Evernham reverts to past for future
Car owner employing '06 bodies on entries to try to snap funk
By DAVID POOLE - [email protected]
Evernham Motorsports will use bodies based on a 2006 Dodge for the rest of this year's non-car of tomorrow races after the team discovered an issue that might help explain problems it has had with 2007 bodies.
Team owner Ray Evernham said Saturday the cars his team was putting on the track did not match what was being used in computer models by the team's engineers.
Eric Warren, technical director of Evernham Motorsports, has been placed on leave because the problem fell under his area of responsibility.
As an example, Evernham said he found the radiators in cars being used by Kasey Kahne, Elliott Sadler and Scott Riggs were not where they were shown to be in the computer models.
It seemed to make a difference in Allstate 400 qualifying. Kahne was fifth fastest, Riggs 16th and Sadler 17th.
Kahne won six races last year, five of them in the same car. That car was used as the template as the team built 2006 bodies for its drivers to use at Indianapolis this weekend. Evernham said that because the team had been using faulty information to work on its '07 cars he wanted to go back to something he knew worked to provide a starting point for the rest of the races in which that car will be employed.
Evernham said he knew something had to be done when his teams struggled so badly last weekend at Chicagoland. Kahne finished five laps down, Sadler finished seven laps down and Riggs failed to make the race.
"At one point in the race, I brought Elliott in and we made an 11-pound adjustment in one tire," Evernham said. "Eleven pounds.
"And then we did a half-turn of wedge and he took off."
Car owner employing '06 bodies on entries to try to snap funk
By DAVID POOLE - [email protected]
Evernham Motorsports will use bodies based on a 2006 Dodge for the rest of this year's non-car of tomorrow races after the team discovered an issue that might help explain problems it has had with 2007 bodies.
Team owner Ray Evernham said Saturday the cars his team was putting on the track did not match what was being used in computer models by the team's engineers.
Eric Warren, technical director of Evernham Motorsports, has been placed on leave because the problem fell under his area of responsibility.
As an example, Evernham said he found the radiators in cars being used by Kasey Kahne, Elliott Sadler and Scott Riggs were not where they were shown to be in the computer models.
It seemed to make a difference in Allstate 400 qualifying. Kahne was fifth fastest, Riggs 16th and Sadler 17th.
Kahne won six races last year, five of them in the same car. That car was used as the template as the team built 2006 bodies for its drivers to use at Indianapolis this weekend. Evernham said that because the team had been using faulty information to work on its '07 cars he wanted to go back to something he knew worked to provide a starting point for the rest of the races in which that car will be employed.
Evernham said he knew something had to be done when his teams struggled so badly last weekend at Chicagoland. Kahne finished five laps down, Sadler finished seven laps down and Riggs failed to make the race.
"At one point in the race, I brought Elliott in and we made an 11-pound adjustment in one tire," Evernham said. "Eleven pounds.
"And then we did a half-turn of wedge and he took off."
