NASCAR WCUP: Teams gear up for the longest race of the season at Charlotte

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

May 23, 2001

This weekend's Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway is the longest race of the NASCAR Winston Cup season. Drivers and crew chiefs are constantly talking about how much the track changes and all of the adjustments that have to made from the time the race starts during the day and ends at night. Ford Racing asked two of the sport's top engine builders -- Doug Yates and Larry Wallace -- how they prepare for the weekend and how much of an effect that extra 100 miles has on their preparation.

DOUG YATES, Engine Builder -- Robert Yates Racing -- DOES THIS RACE PRESENT CERTAIN PROBLEMS THAT A 500-MILE RACE DOESN'T? "Yeah. The 600 is always a race that we look at and know we have to have endurance, but you've got to have power too. You can't back things off so much that it doesn't perform well, so it's a tough race. Most of our engines are built to go more than 500 miles, of course, but for a 600-mile race you'll need an engine that'll go maybe 800 or 900 miles. So that does put a little pressure on the engine guys to make sure everything is right and that you have a good combination. The other thing about this race is that it kind of dictates the tone for the summer months when you go to the Michigans and Poconos and tough tracks like that. We kind of have to approach this race differently, a little more conservatively because it starts in the day and ends at night. Gearing is a big deal because you want to make sure you have the right gear for the end of the race and make sure the engine combination agrees with that. When that car goes out on the line, it's a package. Some people may look at it as though it's just an engine and a car, but it all works together as one big package."

DOES THE MOODINESS OF THIS TRACK MAKE THIS RACE EVEN MORE DIFFICULT FROM AN ENGINE BUILDERS STANDPOINT? WOULD THIS RACE BE EASIER AT A PLACE LIKE CALIFORNIA? "Yeah. You come out here and think you've got the best engine you've ever had and you go out and run slow, but that might be during the day. I've heard our driver get out and say, 'The engine is good, but the track is really slow right now.' So it's hard. Last week during The Winston practice, guys started out running 31-second laps and by the end of the night they were running 29-second laps, so it's a very tough track to get on top of and try to learn. You have to go off of previous knowledge to pick the right combination, but it's really hard to learn here."

WE'VE HEARD A LOT THIS YEAR ABOUT HOW TEAMS CAN'T RELY ON THEIR TIRE NOTES BECAUSE OF THE NEW TIRE. IS IT THE SAME FROM AN ENGINE STANDPOINT? "Oh yeah. It seems every year we always say, 'If we only knew then what we know now' because every year the power levels go up. The materials are better and the guys are smarter that are working on these engines and it just raises the bar throughout the whole garage. You go back and look at what you did in the past and try to find a trend, but you can't sit on that combination. You always have to continue to advance and get better, but for this 600-mile race it's a fine line you have to run."

IS THIS A MORE STRESSFUL WEEK FOR YOUR ENGINE SHOP COMPARED TO OTHER WEEKS? "Basically, there are three tough, tough races at our shop and those are the weeks leading up to the Daytona 500, the Coca-Cola 600 and the Brickyard. Our wives and families know that when this week comes around, they may not see much of us so it's a stressful week for us in the engine shop."

WHAT KIND OF STAFFING AND HOW MANY ENGINES WILL YOU HAVE READY FOR NEXT WEEK FOR THE 28 AND 88? "In our engine shop we have 50 guys and during the week we'll have an on-call list and people ready around the clock that can still respond to things. As far as engines, we'll probably have 10 qualifying engines to choose from as far as different combinations and about 15 different race engines that we're working on. All of them are built a little bit differently as far as combinations. It's an ongoing process because we learn a little bit as far as reliability and endurance every race."

IS IT THE KIND OF WEEK WHERE YOU'RE WORKING UP TO THE VERY LAST MINUTE? "Yeah. This race, Daytona and Brickyard you work and give it your best effort until they push the car out on the line because winning this race or any of those three big races is important. In '96 we were fortunate to win all three of those races and you just have to give everything you can and do the best job possible."

THE GOOD THING ABOUT THIS WEEK IS THAT YOU DON'T HAVE TO PUT THOSE ENGINES ON AN AIRPLANE AND FLY THEM BACK AND FORTH, RIGHT? "Yeah, it is good that we're right here at home. If we have a question about a carburetor or a tailpipe, we'll send them back to the race shop and dyno them and they'll be back at the race track in an hour. It's neat racing here because this is everybody's home track, so there are definitely bragging rights involved."

LARRY WALLACE, Engine Builder -- Penske-Jasper Engines -- DOES THIS RACE PRESENT MORE PROBLEMS BECAUSE OF ITS LENGTH FROM AN ENGINE BUILDER'S STANDPOINT? "We really don't do anything different to the engines than we do for any other race all year. If an engine won't make 600 miles, most likely there's gonna be a time during the year at a particular track that it won't make 500. All year long we keep in mind that, 'Hey, sooner or later we're gonna have to run 600 miles,' so we look at stuff after 500 miles and if it looks like it barely made it that distance, we'll build in a little more cushion. We don't like it to be really that close to the edge, so we're gonna try to have as much cushion built into it anyway."

DOES THE TRACK'S REPUTATION FOR CHANGE THROW ANY CURVES AT YOU ENGINE-WISE? "No. The guys tuning on the engines will try to allow for the weather change. Sometimes there can be a drastic weather change, but a lot of times the weather stays about the same from a correction factor as far as how we tune it. The biggest thing is having the track tuners stay abreast of the weather prediction. If the weather is gonna change drastically, then they're gonna have to tune for the last part of the race and not the first part."

IS THIS WEEK ANY MORE STRESSFUL? "Yeah, it's definitely a little more stressful just because everyone is in town and we have a lot of visitors, so there's definitely a little more pressure."

IS IT MORE CONVENTIENT AT LEAST RACING IN CHARLOTTE INSTEAD OF DAYTONA? "It's more convenient. Usually we have enough engines and don't have to do that here at Charlotte as far as shipping, but at Daytona we're like everybody else. We ship a lot back and forth at Daytona just because it takes so many and that's such a specialized engine with the restrictor plate, but we usually don't have to do much of that here."

HOW MANY ENGINES WILL YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR THE 77, 2, 12, 02 FOR QUALIFYING AND THE RACE? "When it's all said and done, between The Winston and the 600, we'll probably have about 18-20 engines."

ARE YOU READY FOR THIS WEEK? "We've been prepared for a while. When we're doing a schedule, it's just another race on the schedule. Since it's here, if there are any last-minute changes we want to do, we won't hesitate to do them because it's so close. But, otherwise, it's just another race on the schedule as far as our shop is concerned."

TIRES HAVE GOTTEN A LOT OF ATTENTION THIS YEAR WITH TEAMS NOT BEING ABLE TO USE THEIR NOTES FROM PREVIOUS YEARS. HAS THE CHANGE BEEN EQUALLY DRASTIC FROM AN ENGINE STANDPOINT? "Yeah, it's changing. Engines are changing so fast that you could pretty much call last year's stuff an antique now. We don't even look at last year's stuff at all. If we did, we would fall behind in a hurry."

Text provided by Greg Shea

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