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Tuesday, August 7
Tough day at Brickyard
By Royce McGee
Special to ESPN.com
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Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse Racing is forging ahead into one of our most anticipated weekends of the year -- the race at Watkins Glen International with Robby Gordon. We had an awesome test at The Glen last week and are expecting great things on Sunday. We've just got to concentrate on remaining focused and keeping our heads in the game. We don't want another weekend like we had at the Brickyard 400.
We tested the Lowe's Chevrolet at Indianapolis Motor Speedway the week before the Brickyard 400 and it didn't go all that well. Neither of our teammates had a really good test, either, so we knew that all our RCR teams had a lot of work to do. We took our cars to the wind tunnel and learned some information that we weren't very happy with. So, we brought the Lowe's Chevrolet back home and cut it up and made some major changes to it.
That wind tunnel test proved very valuable. After our first lap in Friday's one-hour practice, Robby told us that the Lowe's Chevy was much more balanced than it had been during the test. We were better when we unloaded the car off of the hauler without making any changes than we had been during the whole two-day test. That showed us what tremendous gains we had made and we thought we had a top-15 car.
|  | | Royce McGee is the first-year crew chief for the No. 31 Lowe's Chevrolet team. |
We only made two small runs during Friday's practice because it was in the middle of the afternoon and qualifying was scheduled for 10 a.m.Saturday morning. Running in the heat of the day wasn't going to show us too much about the Lowe's Chevrolet when we were going to qualify in the morning. We ran a quick practice on Saturday morning before qualifying and we were pretty happy with the car's handling. We were pretty upbeat that we'd have a good run and so was Robby.
Qualifying didn't go the way it should have gone for the Lowe's team. Our qualifying position in no way reflected the strength of the car. I commend Robby for the way he handled the situation because he got out of the Lowe's Chevrolet after qualifying and didn't pull any punches.
He didn't say the car was messed up or that we had set it up wrong. He said that he messed up his driving line. He said the car felt good in Turns 1, 2 and 3. But there was a piece of trash on the track in Turn 4 that Robby tried to dodge so he didn't mess up the Lowe's car. He got out of line a bit on the track and turned into Turn 4 late and missed his mark by half of a car width, which made the car push up the race track. When the car pushes at Indy, it kills the straightaway speed and our lap ended up being pretty ugly lap time-wise. Judging by the segment times we clocked up until Turn 4, we were going to have a top-12 starting spot.
Robby was wheeling the Lowe's Chevrolet really hard up until that point and the lap looked great. That just goes to show how a small mistake can take you from a top-15 starting spot to a provisional. Indianapolis is pretty aero-sensitive and there's a lot of speed on the track. It's kind of like qualifying at Daytona and Talladega and we all know how easily that can get screwed up.
Track position is paramount at Indianapolis because the track is so narrow and it's so difficult to pass. We were going to have to start near the rear of the field, so we had to have a good-handling race car that Robby could steer through the field to pass a bunch of cars early. We got to work on Saturday morning working on our race setup but we struggled a bit. When we tested at Indy, we couldn't get the Lowe's Chevrolet comfortable in race trim for Robby.
Although we tested, we were pretty much going in with no baseline for race trim because our test wasn't good. We were at a disadvantage because a lot of the other teams could apply the information they gained at the test. Happy Hour lasted an hour-and-a-half and we struggled the first hour but finally got good with 15 minutes remaining in practice. We kept making gains and Robby said it felt really comfortable the last five minutes.
We met with Robby after Happy Hour and again on Sunday morning to discuss what changes we would make for the race.
We made a few shock and spring changes and got ready to race. I think we made some good decisions with the Lowe's car because we worked our way up to 23rd position and then the caution came out. Half the field pitted and the other half didn't. We elected to stay on the track and pick up some spots because track position is so important at Indy. We didn't pit and maybe that was a bad decision but it was a free chance to get some track position.
But when the restart was given, some of the guys with new tires pushed on the Lowe's Chevy a bit and shuffled us around a bit. They pushed Robby up into the fence a bit and that pushed the rear-end housing around and threw the alignment off. It also messed up the sheet metal on the right side of the car, which affected the aerodynamics of the car. You can't easily fix the alignment during a green-flag pit stop so we had to just pull the fenders off of the tires, make some chassis adjustments and send Robby back out on the track.
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I commend Robby for the way he handled the situation because he got out of the Lowe's Chevrolet after qualifying and didn't pull any punches. He didn't say the car was messed up or that we had set it up wrong. He said that he messed up his driving line. ” |
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— McGee |
We are very excited about going to Watkins Glen this weekend. We had a great test at The Glen with Robby last Monday and Tuesday. There were no doubts that he'd be good there but we still had to learn what exactly he needed in the car. Late Monday, we wanted to see what the Lowe's Chevrolet could do in qualifying trim, so we took a quick stab at it at the last minute. Lo and behold, we cut a lap faster than the track record so we were pretty pumped up when we went back to the hotel that night.
We went back into the garage on Tuesday and just worked on qualifying trim. The track was going to close at noon for lunch and we sent Robby out for one more lap. Just like the luck of the Lowe's team, they threw the flag to end the practice and we couldn't finish that lap. Robby said that lap felt better than any he'd run all day long. He really wanted to finish his lap around the course and see where how fast it would have been. But rules are rules, so we ate lunch and worked in race trim the rest of the day until we left. Unlike our test at Indy, the one at Watkins Glen was very valuable.
I think if all of our cards fall right and we keep Robby calm, the Lowe's team can sit on the pole and win the race at Watkins Glen. It's obvious that he's run extremely well at road courses, but you can't underestimate Jeff Gordon, Rusty Wallace, Dale Jarrett, Ricky Rudd and Kevin Harvick. Plus you've got Boris Said and Ron Fellows at The Glen and they're always awesome. But if we can keep Robby focused, we'll have a great weekend.
Royce McGee is the crew chief for 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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