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Tuesday, June 5
Blame it on the rain
By Royce McGee
Special to ESPN.com
The Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse team notched its second 11th-place finish in a row last weekend at Dover Downs International Speedway. That race and the recent Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway served as big reminders to us of what the No. 31 team and Mike Skinner are capable of doing.
This team has always had confidence in our abilities, but circumstances have fought us hard this season. But I don't think anyone ever lost confidence in what we can do. Once again, though, we're realizing that it takes all of us at Richard Childress Racing to make this Lowe's deal work. I'm a firm believer that two or three heads are better than one.
|  | | Mike Skinner is currently 25th in the points standings. |
Mike has definitely benefited from racing the companion Busch Series events in the No. 21 Rockwell Automation Chevy. Not only has he benefited but so have I and the rest of the crew. We are sharing lots of information about setups and tires with our Busch team. It's been a joint effort all across the board at Richard Childress Racing lately and the results are starting to show.
Dover was a very encouraging weekend for Lowe's Racing, but it was also discouraging at the same time. I say discouraging because persistent rain eliminated the chance for us to qualify Friday. The Lowe's Chevy was strong in practice Friday. The weather situation was looking pretty good Friday morning, although we knew bad weather was going to move in late that afternoon.
Unfortunately, the rain got to the speedway a lot sooner than we expected. We started practice at 10 a.m. right on schedule, but it started sprinkling at about 11:30.
We made several qualifying runs that morning. We waited until about 25 cars had gone out on the track and we sent Mike out for his first run. He made a good lap and immediately posted the fastest speed on the chart. We knew the Lowe's Chevy was pretty sporty then.
A couple of guys went faster than us after we called Mike into the garage to tweak on the car, but Mike went back out and reran the Lowe's machine and jumped back to the top again. The car was really good and our teammates were really good. At one time, the three RCR cars were one, two and three on the board. We felt like we had a good chance of winning the pole, so we were pretty discouraged that heavy rain forced NASCAR officials to cancel qualify and stack the field on owner points.
The Lowe's Chevrolet was set to roll off the starting grid Sunday from the 26th position. Not only did we end up a lot farther back in the field than we had hoped, our teammate Jeff Green and the No. 30 America Online team had no provisionals and had to pack up for home. That's what happens when you have to fight Mother Nature.
Since rain washed out the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race Friday, it was postponed to Saturday morning. Therefore, our Happy Hour practice session was postponed from the morning until after the Busch race. That gave the Lowe's team some time to fine-tune some stuff on the race car and spend time in the No. 21 pits seeing how their race car responded to the track conditions.
We talked to Mike's Busch crew chief, Gil Martin, and found out that they had too much sway bar to start the race with. We knew what springs and shocks they had on their car and we could pay attention to how they worked out for Mike. We made a big change with the sway bar before Happy Hour and I'm glad we did because the change was in the right direction. At 6:20 p.m., Happy Hour started and Mike was pretty happy with the Lowe's Chevy right off the bat. We were ready to go racing Sunday.
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The Lowe's Chevrolet was set to roll off the starting grid Sunday from the 26th position. Not only did we end up a lot farther back in the field than we had hoped, our teammate Jeff Green and the No. 30 America Online team had no provisionals and had to pack up for home. That's what happens when you have to fight Mother Nature. ” |
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— McGee |
When the green flag waved Sunday to begin the 400-mile race, the Lowe's Chevy was strong from the beginning. Mike took the car from 26th to seventh by the first pit stop. Every time we looked up, he had passed another car.
I think it was a huge disadvantage for us to have to start in the 26th position. If we could have started somewhere in the top five, where I think we could have qualified, I think Mike could have led the race a few times. But starting 26th left us with too much traffic to catch so early in the race. Jeff Gordon's Chevrolet was pretty stout and he could take it wherever he wanted.
Lapped cars are so critical at Dover. When we restarted in the fifth place, we actually started 10th on the track. The cars are two-wide when they line up for the restart, so we were actually 10th on the track when you count the lapped cars because the Lowe's Chevy had to pass them, too. We had to fight for five or six laps to get around them, and by that time, Gordon had half of a straightaway lead on everybody else. I think we could have given Gordon a run for his money if we had the opportunity to get up there with him. But he definitely had the strongest car on the track.
The Lowe's Chevy was a little loose early in the runs but it came in pretty quickly to where Mike could pick off positions with each lap. It was like that most of the day. We appeared destined for a solid top-five finish until the last pit stop when NASCAR assessed us a 15-second penalty for letting a tire loose from the pit box. When the restart was given, there were only 33 laps left in the race. We knew it was going to be pretty hard to get back to where we should have been. If we could have started fifth or sixth, like we'd been running, I think we could have finished in the second or third position.
But Dover is behind us now and we're looking ahead to Michigan, a track the Lowe's team has historically battled pretty fiercely. We've got a brand-new car ready for Michigan and we're excited about getting there and seeing what it can do.
Just like at any track, there are some finer points to running well at Michigan. First of all, qualifying well is important at the two-mile track. If you start near the back of the field at Michigan, it doesn't take long for the leader to catch you and lap you. He's got clean race track in front of him and can go where he wants. If you're in the back, you've got to weave your way in and out of traffic and try to fight your way to the front.
Drivers can't just pull out and pass at Michigan. Instead, they draft with other cars. Michigan and California Speedway, even Las Vegas Motor Speedway, are big tracks for drafting. Drafting plays a role in how you run and how you pass the other cars. If there are three or four cars running together and one pulls out, the others will try to go with him and they'll usually be able to draft past anyone in front of them. A lot of people don't realize it, but these cars run about 200 mph at Michigan and drafting is pretty important.
Lowe's Racing wants to keep building on the good finishes we've had recently and we plan on Michigan being the next stepping stone. We've had consecutive 11th-place finishes recently and we want the next ones to be consecutive top-five finishes.
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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