn't just providing an impact on engine design and tuning, but helping drivers "see" what their teammates are doing behind the wheel.
"The drivers can look at each other's throttle traces and brake pressures, and really compare driving styles," Andrews said. "Before, it was verbal conversation -- 'I'm doing this here, this is where I'm getting back on the throttle and this is how I use the brake.' Now there's data. You're able to sit down and look at that between practice sessions."
And the biggest fear drivers had with the switch -- whether they'd feel the difference in throttle response between carburetors and EFI -- has been largely mitigated, according to Howard Comstock, manager of engineering for Chrysler Group's Street and Racing Technology Motorsports division.
"A lot of people were worried about drivability with EFI and we've seen none of that," Comstock said. "That's not surprising. We had a pretty good idea that we had it figured out, that you'd make these things drive.
"If you don't bring it up to the drivers, they don't bring it up to you. And that's all good news for us."
For the most part, crew chiefs also have been able to make a seamless transition. Darian Grubb, crew chief for Denny Hamlin's No. 11 Toyota, said there haven't been any surprises.
"It's more just a learning curve of a whole new system," Grubb said. "We've been working with carburetors for over 60 years. Just having to learn all the new systems and everything being computerized and just making sure everyone is up to speed with the technology."
For him, it's "a new thing to pay attention to every day."
Electronic fuel injection has been on Doug Yates' mind for months. As head engine builder for Roush Yates Engines -- the main supplier for Ford's Cup engine program -- Yates has been at the forefront of the EFI transition.
For a guy who has been tinkering with engines since his father, Robert, let him work in the race shop as a teenager, Doug Yates understood the intricacies of the carburetor perhaps better than anyone else in the garage. But he can barely contain his excitement when the subject of EFI gets brought up.
"It's an exciting time to be an engine builder," Yates said. "With all the information we have today that we've never had before -- and what we can do with that information -- has continued to make the engines perform better at the track. And also understanding the limits of the engines."
Just like tuning a piano, tuning a race engine takes a trained ear. For an engine tuner, the switch from carburetion to electronic fuel injection is akin to a recording studio making the leap from analog to digital.
That's not to infer that EFI is more "sterile" or requires less artistic ability to master. Yates said it's just a different way to achieve a similar solution.
"The whole weekend goes differently now," Yates said. "With carburetors and distributors, you'd look at the spark plugs and listen to the engines, think about things and make your decisions. Now, you have data you can look at from here until tomorrow. And you're building that database."
For decades, engine building has been a matter of trial and error. Design a part, machine it, put it on the car and see if it can withstand the stresses of 500 miles at 180 mph. If it does, refine it. If it doesn't, start over.
But for the most part, there were very few ways to measure exactly why parts and pieces break. Until now.
"Especially when you build multiple engines for several teams, you kind of tend to [gravitate to] the worst condition," Yates said. "If one person has an engine failure, you'd go to work and protect for that.
"Now you have the information and can see that every engine doesn't experience the same operating conditions, operating temperatures. So now you can make a better engine down the road because you understand better what the operating conditions are. The information will make us better."
Andrews already has seen the benefits. You can spend unlimited hours --and dollars -- on computer-aided design, in the dyno room and at testing, and at the end of the day, still wonder if everything will work correctly.
That's why being on the track in racing trim -- and being able to collect real-time data -- is so critical. It provides that little extra peace of mind about engine function and reliability.
EFI technology
Welcome to the computer age, and that means engine builders are trading in their wrenches and benches for laptops and software.
More
"The conditions inside of the car and under the hood -- and all of the things that go on during the weekend, whether it be restarts or pit stops, temperatures and brief overheating periods -- these are all things now the engine management system reacts to," Andrews said. "Once you start throwing seven [engines] out there every weekend, your sample rate goes up dramatically. And so does the likelihood of what we like to refer around here as 'new challenges.' "
Yes, Kasey Kahne had engine issues at Martinsville, but Andrews was quick to point out that even though the team still is investigating the reasons why, EFI was not to blame.
If anything, the telemetry helps determine the 'smoking gun,' said Ron Sperry, components design engineer for GM Racing Group. Data acquisition helped figured out the underlying cause of Jeff Gordon's problems in the Daytona 500.
"In the Jeff Gordon failure, we could see coolant loss," Sperry said. "Now, we couldn't see it immediately, but with the telemetry after the fact, we could go back and look at the historical data and see that he did have a coolant loss and it led to a piston failure later in the race.
"You can now diagnose the failure rather than presume something. It does make the end product better. And now piston temperatures are more consistent. You now have consistency from cylinder one to cylinder eight."
Now that EFI has been race-tested at every configuration -- with the notable exception of a road course -- Andrews can't wait to measure the progress his group has made.
"We have a list of feedback and areas of improvement from Las Vegas that we've addressed and are anxious to get to Texas to try those out," Andrews said.
Andrews isn't the only one. Toyota Racing Development president Lee White has been an adamant supporter of electronic fuel injection since the topic first came up in conversation. With 180 employees in California supporting TRD's program, he envisions a time not too far in the future where EFI becomes "routine."
For now, it's more a matter of getting man and machine working together.
"Everyone is still learning to mesh that five inches between the driver's ears with what's coming out of their laptops," White said. "It'll probably be this summer before we fully integrate the culture of NASCAR with this new science. But it's a great opportunity."
Just about everyone knows about Tony Stewart's balky circuit breaker at Phoenix, and the failed fuel pumps suffered by Penske's two drivers at Las Vegas. Those teething problems were surprising but not unexpected.
“
You can now diagnose the failure rather than presume something. It does make the end product better.
It'll probably be this summer before we fully integrate the culture of NASCAR with this new science. But it's a great opportunity.
”
-- LEE WHITE
Hendrick Motorsports director of engine operations Jeff Andrews has a different story to tell. After the seven cars with Hendrick engines practiced at Martinsville Speedway last weekend, team engineers took the data to the shop in Concord, N.C. They hooked up a test engine on the dyno, and using telemetry collected hours before, were able to make specific changes to the computer program that controls the EFI.
"We actually came back here to our shop on Saturday and did some running with some of the data we gathered from Martinsville," Andrews said. "Then we did some more adjustments to the calibration and mapping for the race on Sunday."
How well did it work? Behind a dominant performance by Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, Hendrick cars led 455 laps -- and even though the team didn't land Rick Hendrick that elusive 200th win, the engine department still had reason to celebrate with Ryan Newman at race's end.
As the seven-post shaker rig has revolutionized chassis setups, the EFI telemetry that's available every time a car returns to the garage area isn't just providing an impact on engine design and tuning, but helping drivers "see" what their teammates are doing behind the wheel.
"The drivers can look at each other's throttle traces and brake pressures, and really compare driving styles," Andrews said. "Before, it was verbal conversation -- 'I'm doing this here, this is where I'm getting back on the throttle and this is how I use the brake.' Now there's data. You're able to sit down and look at that between practice sessions."
And the biggest fear drivers had with the switch -- whether they'd feel the difference in throttle response between carburetors and EFI -- has been largely mitigated, according to Howard Comstock, manager of engineering for Chrysler Group's Street and Racing Technology Motorsports division.
"A lot of people were worried about drivability with EFI and we've seen none of that," Comstock said. "That's not surprising. We had a pretty good idea that we had it figured out, that you'd make these things drive.
"If you don't bring it up to the drivers, they don't bring it up to you. And that's all good news for us."
For the most part, crew chiefs also have been able to make a seamless transition. Darian Grubb, crew chief for Denny Hamlin's No. 11 Toyota, said there haven't been any surprises.
"It's more just a learning curve of a whole new system," Grubb said. "We've been working with carburetors for over 60 years. Just having to learn all the new systems and everything being computerized and just making sure everyone is up to speed with the technology."
For him, it's "a new thing to pay attention to every day."
Electronic fuel injection has been on Doug Yates' mind for months. As head engine builder for Roush Yates Engines -- the main supplier for Ford's Cup engine program -- Yates has been at the forefront of the EFI transition.
For a guy who has been tinkering with engines since his father, Robert, let him work in the race shop as a teenager, Doug Yates understood the intricacies of the carburetor perhaps better than anyone else in the garage. But he can barely contain his excitement when the subject of EFI gets brought up.
"It's an exciting time to be an engine builder," Yates said. "With all the information we have today that we've never had before -- and what we can do with that information -- has continued to make the engines perform better at the track. And also understanding the limits of the engines."
Just like tuning a piano, tuning a race engine takes a trained ear. For an engine tuner, the switch from carburetion to electronic fuel injection is akin to a recording studio making the leap from analog to digital.
That's not to infer that EFI is more "sterile" or requires less artistic ability to master. Yates said it's just a different way to achieve a similar solution.
"The whole weekend goes differently now," Yates said. "With carburetors and distributors, you'd look at the spark plugs and listen to the engines, think about things and make your decisions. Now, you have data you can look at from here until tomorrow. And you're building that database."
For decades, engine building has been a matter of trial and error. Design a part, machine it, put it on the car and see if it can withstand the stresses of 500 miles at 180 mph. If it does, refine it. If it doesn't, start over.
But for the most part, there were very few ways to measure exactly why parts and pieces break. Until now.
"Especially when you build multiple engines for several teams, you kind of tend to [gravitate to] the worst condition," Yates said. "If one person has an engine failure, you'd go to work and protect for that.
"Now you have the information and can see that every engine doesn't experience the same operating conditions, operating temperatures. So now you can make a better engine down the road because you understand better what the operating conditions are. The information will make us better."
Andrews already has seen the benefits. You can spend unlimited hours --and dollars -- on computer-aided design, in the dyno room and at testing, and at the end of the day, still wonder if everything will work correctly.
That's why being on the track in racing trim -- and being able to collect real-time data -- is so critical. It provides that little extra peace of mind about engine function and reliability.
EFI technology
Welcome to the computer age, and that means engine builders are trading in their wrenches and benches for laptops and software.
More
"The conditions inside of the car and under the hood -- and all of the things that go on during the weekend, whether it be restarts or pit stops, temperatures and brief overheating periods -- these are all things now the engine management system reacts to," Andrews said. "Once you start throwing seven [engines] out there every weekend, your sample rate goes up dramatically. And so does the likelihood of what we like to refer around here as 'new challenges.' "
Yes, Kasey Kahne had engine issues at Martinsville, but Andrews was quick to point out that even though the team still is investigating the reasons why, EFI was not to blame.
If anything, the telemetry helps determine the 'smoking gun,' said Ron Sperry, components design engineer for GM Racing Group. Data acquisition helped figured out the underlying cause of Jeff Gordon's problems in the Daytona 500.
"In the Jeff Gordon failure, we could see coolant loss," Sperry said. "Now, we couldn't see it immediately, but with the telemetry after the fact, we could go back and look at the historical data and see that he did have a coolant loss and it led to a piston failure later in the race.
"You can now diagnose the failure rather than presume something. It does make the end product better. And now piston temperatures are more consistent. You now have consistency from cylinder one to cylinder eight."
Now that EFI has been race-tested at every configuration -- with the notable exception of a road course -- Andrews can't wait to measure the progress his group has made.
"We have a list of feedback and areas of improvement from Las Vegas that we've addressed and are anxious to get to Texas to try those out," Andrews said.
Andrews isn't the only one. Toyota Racing Development president Lee White has been an adamant supporter of electronic fuel injection since the topic first came up in conversation. With 180 employees in California supporting TRD's program, he envisions a time not too far in the future where EFI becomes "routine."
For now, it's more a matter of getting man and machine working together.
"Everyone is still learning to mesh that five inches between the driver's ears with what's coming out of their laptops," White said. "It'll probably be this summer before we fully integrate the culture of NASCAR with this new science. But it's a great opportunity."
Sunday, April 8, 2012
The times they are changing
Amid the frenzy of what would become the closest championship battle in the history of NASCAR's premier series, it went virtually unnoticed. As Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards traded jabs on and off the track at Texas, Martin Truex Jr. piloted a brand new race car to an eighth-place finish -- his best in Fort Worth in almost two years. While momentum swung among the title contenders at Phoenix, David Reutimann recorded his first top-10 in 17 weeks. And while the racing universe was transfixed by the events at Homestead, Truex quietly finished third -- right behind the two drivers who decided the championship between them.
Given the circumstances, the progress was almost completely overshadowed, lost in a heavyweight championship bout that dominated the final few weeks of the 2011 campaign. But not at Michael Waltrip Racing, which was rolling out its new and clearly more competitive race cars for the first time and laying the groundwork for what would be a major step forward in 2012.
“
We thought we were better than we were ... [there has] really been a culture change.
”
-- MARTIN TRUEX JR.
These days, there's no overshadowing the progress being made at MWR. It commands attention, from the positions Truex and new MWR driver Clint Bowyer occupy in the top 10 of the current Sprint Cup standings, to a No. 55 car that's proven competitive whether it's Mark Martin or Brian Vickers behind the wheel. The vehicles at MWR are faster, more balanced and less prone to wild swings in consistency. The development of those cars has fueled the rise of an organization that one year ago seemed to be taking large steps in the opposite direction.
"There's not hardly anything on the car that's the same," said Rodney Childers, crew chief on a No. 55 car shared to this point by Martin and Vickers. "From this time ... last year to now, there's not anything on that entire car that's the same. It's really basically like starting over."
And to a large degree it was.
Teams build their cars off one master chassis, and Childers said top organizations like 10-time champion Hendrick Motorsports revamp that base vehicle every six months or so. MWR, by comparison, was still basing everything off a chassis that had been built in 2009 as recently as the middle of last season. Eventually, that car grew outdated, and performance suffered as a result.
The impact was clear at a three-car operation that mustered just four top-fives between them, and went without a victory for the first time in three seasons. After a few years of creeping up on the elite teams in NASCAR's top division, MWR suddenly seemed to lag well behind.
Last April, that lack of performance began to eat at Childers.
"I started getting pretty irritated and banging my head against the table in many of our meetings," he remembered, "saying, 'We've got to start over. We've got to build a new car. We've got to build all-new suspension. We've got to redo everything.' Of course, that's hard to accept and to say you have to do that. To even say, 'We have to step back and punt' is hard to do. The more and more we got toward that, the more people starting thinking, you know, that's really the right thing."
And so they punted, pouring more efforts into what they hoped would be a brighter 2012 season instead of trying to right a lost 2011 campaign. MWR began holding weekly Tuesday meetings open to anyone in the shop that might have an idea about how to build a better car. The focus was on improving aerodynamics, lowering the center of gravity, and rethinking the vehicle in its totality rather than envisioning it as just a chassis with pieces added on.
Other things happened, too. Lines of communication with manufacturer Toyota became clearer, and Childers struck up a working relationship with Joe Gibbs Racing crew chief Dave Rogers that stemmed, of all things, from Childers being angry over an accident involving Reutimann and Kyle Busch at Kansas.
It all began happening well before MWR brought in key additions like new director of competition Scott Miller or new crew chief Brian Pattie, who runs things on Bowyer's car. And it brought with it a degree of change that Truex believes affected not only the team's vehicles, but the fiber of the organization as whole.
"I think early last year, at some point, we actually thought our cars were better than they actually were, for some reason," Truex said. "... It was a company-wide thing where we just started doing things different, building new stuff, changing the way we did things. And it really changed our perspective ... we thought we were better than we were, I guess I'm saying.
"It's really been a culture change, I think as a company, to now. No matter how we run, we're working harder than anybody else and trying to be the best. If we run third, we're not happy with that anymore. So, it's fun. It's fun to be a part of that. It's fun to see the enthusiasm around the shop, and everybody wanting to win races and be the best out there. Obviously, it's paid off for us."
MWR is A-OK
Michael Waltrip Racing has seemingly learned from the ills of its past as a team, creating some buzz this season.
SPEED RaceDay: Truex Jr.
Green-White-Checkered
Press Pass: Truex Jr.
SPEED Trackside: Bowyer
That much is evident in the standings, where Truex sits sixth and Bowyer ninth. The No. 55 car, with its array of drivers, ranks ninth in owners' points. MWR's drivers have already combined for more top-five finishes than they had in all of last season, and Truex is riding a streak of eight top-10s in his last 11 starts dating back to last year. That's the kind of consistency that nets Chase berths, and it's the kind of consistency MWR has been noticeably lacking -- until now.
No question, MWR upgraded its personnel with the additions of Bowyer, Martin, Miller and Pattie for this season. But the improvement in the race cars started before those human pieces began to be added, and the increased mechanical performance has allowed MWR to take maximum advantage of that upgraded roster. Truex could feel the difference in the new car the first time he slid behind the wheel. That was last fall at Texas, which, in retrospect, stands as the starting point for the rebirth of this six-year-old franchise co-owned by Waltrip and Rob Kauffman.
"The car just had a good feel to it, and it had speed," Truex said. "The biggest thing we noticed was, in green-flag pit stops during the race, the car was really fast. On new tires, the car had speed. It's not always driving perfect, which they never do, but the car has speed in it. It's easier to be fast even when the car is off. So, it's been easier to work on. And one of the things I've noticed about it that I've liked is it's more user-friendly.
"You don't go to bed on Saturday night worried to death the balance is going to shift 180 degrees from what you had in practice and were happy [with], to when the race starts. So, it's been a little bit more consistent for us and that's been a big key for us this year."
That's a stark difference from past seasons, where MWR cars could vary from race-contending to middle of the pack in consecutive weeks. "No matter how hard you try, it's still a hand-made piece," Miller said. "But I think we've gotten our [quality-control] system down a lot better to where we're a lot more consistent, and know a lot more about what we've got from week to week than probably they have before."
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Play Chase Predictor
Miller made the move from Richard Childress Racing to MWR the week of last fall's Texas race, arriving the same time as the new cars. Childers said the new vehicles were debuted late last year because the team wanted to get them some track time before the end of the season. Then, they'd know what to fine-tune for the upcoming campaign. Once that was done, the team had to build its fleet for 2012, growing from just a few new vehicles to enough to supply three full-time programs. That's where Miller, known for his organizational acumen, came in.
"A lot of the groundwork was already in place when I walked in the door," he said. "Part of the process is being able to get that much work done, and being efficient in getting it done with limited resources ... compared to Hendrick Motorsports, say. It's relative. So trying to get that much work done for three teams to start the year on all new equipment was really a huge task. I've tried to help coordinate that, and make things more efficient, and push for things with the ownership that I felt we needed to make that process better. That's kind of where I came in."
Drivers pitched in with feedback, much of it positive. Miller, who won six times as a crew chief on the Sprint Cup level, began putting more responsibility in the hands of his lead wrench-turners, which was welcome.
"The thing Scott Miller did was, he came in, he took all that stuff in, and he started listening to the crew chiefs more than what had been going on before," Childers said. "And he said, 'We're going to get this thing to where these three guys are happy with what they're taking to the race track. Because if they're not happy, they don't have any confidence going into the weekend.' He did a real good job of organizing it all, getting the fab shop working with the crew chiefs, getting it all to mesh a little bit, instead of them all being separate departments and things like that. He did real good with that part of it. And then, from a crew chief standpoint, everybody is working together pretty well."
It certainly seems that way, judging from the results.
The team's high-water mark came three weeks ago at Bristol, when all three MWR vehicles finished inside the top five for the first time ever. But it goes beyond one race -- the team's three programs have finished inside the top 10 in 11 of a combined 18 starts this season. It shows week-in and week-out the kind of performance that threatens to win races and secure Chase berths. And if that happens, it will be powered by a vehicle that was overlooked when it debuted during last year's championship hunt, yet may very well play a role in deciding the next one.
"That's where we're at now, is just looking for that next step," Truex said. "So hopefully, we'll be able to get there."
Given the circumstances, the progress was almost completely overshadowed, lost in a heavyweight championship bout that dominated the final few weeks of the 2011 campaign. But not at Michael Waltrip Racing, which was rolling out its new and clearly more competitive race cars for the first time and laying the groundwork for what would be a major step forward in 2012.
“
We thought we were better than we were ... [there has] really been a culture change.
”
-- MARTIN TRUEX JR.
These days, there's no overshadowing the progress being made at MWR. It commands attention, from the positions Truex and new MWR driver Clint Bowyer occupy in the top 10 of the current Sprint Cup standings, to a No. 55 car that's proven competitive whether it's Mark Martin or Brian Vickers behind the wheel. The vehicles at MWR are faster, more balanced and less prone to wild swings in consistency. The development of those cars has fueled the rise of an organization that one year ago seemed to be taking large steps in the opposite direction.
"There's not hardly anything on the car that's the same," said Rodney Childers, crew chief on a No. 55 car shared to this point by Martin and Vickers. "From this time ... last year to now, there's not anything on that entire car that's the same. It's really basically like starting over."
And to a large degree it was.
Teams build their cars off one master chassis, and Childers said top organizations like 10-time champion Hendrick Motorsports revamp that base vehicle every six months or so. MWR, by comparison, was still basing everything off a chassis that had been built in 2009 as recently as the middle of last season. Eventually, that car grew outdated, and performance suffered as a result.
The impact was clear at a three-car operation that mustered just four top-fives between them, and went without a victory for the first time in three seasons. After a few years of creeping up on the elite teams in NASCAR's top division, MWR suddenly seemed to lag well behind.
Last April, that lack of performance began to eat at Childers.
"I started getting pretty irritated and banging my head against the table in many of our meetings," he remembered, "saying, 'We've got to start over. We've got to build a new car. We've got to build all-new suspension. We've got to redo everything.' Of course, that's hard to accept and to say you have to do that. To even say, 'We have to step back and punt' is hard to do. The more and more we got toward that, the more people starting thinking, you know, that's really the right thing."
And so they punted, pouring more efforts into what they hoped would be a brighter 2012 season instead of trying to right a lost 2011 campaign. MWR began holding weekly Tuesday meetings open to anyone in the shop that might have an idea about how to build a better car. The focus was on improving aerodynamics, lowering the center of gravity, and rethinking the vehicle in its totality rather than envisioning it as just a chassis with pieces added on.
Other things happened, too. Lines of communication with manufacturer Toyota became clearer, and Childers struck up a working relationship with Joe Gibbs Racing crew chief Dave Rogers that stemmed, of all things, from Childers being angry over an accident involving Reutimann and Kyle Busch at Kansas.
It all began happening well before MWR brought in key additions like new director of competition Scott Miller or new crew chief Brian Pattie, who runs things on Bowyer's car. And it brought with it a degree of change that Truex believes affected not only the team's vehicles, but the fiber of the organization as whole.
"I think early last year, at some point, we actually thought our cars were better than they actually were, for some reason," Truex said. "... It was a company-wide thing where we just started doing things different, building new stuff, changing the way we did things. And it really changed our perspective ... we thought we were better than we were, I guess I'm saying.
"It's really been a culture change, I think as a company, to now. No matter how we run, we're working harder than anybody else and trying to be the best. If we run third, we're not happy with that anymore. So, it's fun. It's fun to be a part of that. It's fun to see the enthusiasm around the shop, and everybody wanting to win races and be the best out there. Obviously, it's paid off for us."
MWR is A-OK
Michael Waltrip Racing has seemingly learned from the ills of its past as a team, creating some buzz this season.
SPEED RaceDay: Truex Jr.
Green-White-Checkered
Press Pass: Truex Jr.
SPEED Trackside: Bowyer
That much is evident in the standings, where Truex sits sixth and Bowyer ninth. The No. 55 car, with its array of drivers, ranks ninth in owners' points. MWR's drivers have already combined for more top-five finishes than they had in all of last season, and Truex is riding a streak of eight top-10s in his last 11 starts dating back to last year. That's the kind of consistency that nets Chase berths, and it's the kind of consistency MWR has been noticeably lacking -- until now.
No question, MWR upgraded its personnel with the additions of Bowyer, Martin, Miller and Pattie for this season. But the improvement in the race cars started before those human pieces began to be added, and the increased mechanical performance has allowed MWR to take maximum advantage of that upgraded roster. Truex could feel the difference in the new car the first time he slid behind the wheel. That was last fall at Texas, which, in retrospect, stands as the starting point for the rebirth of this six-year-old franchise co-owned by Waltrip and Rob Kauffman.
"The car just had a good feel to it, and it had speed," Truex said. "The biggest thing we noticed was, in green-flag pit stops during the race, the car was really fast. On new tires, the car had speed. It's not always driving perfect, which they never do, but the car has speed in it. It's easier to be fast even when the car is off. So, it's been easier to work on. And one of the things I've noticed about it that I've liked is it's more user-friendly.
"You don't go to bed on Saturday night worried to death the balance is going to shift 180 degrees from what you had in practice and were happy [with], to when the race starts. So, it's been a little bit more consistent for us and that's been a big key for us this year."
That's a stark difference from past seasons, where MWR cars could vary from race-contending to middle of the pack in consecutive weeks. "No matter how hard you try, it's still a hand-made piece," Miller said. "But I think we've gotten our [quality-control] system down a lot better to where we're a lot more consistent, and know a lot more about what we've got from week to week than probably they have before."
Play all season long
Follow your favorite driver's chance of winning this week's race and making the Chase.
Play Chase Predictor
Miller made the move from Richard Childress Racing to MWR the week of last fall's Texas race, arriving the same time as the new cars. Childers said the new vehicles were debuted late last year because the team wanted to get them some track time before the end of the season. Then, they'd know what to fine-tune for the upcoming campaign. Once that was done, the team had to build its fleet for 2012, growing from just a few new vehicles to enough to supply three full-time programs. That's where Miller, known for his organizational acumen, came in.
"A lot of the groundwork was already in place when I walked in the door," he said. "Part of the process is being able to get that much work done, and being efficient in getting it done with limited resources ... compared to Hendrick Motorsports, say. It's relative. So trying to get that much work done for three teams to start the year on all new equipment was really a huge task. I've tried to help coordinate that, and make things more efficient, and push for things with the ownership that I felt we needed to make that process better. That's kind of where I came in."
Drivers pitched in with feedback, much of it positive. Miller, who won six times as a crew chief on the Sprint Cup level, began putting more responsibility in the hands of his lead wrench-turners, which was welcome.
"The thing Scott Miller did was, he came in, he took all that stuff in, and he started listening to the crew chiefs more than what had been going on before," Childers said. "And he said, 'We're going to get this thing to where these three guys are happy with what they're taking to the race track. Because if they're not happy, they don't have any confidence going into the weekend.' He did a real good job of organizing it all, getting the fab shop working with the crew chiefs, getting it all to mesh a little bit, instead of them all being separate departments and things like that. He did real good with that part of it. And then, from a crew chief standpoint, everybody is working together pretty well."
It certainly seems that way, judging from the results.
The team's high-water mark came three weeks ago at Bristol, when all three MWR vehicles finished inside the top five for the first time ever. But it goes beyond one race -- the team's three programs have finished inside the top 10 in 11 of a combined 18 starts this season. It shows week-in and week-out the kind of performance that threatens to win races and secure Chase berths. And if that happens, it will be powered by a vehicle that was overlooked when it debuted during last year's championship hunt, yet may very well play a role in deciding the next one.
"That's where we're at now, is just looking for that next step," Truex said. "So hopefully, we'll be able to get there."
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