Skinner

I wish we could have made Mike's last race with the team a better one for the record books -- we still wanted to win a race with him in the car. Unfortunately, we struggled at Dover from the minute we unloaded the car off of the hauler. We took the same car to Dover that we ran there in June, then raced at Bristol last month and wrecked. We put a new front and rear clip on the car and replaced the sheet metal. In fact, the only thing that was the same as at Bristol was the center section where the driver's seat sits. A lot of people refer to that type of car as a "concrete car" because we run it at Bristol, Tenn., and Dover. That style of car is built to run at Bristol and Dover due to the ground clearance -- we can run soft enough springs to make the car run well yet still not drag the ground. We could run a concrete car elsewhere but it wouldn't be as feasible. A lot of teams run that type -- the No. 29 team ran one, also.

We had high expectations of running well at Dover because we were very good in the June race. After we rebuilt the Lowe's Chevrolet, we set it up just as we had in June but we were terrible in Friday's first practice. Mike kept saying the car was loose so we got it tightened up at the end of practice but it still needed a lot of help. We made some big changes right before qualifying and changed the springs and shocks and sway bar. Lo and behold, when Mike got out on the track for qualifying, he said the car was too tight.

There lies the age-old question: how much is too much and what is not enough when it comes to making adjustments? We struggled to hit the happy medium with Mike in the Lowe's Chevrolet, but they've been able to do it in his Rockwell Automation Busch car. Why can't we do it in the Cup garage? Where is that fine line? We were still looking for it when Saturday's practice rolled around.

We discussed what set-up the Rockwell team had in Mike's Busch car during Happy Hour and what did and didn't work for those guys. However, we struck out Saturday morning and the Lowe's car was junk. We had the same four springs, shocks and sway bar that the Busch car had because they worked pretty well Friday night in Happy Hour, but that set-up didn't help out the Lowe's car. So, we started making more changes but still weren't where we needed to be.

We decided to make some major changes after Saturday morning's practice and compared notes with the No. 29 car. We went back to more conventional stuff we had run at Dover in the past as far as shocks, springs, camber and such were concerned. I'm glad we didn't have to change the motor between the morning practice and Happy Hour because we never would have gotten it all done in time. Well, we say that, but we always seem to get it done. We changed about 25 items on the car before Happy Hour -- the only thing we didn't do was re-paint the Lowe's car.

All that work paid off and Mike said the car was very good in Happy Hour and we had good corner segment times. Our lap times were as good as Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart. We knew we'd struggle with track position Sunday because we qualified 30th, but we thought we had a car capable of running up front with the leaders if we could just get up there. We felt a lot better walking out of the track Saturday evening than we had that morning and we just needed to see what Sunday would hold for the Lowe's team.

Pre-race activities were pretty awesome Sunday. Several events took place out of respect for the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the most spectacular being the singing of God Bless the USA and the National Anthem. Dover Downs International Speedway handed out American Flags to the 140,000 fans seated in the stands and they proudly waved them throughout the patriotic celebration. The whole scene made us feel grateful to live in this great country.

The green flag finally waved and Mike got up through the pack pretty quickly and up to about 20th by the first caution flag. We pitted to put on four new tires and make a small chassis adjustment. Something that the viewers at home don't realize is that the driver tells the team how the car is before the pit stop and the team makes adjustments based on that information it receives on the radio. After the pit stop, we find out more information by looking at the tire temperatures, tire pressures and tire wear. Sometimes we get that crucial information too late to help us out on the next run. That is stuff we evaluate after everything is in place for the next segment, whether it turns into a 30-lap or a 80-lap run.

Well, after that first pit stop we examined the tires and discovered the left-rear tire had been going down prior to the first pit stop. Air pressure was very low in the tire compared to the normal tire build-up we find after each run. The tires usually build up seven pounds in the left-rear tire and 10 pounds in left-front tire compared to the air pressure we start the run with. The left-rear tire was only two pounds higher after that run than what it started the run with. We decided Mike had run over something on the track that created a leak in the tire. That's vital information to how the Lowe's Chevy is handling. We had made adjustments based on his verbal information to us before we learned the tire was going down. A tire going flat creates havoc with the car's handling and our adjustments were going to be off as soon as a tire with correct air pressure was placed on the car.

Due to the luck of the No. 31 team and how things never seem to go our way, the Lowe's machine was very tight as soon as we started back under green again. That tight condition was a result of our chassis adjustments based on information Mike gave us while he had a low tire -- that is no reflection of how the car was really driving Mike radioed that he could hardly drive the car and we needed to pit immediately to adjust it. We were 18th on the track and had made a big gain since the race started. We bit the bullet and pitted -- no one else was on pit road because the round of pit stops had just cycled through. So, we went straight to the back of the pack on that pit stop. We started in the back and drove to about 18th again before the caution flag came out. We had a decent pit stop and were ready for green-flag racing again but when the green flag was given, the No. 14 car spun out and Mike thought he slid the tires on the Lowe's Chevy to avoid an accident. We had to pit again for four tires in case we had flat-spotted the tires or run over something that could hurt the tires. Once again, we were the only car on pit road and lost all our track position.

As the rest of the day went, we fought to battle back for track position and had one really terrible set of tires during the race that threw off the handling on the Lowe's Chevrolet. That's about how the day went for the Lowe's team and we ended up 20th.

It's off to another brand-new track for the Winston Cup teams this weekend. We are making our first appearance at Kansas Speedway. It's the same size as Lowe's Motor Speedway and several other tracks -- it's a 1.5-mile tri-oval. We didn't test at Kansas but Thursday is an open day for the teams just like it was at Chicago. By giving the teams an extra day of practice, they can get acclimated to the track and have a few extra days of practice without the pressure of immediately having to qualify. Thursday will be a learning day for Lowe's Racing and Robby. We've talked to several teams that have tire-tested at Kansas and they have all said Kansas is similar to Chicagoland Speedway without much grip. Kansas should be a fast track, but probably won't be as fast as Chicagoland was. Kansas is also similar to Las Vegas Motor Speedway because it's fairly flat.

We're taking a brand-new car to Kansas that has never been tested at a track or at a wind tunnel. The car is so new that when it rolls off of the No. 31 hauler Thursday, it will be the first time it's rolled off anywhere. So, we're headed to Kansas, a brand-new track, with a brand-new car and a new driver. Lowe's Racing is hoping Kansas will be a clean start to the end of the season.