H
HardScrabble
Guest
Saw the following quote from Ray Evernham. He also is anticipating that at some point NASCAT will begin to trim spoilers and air dams. Hope he is right on that one.
"In order to be involved in the points race, you're going to have to be good
at a lot of places. Michael (Waltrip) is going to have to prove he can be as
competitive at the Martinsvilles and Michigans and Kansas and Poconos. We
only run four plate races a year, and that's really not enough to help you
challenge for a championship.
Their engine program is sorted out. I said all week long I'd put my guys in
the wind tunnel against anybody. I feel like we've done a good job there.
The Daytona 500 and restrictor plate racing was always something that was
very close to Dale Sr.'s heart, and they've got some great people over
there. I know some of the cylinder head and manifold people they have over
there. They're just doing a better job with their whole plate program over
there right now. Michael is good at Daytona and Dale Jr. seems to have
inherited some of sixth sense. You have to be careful that you don't throw
the rest of the season away worrying about the four plate races. The biggest
of the plate races is over. Everybody works for the Daytona 500. I think
that other teams are going to have to put some people that don't do anything
but plate development. I know some of the big teams do that. If you want to
catch up to where DEI and Richard Childress are, then you're going to have
to throw resources over there also and that means that one piece of your
engine department is going to have to be nothing but restrictor plate. I
think you're going to see more people doing things like I'm doing with the
91 car and Rick Hendrick is doing with the 60 car. You're going to have a
car that runs some plate races only just trying to do some development.
"What's really cool about the first four races, you've got your first race
and it's a plate race, the Daytona 500, so you know where you stand on your
plate races. Then you go to Rockingham where if you got a zillion horsepower
it's not going to show. You've still got to handle there. The body is not
going to be the greatest thing. It's really going to come down to shocks and
springs. Then you've got Vegas where it's really a lot about body, and then
it's on to Atlanta where it's a lot about horsepower. In the first four
races, you can pretty much figure out where you're at. I don't think your
season really starts until after Atlanta. You're not really going to know
where your car and team stacks up until after Atlanta."
"In order to be involved in the points race, you're going to have to be good
at a lot of places. Michael (Waltrip) is going to have to prove he can be as
competitive at the Martinsvilles and Michigans and Kansas and Poconos. We
only run four plate races a year, and that's really not enough to help you
challenge for a championship.
Their engine program is sorted out. I said all week long I'd put my guys in
the wind tunnel against anybody. I feel like we've done a good job there.
The Daytona 500 and restrictor plate racing was always something that was
very close to Dale Sr.'s heart, and they've got some great people over
there. I know some of the cylinder head and manifold people they have over
there. They're just doing a better job with their whole plate program over
there right now. Michael is good at Daytona and Dale Jr. seems to have
inherited some of sixth sense. You have to be careful that you don't throw
the rest of the season away worrying about the four plate races. The biggest
of the plate races is over. Everybody works for the Daytona 500. I think
that other teams are going to have to put some people that don't do anything
but plate development. I know some of the big teams do that. If you want to
catch up to where DEI and Richard Childress are, then you're going to have
to throw resources over there also and that means that one piece of your
engine department is going to have to be nothing but restrictor plate. I
think you're going to see more people doing things like I'm doing with the
91 car and Rick Hendrick is doing with the 60 car. You're going to have a
car that runs some plate races only just trying to do some development.
"What's really cool about the first four races, you've got your first race
and it's a plate race, the Daytona 500, so you know where you stand on your
plate races. Then you go to Rockingham where if you got a zillion horsepower
it's not going to show. You've still got to handle there. The body is not
going to be the greatest thing. It's really going to come down to shocks and
springs. Then you've got Vegas where it's really a lot about body, and then
it's on to Atlanta where it's a lot about horsepower. In the first four
races, you can pretty much figure out where you're at. I don't think your
season really starts until after Atlanta. You're not really going to know
where your car and team stacks up until after Atlanta."
