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Tuesday, May 8
McGee ready for a weekend off
By Royce McGee
Special to ESPN.com
Lowe's Racing ran a much better race last Saturday at Richmond than our finish showed. Due to a combination of factors, we lost a lap fairly early in the 400-lap race and Mike (Skinner) was never in the position to get it back. But once we made a couple of adjustments to the Lowe's Chevy, it was definitely a top-15 car and would have been capable of staying on the lead lap all evening.
|  | | Royce McGee is the first-year crew chief for the No. 31 Lowe's Chevrolet driven by Mike Skinner. |
We figured the Lowe's Chevrolet would have been stronger at the beginning of the week. We were pretty decent but not great when we unloaded Friday morning. The track was hard to get a handle on -- even our teammate struggled a bit Friday. It seemed like the longer the day got, the tighter the track got. Neither the Lowe's team nor the GM Goodwrench Service Plus Chevrolet team could get a good handle on the ¾-mile track early in Friday's practice. We were both tight exiting the corners, which you kind of run into at Richmond.
The normal things that we do to free up a car in the corners weren't working. We made some pretty aggressive changes to the Lowe's machine before Friday afternoon's qualifying session but couldn't get the car good enough. Unfortunately, with the points situation we're currently in, we can't afford to get stupid and risky because there's a chance we could miss the race and be packing for home.
Lowe's Racing made some basic but aggressive changes and figured they would help us qualify solidly in the field -- but not sit on the pole. We opted for a safer route than shooting for the pole position. We did just what we intended -- we placed solidly in the field with a 24th starting position. It was a relief to be in the race and not worry about taking a provisional but it was also very disappointing that the Lowe's Chevy wasn't better than it was that afternoon.
The schedule for the night races is always a lot different than the normal three-day weekend. Friday was definitely a grueling day. We practiced that morning, qualified and then ran a 90-minute Happy Hour session. That all added up to a whopping 13-hour day. We didn't have time to do a lot of the things we normally do between qualifying and Happy Hour but we made the best of it.
When we first started Happy Hour Friday evening, we were a little off but we got better with each run Mike made. We made a 25-lap run in the middle of the session and made some changes that he was pretty happy with. Since Mike had a pretty good feel for the car and we had a good baseline, we began trying some things just to know how the Lowe's Chevy would respond to different situations in the race.
If we moved the track bar, what was the car going to do? If we adjusted the shocks, would the car handle better in the corners? Let's put some wedge in and see if the Lowe's Chevrolet responds to that adjustment. We'll try adding a spring rubber or two.
That's the way our thinking went during that final practice session. We tried to cram in several scenarios to learn about the chassis. That way, if we needed to make a change during the race, we'd have more of an idea how the No. 31 car would respond. I think we had a very productive Happy Hour. The Lowe's crew had to be pretty aggressive with our changes to what the best set-up for Saturday evening would be.
When the race started, the car was a little tight in the corners but it wasn't anything Mike couldn't handle. But we were the victims of circumstance when the caution came out early. Mike had to check up really hard to avoid hitting the cars stopped in front of him. In doing that, he locked up the brakes and skidded the tires. When a driver skids the tires severely, there's always a chance that he flat-spotted them, which can eventually lead to a blown tire.
We always want to use good judgement when it comes to a possible tire problem but Mike wanted to ride the tires out for a while and "baby" them. We decided not to pit for fresh tires after that caution and Mike was really careful with the Lowe's Chevrolet. But a few laps later, he thought he had a problem with the right-front tire and we made an unscheduled pit stop for four new tires. That put us down a couple of laps. I think we could have finished in the top 15 if we didn't have to come down pit road early.
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Sometimes -- actually, a lot of times -- in racing, there are cards we're dealt that we can't control. No matter how hard we try, there are some things we just have to accept. ” |
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— McGee |
The Lowe's Chevrolet was strong enough later in the race to compete against the lead lap cars but we weren't on the lead lap so we weren't really racing those guys. Mike tried like heck to get his lap back but it seemed like every time the caution flag came out, we weren't close enough to the leader to make that lap back up. The leader would be driving into turn three and Mike would be exiting Turn 2. There just wasn't enough race track to run the leader down.
But we knew that we built a competitive race car and have nothing to be ashamed of in that department. Sometimes -- actually, a lot of times -- in racing, there are cards we're dealt that we can't control. No matter how hard we try, there are some things we just have to accept. Having to pit early and losing those couple of laps early is one of those things.
We're staring the second off-weekend of the season right in the face now. The road crew is going to have Friday off, although some of us will have to be here to prepare for The Winston at Lowe's Motor Speedway. This long weekend is something a lot of these guys are looking forward to -- getting to spend Mother's Day with their families. I intend to spend a lot of time playing with my little boy and taking care of my "honey-do" list. I am going to take my wife out to dinner -- just the two of us. We haven't been able to do that in more than two months.
Just because there's no race this weekend doesn't mean that we're not working hard this week. We're currently working on a car that we're going to take to a wind tunnel test in Canada this week. It's a car we hope to race at Michigan this summer.
But right now, the most important car is the one for the races at Lowe's Motor Speedway the next two weeks. Our Charlotte car is still in the fabrication shop and those guys should be finished with it this Thursday. It's the car we raced at Fontana two weeks ago but we cut the entire body off of it. It's basically like a brand-new car because we cut it down to the bare chassis. It's for The Winston and if Mike can keep it in one piece, we'll also race it in the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway the following weekend.
If we can't keep the Lowe's Chevrolet in one piece during the Winston weekend, then that's a whole different story I'll have to tell.
Royce McGee is the crew chief for Mike Skinner and the No. 31 Lowe's Chevrolet on the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. He is providing a weekly diary to ESPN.com throughout the season. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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