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NASCAR WCUP: Crew Chief Club at the MBNA Platinum 400

2 June 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
Event: MBNA Platinum 400 When: Sun., June 4 at 12:30 p.m. EDT on TNN

Where: Dover (Del.) Downs International Speedway (1-mile oval)

Together, Jimmy Makar, Larry McReynolds, Todd Parrott, Robin Pemberton, Tommy Baldwin, Jimmy Elledge, Ryan Pemberton and Greg Zipadelli have led their drivers to 82 wins, 461 top-five finishes, 754 top-10 finishes and 88 poles prior to this Sunday's MBNA Platinum 400 at Dover Downs International Speedway.

Makar and driver Bobby Labonte are the defending champions of the MBNA Platinum 400. They finished the race in 3 hours, 19 minutes and 00 seconds at an average speed of 120.603 mph en route to the checkered flag. Their margin of victory was 22.071 seconds over Jeff Gordon.

Makar and Labonte are also the defending Bud Pole winners of the MBNA Platinum 400. Labonte set a new track record as he toured the 1-mile oval in 22.596 seconds at a speed of 159.320 mph.

The Crew Chief Club members have earned five poles and two wins in the spring Dover event. The poles were provided by Makar and Labonte in 1999, Ro. Pemberton and Wallace in 1998, Makar and Labonte in 1997, McReynolds and Ernie Irvan in 1994 and Ro. Pemberton and Mark Martin in 1989. The wins were provided by Makar and Labonte in 1999 and Parrott and Jarrett in 1998.

WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR THOUGHTS GOING INTO DOVER?

Jimmy Makar - Interstate Batteries Pontiac of Bobby Labonte - "One of the biggest things at Dover is not abusing your tires. It seems like you can go fast with almost any setup, but some setups abuse the tires more than others. So, you have to work hard with your setup to be sure that you'll be able to conserve the tires. It's a real balancing act. Dover is a place where you can get swept up into trouble easily. It's a narrow, fast race track. There's not a lot of room to manuever around trouble in front of you. You have to be able to race the race track and not other cars all day long. As far as handling characteristics of the car, the car needs to turn well in the center of the corner and not be loose coming off the corner. That's typically what people fight there."

Larry McReynolds - Lowe's Home Improvement Chevrolet of Mike Skinner - "When I look at the (No.) 31 team and even the history of the (No.) 3 team over the last few years at Dover, the biggest preparation that we are going to make is to try and keep four wheels and four fenders on that thing. That is a big key at Dover. When you look at the race results, the cars that have all four fenders, quarter panels, tires and wheels on them are the ones that normally run well. Getting the car to run well on the long runs, going through the middle of the turns and staying on the bottom of the track are key to running well at Dover. But one of the biggest keys to a good run are good pit stops on that narrow pit road."

Tommy Baldwin - Caterpillar Pontiac of Ward Burton - "We're bringing back the same car that we ran last fall at Dover. We were running third until we lost a cylinder and wound up 11th. It was a good car, but we felt like we could have built a better body so we hung a new body and kept the old chassis."

Text provided by Heather McConnell

Editors Note: To view hundreds of hot racing photos and art, visit The Racing Photo Museum and the Visions of Speed Art Gallery.