NASCAR WCUP: Stewart ready for race at Pocono in well balanced car
Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
June 17, 2001TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
(ON YOUR CAR FOR TOMORROW) "It seems like this tire has people pretty even when they're around each other, but I'm fairly happy with the way it's driving. We need to do some things to try to get some speed out of it in a straight line. We're trying to do some things chassis-wise to help that. Other than that, the balance isn't too bad. It's a little bit on the tight side on entry, but other than that I feel like I've got a pretty well-balanced car right now."
(IF PEOPLE ARE PRETTY EVEN AROUND EACH OTHER, COULD THIS RACE GET A LITTLE PHYSICAL TOMORROW?) "I don't think it will get physical because I think it will be hard to even get to a guy, let alone make it to where it's a physical race. But I don't think it will get to that anyway, to be honest. We run too fast here for people to be leaning on each other. I don't anticipate that happen."
(WHERE DO YOU HAVE TO MAKE TIME HERE?) "Everywhere, in all reality. These straightaways are so long that if you can carry just a little bit of extra momentum through a corner, it shows up there in the corner and it shows up that next straightaway. With the straightaways being as long as they are, it shows up a lot more than what you normally see at some of the other places."
(CAN THE '28' REMAIN AS STOUT AS THEY ARE RIGHT NOW?) "I don't see any reason why they can't. It's hard to beat a guy that can go good in a straight line and they do a real good job of making sure it turns, too. When you've got those two together, it's a combination you can't beat. "But, I've seen them miss it on race day, too. They won qualifying and they won practice, but we've still got a race to go, yet."
(ON ADJUSTING TO THE RULES CHANGES THIS YEAR) "We've had to re-do everything. When you change a rule in the middle of the season like that - and I applaud NASCAR. They're doing it to try to make it safer for us. But at the same time, all the testing that we've done, it throws all that out the window. We can't recoup those days to re-test the new setup deal. But you've got to go out and work hard to find what the car likes and what it doesn't like.
"We were big fans of the bump rubbers. We utilized them quite a bit, so that change has made us have to work a lot harder to get caught up from everything that we tested early in the season."
(WHEN YOUR TEAM STRUGGLES WITH SOMETHING, HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT SOLVING IT?) "We work hard - plain and simple. We just talk about what the problem is and what our options are as far as solutions and possible solutions. It's no different than any other business.
"The steps are being taken for us right now, but unfortunately we just don't have enough time to complete all the steps for last week and this week. We're just doing the best we can with what we've got right now, and what we've got is not a lack of effort - that's for sure.
"We've got a dedicated group of people that are willing to do whatever it takes to make sure it's right. But at the same time, they're not throwing something at us saying, 'This will help.' They're making sure it's right before they give it to us. Right now, it's just a matter of making sure that all the 'i's' are dotted and the 't's' are crossed."
(ARE YOU GAINING?) "Oh yeah. In the shop we're definitely making progress. It's just a matter of making sure we have reliability there. We don't have the luxury of having a Ryan Newman-type guy that can do development for us and go out and stress-test these motors under race conditions. We don't have that luxury. We've got to make sure that when we put a motor in like that that it can go the distance. We can't afford a DNF."
(YOU'RE FIFTH IN POINTS, BUT YET DON'T SOUND REAL SATISFIED?) "You always want to be better and we're never satisfied. We could be leading the points and we wouldn't be satisfied right now with some of the races we've had. You never settle. That's how you keep an edge on a lot of these guys. There are guys that are content to be where they're at in the points and that's when you pounce on them each week."
(ANY EXPECTATIONS FOR TOMORROW?) "I have no idea. Every time that I thought I knew what was going to happen on race day, it's a lot different than what I think. I've got an idea I know what is going to happen, but I'm going to leave it at that."
Text provided by Al Larsen
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