NASCAR BGN: This week in Ford Racing

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

NASCAR Busch Grand National

Kevin Lepage enters the 2001 NASCAR Busch Series season as one of the few owner-driver combinations left in the sport. After finishing last season with Roush Racing, Lepage decided to focus his attention on his Busch Series team, which is scheduled to run 15 races this year. Lepage, who is coming off a 21st-place finish last week in Las Vegas, this weekend, returns to a track that he has experienced past success. He captured the pole in the 1999 Winston Cup season finale at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and in last year's Aaron's 312 Busch Series race, he finished in third place behind Mark Martin and Matt Kenseth. Lepage discussed his 2001 plans and the rigors of ownership.

KEVIN LEPAGE--71--State Fair Corn Dogs Ford Taurus - YOU HAVE EXPERIENCED RACING SUCCESS AT ATLANTA IN RECENT YEARS. TO WHAT DO YOU ATTRIBUTE THAT? "I think it goes back to 1987. I went down there in an ARCA race and had a strong running going until we had a mechanical failure. I just like the mile-and-a-half race tracks and Atlanta has been really good to me."

YOU STARTED YOUR SEASON AT LAS VEGAS. DID YOU DO THAT TO AVOID FIRST-RACE JITTERS AT ATLANTA? "We pretty much have a new team this year. We had one member for last year's team that was with us, but everybody else is new. We also brought a new race car out to Las Vegas with a different body configuration than what we're normally used to running. We thought that with the new tire rule this was going to be a move in our favor, but in the end, it ended up backfiring on us. I was very happy with the overall performance, though. We went there with a new car and a new crew. We had no loose lug nuts during pit stops, we had no oil leaks and nothing fell off the car the whole weekend. We had a new Cosworth engine, which ran the whole day, and we're very happy with the Cosworth performance, so if you look at it from a grade standpoint, I would say that my overall weekend was a 'B,' but on a performance basis it was a 'C-.' Those are the things we can build from and carry positive momentum into this weekend."

YOU'RE NOT RACING FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP. HOW DOES THAT AFFECT YOUR MENTALITY GOING INTO A RACE? "Currently, we're going to run 15 races, but we may add a couple of more throughout the season, and right now our only goal is to put our sponsor, State Fair, in Victory Lane. A win is more important than a top-five or top-10 finish to us. We're just going out with our guns loaded, and we're going out to win races every week. That's how we picked our schedule. We wanted to be at all the tracks we feel we have at shot at winning, and not just running in the top 10. I believe that I've got a great shot this weekend in Atlanta. We're bringing the same car that we had at Charlotte last year. We finished eighth the first time out with it and we were two-tenths (of a second) faster than everybody in the race, but in the second race it got caught up in a little wreck. We're bringing that same car back and Darlington is next week, and I've had strong performances there in the Busch and Cup cars. We're just going to do the best job we can and try to find that checkered flag at the end of the day."

HOW MUCH TESTING HAVE YOU DONE IN THE OFF-SEASON? "None at all. We've got a new shop in Huntersville (N.C.), and we spent this winter trying to get it up and running and building new race cars. We kind of got behind a little bit, but our guys are working 24-7 trying to get the program running. We have a great crew and I'm really happy with the people I'm surrounded with."

YOU HAVE A THREE-RACE STRETCH TO START YOUR SEASON. HOW MANY CARS DO YOU HAVE READY? "We have four cars in the shop. Three are race-ready and one is just sheet metal; we need to get it painted. We have four right now, and hopefully we'll get that fifth one done in the near future."

DID YOU TRY TO GROUP AS MANY RACES AS YOU COULD TOGETHER SO THAT YOU GET INTO A WEEKLY RHYTHM AT THE TRACK? "We're trying to get one car ahead every time we leave. When we leave for Atlanta this weekend, the Darlington car will be ready. We want to get into that routine because you never know, we may put together a full schedule next year and we want to make sure the guys are in sync with that."

WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT THE 12:1 COMPRESSION MOTORS LAST WEEK, AND WILL YOUR WINSTON CUP EXPERIENCE GIVE YOU AN ADVANTAGE THIS WEEKEND AT ATLANTA? "I believe so. I was pretty impressed with the way the Busch Series Taurus performed in comparison to the Cup Taurus I drove last year. It's not quite a Winston Cup car, but it's gaining on them pretty quick. I'm glad that they did the rule change, but unfortunately from a financial standpoint, it has been an expensive proposition for a lot of Busch teams and you can see that in car counts."

DO YOU THINK THAT COUNT WILL EVENTUALLY COME BACK UP? "I can't see it this year. Not right now, unless some major sponsors step up to the Busch Series. The TV package kind of hurt us because a lot of people don't get FX. We're hearing that as we try to get associate sponsors for our Busch deal. They're telling us that with so many races on FX, they can't get that in their local area. Why should they go out and give money if the people they're trying to attract can't see it."

DO YOU THINK WE'LL BE SEEING SPEEDS JUST UNDER THOSE OF THE WINSTON CUP CARS THIS WEEKEND IN ATLANTA? "I would say that we'll be right around 187 (mph). I don't think it will change the driving line, but hopefully the guys will figure what they have to do for the race cars in terms of springs and shocks. You won't be able to run what you ran last year."

HOW HAS HAVING AN OWNERSHIP ROLE CHANGED YOUR PERSPECTIVE ON THE SPORT? "This whole Matrix Motorsports deal was started last year. Our main goal is to get a full-time sponsor for 2002 and put somebody in the car to run a full Busch Series schedule. Hopefully I can get back into Winston Cup and step out of the Busch Series as a driver, but remain involved as an owner. That's one of my main goals - to run a limited schedule in the Busch Series for another two year and then keep it running with another driver. It's been a lot of hard work being an owner and a driver. You have to go out and buy the building, get the building set up, hire people and make sure the cars are being built correctly. I'm up for the challenge, but I can see how the number of owner-drivers has decreased."

HAS OWNERSHIP TAKEN AWAY FROM YOUR RACING CAREER? "No, when I'm at the race track, that's the only thing I'm concentrating on. If somebody comes up and wants to talk to me about business, I politely thank them, ask for a business card and talk to them when I get back home. My main goal right now is to find Victory Lane with this car."

Text Provided By Ford

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