Diamond Hill Plywood Co. 200 - Steve Grissom Notes

Steve Grissom Notes, Quotes: Diamond Hill Plywood 200

‘Track has brutal reputation – and deserves it’

This weekend Steve Grissom and the #36 DCT Motorsports Chevrolet team head to the 1.366-mile Darlington (S.C.) Raceway for Saturday’s Diamond Hill Plywood 200. The 147-lap event is the fourth event on the Busch series schedule. Darlington is considered one of the most difficult tracks to drive, but Grissom has had a good bit of success at the egg-shaped oval at both of NASCAR’s highest levels. Grissom has seven top-25 finishes to his record with a best finish of sixth in a Cup car at the track. Grissom also has one top-10 start in Cup competition at the track. Grissom is hoping those successes will transfer to this Saturday’s Busch race.

DCT Motorsports is led by championship veterans Grissom and crew chief Ricky Pearson. Named for the idea “Dreams Come True,” owners John McGill and Carl Natale – “two guys from Cleveland building a future in motorsports,” as they refer to themselves – have developed the sport’s most cost-efficient, sponsor-friendly marketing setup. It is based on giving full value to sponsors, and utilizing the many business-to-business contacts McGill, a developer, and Natale, a major earthwork contractor, have in place.

DCT Motorsports, seeking sponsorship for next year, plans on running at least a 29-race schedule in 2004, hitting all of the major NASCAR Busch Grand National events and markets. One of the most comprehensive sponsorship packages in any form of motorsports, DCT offers a complete package of top racing equipment, hospitality, public relations, publicity, appearances and show cars.

The thoughts of DCT Chevrolet driver Steve Grissom heading into Darlington:

“Darlington has a pretty brutal reputation, but then again - it deserves it. It’s a brutal track. It’s oddly shaped, the surface is rough, and it’s nicknamed ‘The Track Too Tough to Tame’ for a reason. You spend the day sawing at the steering wheel, slipping and sliding around on a slick track, and trying your best not to knock down the walls on every lap. It’s never been a track you go expecting a joy ride on a Saturday afternoon.

“There is no doubt that it’s a tough track to drive. Handling really comes into play. The car wants to slide around a lot. There is just no grip on the tires after 15 or 20 laps. It’s a lot like Rockingham in that respect. It’s pretty tough physically and it stands alone as a track that makes you work hard all day.

“It’s so hard of a track because of where the racing groove is. You are just right up against the wall all the time. Most tracks you want to race the bottom, but Darlington is faster up at the wall. It’s one of those places that you really have to pay attention and just race the race track all day. The track will beat you quicker than any other competitor will.

“Obviously both ends of the race track are completely different. It’s hard to get the car exactly perfect on both ends of the speedway. You have to give up a little bit on one end to get it back on the other. Turns One and Two are the longer turns at the track and the fastest. You usually spend more time and pay more attention to that end of the track. You work on setting up the car to get it to perform better on that end than the other. On the other end of the track you just have to work with the car a little bit more. You might have to take a different line going into turns Three and Four to still be able to get a good run down the frontstretch. It’s definitely a challenge to run a decent lap at the track. I don’t know if you ever run a ‘good’ lap. If there is a ‘perfect lap’ at Darlington, I’ve sure never seen it.

“It’s like I said, it’s one of those tracks that you really have to race the race track. You will out there in the race and you are catching someone and you might think that you’re going to pass him, but once you really start to pass the guy he just takes off on you. You work so hard to get up to a guy that you end up wearing down your equipment. You can’t race a guy to the point where you can’t pass him. You just have to know when to pick your spots. You might have to kick back in neutral for a few laps and save your car. You have to be smart moving your way to front.

“It’s going to be a tough day for everyone. We’ll just want to be smart and make changes when we need to. If everything falls into place, we’ll have a good day with this DCT Chevrolet.”