Engineers, Crew Chiefs, Drivers

[HardScrabble]

Jack Roush spoke about the synergy involved in producing a winning combination. Inseparable.

HAS THE ENGINEERING SIDE OF THINGS TAKEN OVER THIS SPORT? "My short answer to that is no. I've got a longer answer.

The reason Jamie McMurray did well and the reason Kurt has been able to win these two races handily -- especially at Martinsville, where it looked like he wasn't gonna be competitive in practice -- it comes down to Kurt's conversation and to Jamie's conversation with their crew chiefs. The crew chiefs look at the engineering like they look at many of the other things in their tool box. They pick up the right tool to do the right thing with.

There are many engineering solutions for all the issues in the car and if you pick and choose to do the wrong things based on data and advice you get, then you won't get the result you want. So you have to use your experience as a crew chief to choose the things they think will be most useful for the driver in his circumstance with his car at that race.

The thing at Martinsville, Jimmy knew that he was in trouble on Saturday. He knew they hadn't practiced as well as they needed. He looked at what Kurt's comments had been, what the situation was and he made the car adjustable -- extremely adjustable within the range that he knew would not be outside the box for springs, bars, cross-weight, nose-weight -- all those things that wind up playing heavily into the setup.

I'm sure the McMurray success also had to do with the crew chief making the judgements for the car for Jamie and where he was in his program. As important as the driver is, it's still important that a knowledgeable crew chief be behind him to help him.

In Mark' case, Mark needs a crew chief to challenge him today. In Kurt's case, Kurt needs a crew chief to bring him the experience that he lacks in areas where he gets stumped. As time goes on, he'll get stumped less and less and the crew chief's role will change some, but, right now, Jimmy and Kurt are the perfect combination."

 

[paul]

As much as we, myself included, like to get down on the sport and say that it's all machine...the machines are nothing but inanimate objects. Without someone there to "make it go" they do nothing.

People are very important in the sport.

 

[DJFan]

That is where Nascar has the advantage for me over the Open Wheel divisions out there. Champ,IRL and F1 cars are so wired that the driver drives them and that is pretty much it. He might change the brake bias every now and then but there is so much that the car cant do that cant be changed during the race that they are pretty much just along for the ride. Nascar has done the right thing by keeping the cars "tunable" and keeping the electronics out of the equation that we see a better quality of racing for their efforts.

While I dont much care for Jack Roush (I'm from Michigan and favor the Ford's so that was a hard decision to make) I do recognize that his engineering and communication skills have contributed tons to this sport.