MORGAN SHEPHERD -75- Remington Arms Thunderbird"We've got to get our short track program turned around and Bristol and Wilkesboro are the next two stops, so now's the times. We came away from our test at Bristol last week real good. We had a good baseline up there. The 2 car and 4 car were up there and they'd been testing a day before we got there, We got there and ran right with them, just a little bit off, At that time, Rusty'd run a 15,77 and the 4 car ran a 15.78. We ran a 15.82, but our car was dragging, and we needed to move the cross member in our car. We think when we go back, we're going to be right there in contention to qualify up front, I think with what we learned there and at North Wilkesboro, we'll have good qualifying efforts and good race cars." DID YOUR TWO SHORT TRACK TESTS AFFECT YOUR QUALIFYING AT DARLINGTON?
"It had everything to do with why we qualified well at Darlington.Bristol is a track that you'll run close the same setups you run at Dover, Darlington and Rockingham, You can take some things from there and fine-tune it. And the things we learned at North Wilkesboro to get the car to turn, and what we learned at Bristol, we took that and unloaded fast at Darlington. We made one shock change on the left front, and that's all we did before we qualified. We didn't change a spring, bar, nothing on the Remington Thunderbird. Even though Bristol has slower speeds, the car slams down into the corner so hard, it's like a high rate of speed. The set-ups won't be that far off. Then you've got to get your car turned through the long corner (at Darlington) in three and four, so the things we did at Wilkesboro to get our car to turn, we applied that to the front end, and that helped us, too." DID THE TRACK AT BRISTOL SEEM ANY DIFFERENT THIS TIME?
"It seemed as rough as ever, and just as slick. It seemed to me it wasn't in as good a shape, and we know the speeds were off. If I'd gone and tested and hadn't had other cars to compare our times to, I'd have been real concerned with the speeds, because they were off, I understand that Rusty and them stayed a third day and a 15.74 was as fast as they ever ran. So, I think the more rubber that gets laid down on the track, the speeds will creep back up some." WHAT ABOUT THE NEW OWNERSHIP AT BRISTOL?
"Bristol has been a track that has always sold out a year ahead and people stand in line for hours to get tickets. It was already a great facility up there. (Bruton Smith will) just add to it."
