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NASCAR WCUP: Pontiac drivers and crew chiefs speak on rules changes

3 June 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

THOUGHTS FROM PONTIAC GRAND PRIX CREW CHIEFS ON NASCAR RULE CHANGE FOR PONTIAC, BEGINNING NEXT WEEK AT MICHIGAN SPEEDWAY:

JIMMY MAKAR, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES PONTIAC GRAND PRIX: (IS HE SATISFIED WITH THE CHANGE?) "I'm never satisfied. But it's a step in the right direction. Anything we can get right now we appreciate because we need it. That's probably 60 to 65 percent of what we needed to get, to get the same amount of downforce by the wind tunnel testing to be even with those guys (Ford and Chevrolet teams). It's a significant change, but it's certainly not all of it. Is it enough to get us to where we're not having to overcome quite such a deficit? That remains to be seen. Certainly with two races like Michigan and Pocono coming up soon we'll be able to get a good read fairly quickly on how much help it's going to be for us."

(WHAT ADDITIONAL HELP IS NEEDED?) "We still need more rear downforce. Actually the way the wind tunnel test that we did earlier in the year shook down we were lacking 75 percent of our downforce in the rear and the other 25 percent was on the nose. We're not in as bad of shape on the nose as we were the rear. So we still need more rear than we need nose."

(ANY CONCERNS WITH THE BALANCE OF THE RACE CAR?) "No, not really. I think we're still in the range we need to be of what we need to be able to do because of the things we've been kind of struggling with through this part of the season. We feel like we should be able to get the balance we want relatively close with what we're able to do with the cars now." (ANY RELIEF?) "A little bit. Obviously we have had to work extra hard on other areas to try to make up for this. We had to try to hit all of our handling package 100 percent to make up for the deficit and hope that nobody else did. Still, if anybody else happened to hit their handling packages - springs or shocks or bars - 100 percent, then the deficit was still what we're looking at here on aero. It's hard to get your car handling that well. You're always a little bit off and can always be a little bit better. I'm optimistic this going to help us somewhat. How much? We really won't know until we get to Michigan and Pocono, and get a feel for what we're able to do with the car."

(WHAT DO YOU SAY TO PEOPLE THAT FEEL YOU DIDN'T NEED ANY HELP BECAUSE YOU ARE LEADING THE POINTS?) "I've got a good answer for that. Yes, we're leading the points. But if you look at how we're leading the points or why you're leading the points, you get another picture. If this was 1999 and we had the amount of points we have right now, we'd be third in the points. We would not be leading. It's obvious that we're not that much better than everybody else; it's that everybody else has been having more trouble than we have and have not been able to accumulate the amount of points they were accumulating last year. If you look at that, that stat tells you one thing. "I look at the competitiveness of what we are like right now versus last year. Last year up to this point we had led every race but one and had led many more laps than we've led this year.

MORE FROM JIMMY MAKAR, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

"This year we've only led six races, some of them just for a couple laps because of pit strategies and things of that nature. So I don't think, lap for lap, that we have been nearly as competitive as we were last year at this time. So yeah, we're leading the points. But that's not because we're doing that well. It's because others are having misfortunes and we haven't had as many as others."

TOMMY BALDWIN, NO. 22 CATERPILLAR PONTIAC GRAND PRIX: (IS HE SATISFIED WITH THE CHANGE?) "From what I understand, they gave us probably about 50 percent of our needs. But no, we're not happy with it. But we weren't happy at the beginning of the year when we knew the numbers and we're still fighting, so we'll just have to make the necessary changes to the cars and do what we've got to do to stay up front."

(WHAT ELSE NEEDS TO BE DONE?) "They need to make one more step in the rear and then make a little bit of a step on the front to even out the balance. But we got the major piece that we wanted, so we'll just have to work in that window and keep digging."

(IS HE WORRIED ABOUT THE BALANCE OF THE CAR?) "No, because we needed more of a balance towards the rear anyway, so it's kind of going to help us. But we're still bringing a knife to a gun fight. We'll see what happens."

JAMES INCE, NO. 10 LYCOS PONTIAC GRAND PRIX: "That is good news to us. We figure it is about half of what our Lycos Pontiac needs but it is a step in the right direction and we applaud NASCAR for listening to us. We are halfway there. The rear bumper is optional at Michigan, but you better bet we are going to run it in there. We have tested what they approved in a wind tunnel and liked what we saw. The new rear bumper helps in that it allows air to escape underneath the car, which makes it a little bit better aerodynamically on the track. I said last week that we were about 200 pounds of downforce behind the Chevrolet and Ford, but I think we are getting closer to them. Will the race fans notice it on the track? I hope so."

JOHNNY BENSON, DRIVER, NO. 10 LYCOS PONTIAC GRAND PRIX: "Sounds good to us. We will run whatever they give us. The new back bumper should help but we will just have to wait and see how it is on the track."

Text provided by Al Larsen

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