NASCAR WCUP: Wally Dallenbach: 'If there is a place where I can win my first race, it's Pocono'
13 June 2000
Posted By Terry CallahanMotorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
Note: Galaxy Motorsports driver Wally Dallenbach excels at Pocono
Raceway, site of Sunday's Pocono 500. He finished fifth in last year's
Pennsylvania 500 and was seventh in the 1998 Pocono 500.
Two drivers -- Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Matt Kenseth -- have become
first
time winners this season. Dallenbach is hoping to become the
third.
COMMENT ON YOUR STRONG RUN AT POCONO LAST YEAR. WALLY DALLENBACH (No. 75 TBS Superstation Dinner & A Movie/Pepcid AC Ford Taurus): "The car was good. The motor was good. The pit stops were good. It was one of those days where everything was clicking our way. We didn't have the strongest car by far, but Pocono is just a good track for me. I've got a good feel for it. I'm excited about going because we've got Yates power and that's always good. That's a must because getting down those straightaways takes forever. If there is a place where I can win my first race, it's Pocono. I've run well there in every car I've run there. I've always had good runs there as long as I've had good motors. If you don't have the power to get down the straightaways, I don't care what you do, you can get out-driven down the straightaways real easy without the horsepower."
THEY SAY POCONO HAS ROAD COURSE CHARACTERISTICS. IS THAT WHY YOU LIKE IT SO MUCH? "Well, you're downshifting and up-shifting. You've got three totally different corners, so you can't set the car up to be perfect. You're going to set the car up for one of the three. I think the most-important corner is three. One you can kind of get away with being sloppy. Two is probably the second-most important. Turn three is everything. If you can get off turn three carrying speed you're going to pass them before you get to the next turn."
DO YOU SHIFT? "Yeah. It depends on how you're geared, but normally you downshift in turn one and then depending on how you're geared, you either up shift again before you get into turn two and then downshift into turn three or you just hold the car in third gear all the way until you get to the frontstretch. It depends on the gearing."
HOW WOULD YOU RATE POCONO ON A DIFFICULTY SCALE? "They're all difficult or they're all easy depending on how you're handling. If you've got a good racecar anywhere it's not difficult. It's a fun race. Some times you get into the fuel mileage thing a little bit there and you don't want to miss your pit stop because it's a long way around if you run out of gas. It's still a cool place and one of my favorites."
Text provided by Brian Hoagland
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