NEXCUP Talladega: Sterling Marlin and Lee Mccall (Dodge Teleconference)

Tuesday, April 20, 2004.
Dodge Motorsports Teleconference
Martinsville Recap, Talladega Advance
                    

 

 

STERLING MARLIN (No.  40 Coors Light Dodge)

NOTE: Marlin finished ninth last Sunday at Martinsville to record his
third top-10 finish of the season. He remains 14th in the series
standings after 8 of 36 events, 48 points out of 10th place.

 

"We had a pretty good day at Martinsville. We started 18th and got to
the top 10 pretty quick. We got to second and had some bad pit stops
toward the end that really hurt us. I feel like we had a shot to win the
race and it just went away. Track position is so important there. If you
can stay up front at Talladega it's OK, but if you're stuck in the
middle or the back it's just so aggravating to pass. To get away from
somebody, you just can't do it. It's 500 miles white knuckles, looking
out the back, looking out the front waiting to see what's going to
happen."

 

ARE DRIVERS CLEAR ON YELLOW LINE RULE? "I don't know. We'll just have to
cross that bridge when we get there I guess."

 

ANY STRANGE THINGS EVER HAPPEN TO YOU AT TALLADEGA? "I've always heard
it (legends about Talladega). It's an old air force base in WWII I
reckon. (Never had anything) wacky happen to me there at all."

 

WHERE HAVE ALL THE SOUTHERN DRIVERS GONE? "I don't know. It's something
that I looked at about a year ago. I looked around and all of a sudden
there weren't any drivers from Alabama. Bill is the only one left from
Georgia. At one time you had five Alabama drivers at Talladega. I don't
know if it's the way local tracks.... It's hard to go to the local
tracks anymore. Used to you could go all over the country and run the
same car. You could go to Birmingham, come run at Nashville. Now they've
got the rules so messed up all over the country you can't take your car
from place to place. I think it kinda hurt. You've got ASA and they've
always had a good series and they stayed together. Some great drivers
came out of the ASA and they're still running. It's just a deal in the
south where the local tracks want to have their own rules. You take your
car and go run one place and on Saturday night go run somewhere else. Me
and Bobby Hamilton were the only ones left from Tennessee, and I don't
see any more coming from Tennessee or Alabama any time soon. I want to
see drivers from all over the country, but it looks like more are
drifting away from the south. Hopefully they'll come back."

 

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO MAKE A GOOD RUN AT TALLADEGA? "You've got to have a
fast car, a lot of motor and a good body on it. You've got to have the
breaks. If somebody goes with you and pushes you through there you can
go. Me, I used to really look forward to Talladega, but now it's just
hurry up and get out of there. Everybody is on top of each other and
it's really hard to break away. It looks like Daytona separated pretty
good. You look out the front and you look out the back all day long. You
just hope you're far enough up front that when the stuff breaks out
you're ahead of it. We got caught in a wreck at Daytona that took out 12
of us. We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time and there was
nowhere to go. Talladega is a little wider and it really doesn't matter.
Your chassis setup is not as critical at Talladega as it is at Daytona,
so hopefully everybody can stay in a straight line and get this thing
over with."

 

COMMENT ON ERNIE ELLIOTT ENGINES "They've stepped up their program, and
I'm really impressed with them on their open stuff. They've really
worked hard on it over the winter, and I think they've got the best
motors out there. They're really great. I thank all them guys."

 

ARE SOME RULES FRUSTRATING? "The deal that happened to me in Daytona a
few years ago running fifth. Elliott Sadler's ignition goes out and it's
either run into the back of him or jam the brakes on or split the line.
I didn't go completely below it. I had the left sides below it and I get
black flagged. Elliott's crew comes on the radio and tells NASCAR the
ignition went out, but it didn't do any good. Black flag him and bring
him in. It depends on who you're going to get I guess."

 

HOW DO YOU MENTALLY PREPARE FOR TALLADEGA? "It's just aggravating to me.
If you could run faster and separate the cars more you wouldn't have to
worry about it, but we haven't been to Talladega with these rules. Maybe
the cars can separate a little bit. Before it's been everybody on top of
each other. You try to drive between the yellow line and the other cars
and it's just been a complete mess. Hopefully we can get down there and
get some distance between the cars. I'd let 'em run about 205 and that
would separate 'em right there." 

 

HOW CAN YOU AVOID THE BIG WRECK? "If you have a good car and get in the
wrong lane and have to lift and you're running third or fourth and the
next thing you know you're running 30th and somebody gets into somebody
and away you go. The deal is you try to stay in front all day. If you're
running first, second or third the odds are you're not going to get in
one, but if you slip back around 15th or 20th sometimes somebody tags
somebody and away you go. At Daytona a lot of guys were pushing. They
were tight. You'd get three deep and the front end would just take off
on the car. That might have been what happened to Sauter. He got into
Vickers and he got into Michael and started the whole big wreck. You
just try your best to stay out front and dodge it all. We got hung out
at Talladega and got in the back. That's when they had the wickers on
it, but they rechanged the rules at Daytona. It's hard to dodge a lot
because you can't drive 'em in traffic. If you do, the back wheels come
off the ground. We got caught in a couple of wrecks in that situation
being in mid pack. It's like danged if you do and danged if you don't.
Hopefully everybody can keep their fenders on and we'll run 500 miles
caution free."

 

HOW DO YOU PICK A PIT STALL? "It's like Martinsville last week. It's a
real narrow pit road and the pits are pretty tight. Lee has done a real
good job picking the pits for us all year. We got a good pit Sunday and
got in and out. There are some guys you don't want to pit around. They
block you in the pits and you have to back up to get around them. It's
like Martinsville. If you come out second, you're really restarting
fourth. We came out sixth, so you're really restarting 12th. You're
fighting all those slow cars. Plate races really don't make any
difference. You can get up through there. It's pretty wide, but tracks
that are hard to pass on pit stops are real critical. I just more or
less let Lee do it. He'll get around somebody you think might be a lap
down and that'll give you a good in and out. The backstretch at Bristol
works pretty good now. They've put it all on one pit road. We pitted
there in the spring and ran fourth and had some good pit stops all day.
All the pit roads are pretty good now. Martinsville has probably got the
toughest pit road we go to. It's a good bit easier (to have an opening).
It at least gives you a free in coming in, depending on which side of
the opening you get on. Either side is good."

 

WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER MOST ABOUT TALLADEGA? "My dad ran really good
there. He led a lot of races. I remember about him just itching to get
down there. It was one of his favorite tracks, there and Daytona.
Talladega has always been good to me. I've got a couple of wins there
and poles there. It's been a great track for the Marlin family. Probably
the one that would really stand out is Bill (Elliott) making up two laps
under green in '86. That was a pretty wild race, and I've been in some
pretty wild finishes myself coming down toward the end. There have been
a lot of good moments there."

 

HOW DO YOU COMPETE WITH DEI AT TALLADEGA? "I think everybody wants to
see what they've got. They put a lot of emphasis on speedway stuff. I
hear they've got four guys that don't do nothing but work on motors. No
other team has that that I know of. They spend a lot of time in the wind
tunnel. Their cars run good and drive really good. They've got two good
drivers in them, so they've got the whole combination covered." 

 

DO YOU THINK ABOUT WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN IN 2002? "Naw, there's nothing
we could do about it. I got hurt and there was no way I could go back
and fix it. We're just trying to get back to the way we were. It seems
like we're doing pretty good right now. We're not that far out of the
points race, so we can get back to where we were without any problem."

 

LEE McCALL (Crew chief No. 40 Coors Light Dodge)

 

COMMENT ON PIT CREW "We spent about two hours yesterday with three
different guys auditioning, and we've got three more coming in today.
Right now, we're working in the rear area and some tire changing areas.
Not that anyone is doing a bad job, we just need to be better. We're
working hard on that, and that's our main focus from here on out right
now."

 

WHAT HAS DONNIE WINGO BROUGHT TO THE TABLE? "Donnie has been around for
a long time. He and Jamie have very good chemistry, and the relationship
between the three crew chiefs is the best in the garage area. I don't
know of any three that get along any better or share more information
than we do. Donnie helps me and Jimmy a lot and vice versa. I don't
think it's any one thing. I think it's all three of us putting our heads
together."

 

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE AT MARTINSVILLE BEFORE OCTOBER RACE? "I think
right now they're going to dig up the pavement between the concrete
corners and put new down. I think that's going to help give you grip up
off the corners where you fight the forward bite. I don't think the
corners need to be changed. They've been there for years and years and
years. That's part of the history of Martinsville Speedway. The corners
don't bother me a lot, but I think the new asphalt coming off the
corners will definitely help some problems that you fight during the
race. Those guys are going to work hard to give us a good surface to
race on during the fall race, and we may have to save a test to go back
there."

 

WERE YOU SATISFIED WITH TRACK AFTER REPAIRS WERE MADE? "I was really
surprised. I don't think I've ever seen a hole that big come up in the
track and replace it. I think they used epoxy and it lasted another 200
laps. I think they did a great job. I'm not so sure some other places
might do it in the near future. I think they're looking at that, but
they did a great job."

 

DID YOU CONSIDER NOT PITTING AT MARTINSVILLE FOR TRACK POSITION? "With
the new tire construction, we saw earlier in the week that tires were
going to play a big part. Obviously track position is key there. We
never thought about staying out. We did think about taking on two at the
end, but that was a gamble we didn't take. I wish we had now looking
back on the race. With this new tire, the tires play a big part. You
used to run on 150 lap tires and take the track position."

 

HOW IMPORTANT IS PIT SELECTION? "It's really important. Obviously, the
better you qualify the better your chances are on pit road. I think
that's something everybody strives for on Friday when they qualify. The
pit selection is very, very important. We pick the pits on Saturday
after qualifying, and it takes a good hour just because everyone really
looks up and down pit road. There are some guys you want to pit around
and some guys you don't want to pit around. It really becomes almost
like a pit strategy when you pick your pits on Saturday. I'd have to say
Martinsville and Bristol (are toughest tracks to select pits). They're
short tracks and they only have so much room to put so many cars on pit
road. The pit boxes are so much smaller than California or Texas or any
of the big tracks. Richmond is also another place, probably more short
tracks than anything. There's people you don't want to pit around and
there's guys you do. After qualifying, I walk up and down pit road and
look at the pits and pit lane and see where our timing marks are. That's
a big strategy on Saturday, seeing who you want to pit around and who
you don't want to pit around. There's some tracks that still have
asphalt pit road. As wear and tear goes on through the course of winter
and summer and gas spills onto pit road, there becomes a hole or
something wrong with that pit. I walk on 43 pits every weekend and look
at them good. If there's one that has a problem we obviously won't pit
in that pit box."

 

WERE YOU SURPRISED WITH THE FINAL PIT STOPS AT MARTINSVILLE?

"When everyone pitted, I thought that was what everyone would do. I
thought more people would take two tires. I think the 12 car may have
been the only one that did that. That was something in the back of my
mind. I think our car was good enough to put two tires on and to hold
our position throughout the race because we really had a good car all
day. It's one of those deals where things happen so fast, and you have
to make calls within a split second. We took four tires all day long and
we just didn't know what our car would do on two. It was the last run in
the race and it was kinda hard to do. We have meetings on Saturday and
Sunday and we discuss our race strategies from three years back on what
we've done and what other people have done. You have to change that
around with the new tire and so on and so forth, but we have a book two
inches thick on stuff to study for race strategy on Sunday. Each race
unfolds differently. You'll see a trend that's happened in previous
years that you can kinda go off of and keep that in the back of your
mind. I don't really look at it (strategy book) on race day. This tire
is wearing a lot more than tires in the past. Tires are worth a lot now.
Track position is still important. I think when you have a great pit
stop you try to regain track position. We took on two tires the two
previous races and made it work to get track position to get in position
to win. I think there'll be a few more races down the road and you'll
see a lot more of that."

 

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO GET A GOOD REAR TIRE CHANGER? "It's just like
any sport. The cost keeps driving up every year, whether it be the cost
of building cars or buying a new airplane or whatever the situation
might be. To bring these great athletes in to perform great pit stops
you have to pay the money for 'em. We have great people here, and we're
always open minded about everything. You have to look at your weaknesses
and try to better yourself. Right now we think that's one of our
weaknesses we need to focus on. We're going to do whatever it takes to
make our pit crew the best out on pit road. It's kinda hard to put a
number on it. I don't want to throw a number out there to give you false
information, but those guys get paid to do their job on Sunday and they
do a great job. They're professional athletes. They have a great pit
crew for us going over the wall, and I think the company is trying to
take care of the guys that go across pit wall and even the guys behind
pit wall, just like the guys in the shop. They're a part of the family.
Everyone is treated equally."

 

ARE YOU LOOKING MORE FOR AN OVERALL ATHLETE? "I think with the way the
sport is and how these guys take a beating working a lot of hours at the
shop and then traveling on the road, we are looking into the area of
professional athletes to be able to pit our racecars. There's a couple
of reasons why. Those guys can practice three to five times a week. If
we use a road guy right now, he may only get to practice once or twice a
week. A lot of teams are doing that, and that's something we're putting
a lot of emphasis on. We have a couple of more athletes on our team now.
They do a great job. They have other jobs, but they do have a commitment
where they can practice up to five times a week if they need to. It's
very beneficial to have guys back here at the shop practicing while
we're at the race track. We have Mark Jacobs, he's our jackman. He
played college football at Kentucky, I think it was. We haven't got the
guys in place yet, but we're looking at some other areas in the race
team to follow in those footsteps."

 

 

DO CREW CHIEFS VIEW TALLADEGA LIKE DRIVERS? "I think you see both sides
of it. Talladega is very suspenseful for myself. You always know in the
back of your mind and historically there's always been a big wreck at
these places. We were in a big wreck at Daytona and had a great car. You
never know what's going to happen and where you're going to be. It's
very stressful for a crew chief, especially for myself. I like to go to
Talladega, and obviously you want to win, but if you can get out of
there with a top 10 finish and not get in a wreck then I think you've
had a great day."

 

HOW HARD IS IT TO GET A REAR TIRE CHANGER? "We don't want to try to go
to a race team and say we want to give you X amount of dollars to come
work for us. That's not the way Chip likes to operate his business, but
we are looking into some outside areas, and we have had some interest
from some guys that want to be in this position. I don't want to make it
sound like it's our rear tire changer. We're always looking each and
every week to make our race team better whether it be a tire carrier or
a jackman or a front tire changer. This sport has become so competitive.
I think it's like guys that race motorcycles. You get to a certain age,
whether it be 29 or 30, and it's time to retire and get some guys that
are fresh and younger. It can be very, very tough on a guy that runs
around a race car 10 times a day and bounces on his knees all day long.
We don't put our focus on going to steal people from other race teams.
If a certain individual shows interest from another race team and isn't
under contract with that race team, certainly I think we'll talk to him.
We try to keep this business very friendly and not go around trying to
steal guys from one team or another. I think everybody in the garage
area is pretty much the same way. I think we have a mutual agreement
about that. I think everyone does a good job doing that. We're just
looking to make a small change. It's not anyone is doing a bad job. I
think we need to be better in that area to have a great pit crew. Right
now we've got a good pit crew, but we need a great pit crew. So many
times the races are won and lost on pit road. I think we definitely had
a car that could have contended for the win last weekend and we ended up
ninth. That's our major focus right now, to get back where we need to
be. I think our performance is back where it needs to be. We're looking
into other areas."

 

DO YOU THINK MARTINSVILLE NEEDS A HARDER TIRE? "I don't think so. I
think Goodyear has done a great job, and they've done their homework
very well giving us this new tire. You can't control rubber buildup on
the track whether it be a hard tire or a soft tire. If you have a harder
tire, you're going to have finer chunks of rubber instead of bigger
chunks. They've done a great job. We haven't any had tire issues
whatsoever this year. They've done a good job, and I think all the
drivers can say the same thing."

 

TALK ABOUT STERLING'S RECOVERY FROM INJURY "I think Sterling is the only
one to answer that question. From working with Sterling, he was 100
percent last year. We struggled in some areas last year. We had some
great runs and were in contention to win three races last year, but we
just couldn't finish it off. Sterling Marlin is as good as he's ever
been this year, and he was as good as he'd ever been last year. I think
right now we have a great group of people working on the 40 car and the
biggest thing is we challenged for a championship in 2002. We didn't
have that last year and everybody is trying to point fingers why we
didn't do that. There were a lot of little things that we can say our
performance is down. We've approached those things, and I think our
performance this year is back on track where we need to be. I think our
performance in the last three races has shown that. I wouldn't give
anything in the world for Sterling Marlin. He's like a dad to me, and
he's a great racer. He wants to win. We both have the same blood in our
bloodstreams."

 

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