Telcel Motorola 200 pres. by Banamex - Adrian Fernandez Notes

ADRIAN FERNANDEZ
NO. 5 LOWE’S / HITACHI POWER TOOLS CHEVROLET
MEXICO CITY PREVIEW

ADRIAN FERNANDEZ- AUTODROMO HERMANOS RODRIGUEZ STATISTICS: Adrian Fernandez last raced at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on October 12, 2003, while competing in the Champ Car World Series. The event was the Gran Premio Telmex-Gigante, in which Fernandez qualified 15th and finished eighth. He led for six laps, benefiting from out of sequence pit stops. Fernandez missed Champ Car's debut race in Mexico City in 2002 due to injury.

MULTI-DRIVER TEAM: The Team Lowe’s Racing crew is competing for the 2005 NASCAR Busch Series owners’ points championship with no fewer than four different drivers sharing seat time in the No. 5 Lowe’s Chevrolet. Adrian Fernandez is driving the No. 5 in this weekend’s Busch Series race in Mexico. Boston Reid and Blake Feese will drive the No. 5 in at least 13 races apiece, while Kyle Busch is piloting the car in three events (the season-opener at Daytona International Speedway, plus Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Watkin Glens International).

TEST SESSION: Adrian Fernandez drove the No. 5 Lowe’s / Hitachi Power Tools Chevrolet for the first time in a test session at Virginia International Raceway on Tuesday, Feb. 22. Compared to speeds reported by other NASCAR teams that have tested at the facility, Fernandez’ lap times were very competitive.

Q&A WITH DRIVER ADRIAN FERNANDEZ:

What are your thoughts on returning to Mexico to race?” “I’m very excited. I feel like a kid again. I’ve been racing for a long time and I have to thank Hendrick Motorsports and Lowe’s for this opportunity for me to be able to race in front of my hometown fans. It’s a dream come true. They have been fantastic to work with in all aspects. I’m and owner and a driver and I can appreciate their efforts and their professionalism in every aspect. That’s why I was so excited when this opportunity was presented to me. We have been working together on all aspects of it. My only contact with NASCAR before was when I raced in 1999 in IROC.

“And I have a lot of friends that will be racing. This is a little bit of a new chapter for Mexico. In Mexico, they don’t know much about NASCAR in general. They know more about open wheel racing in the days of CART and now IRL. So this is something new for them. Everybody is excited. Obviously it’s something new that they have to learn. But I think that having me and other Mexican racers there is going to make this transition a lot faster.”

Now that you’ve made some laps in a stock car, what has been the biggest surprise in transitioning from open-wheel cars to stock cars?: “I was surprised about the power that (the stock cars) have. I thought they were going to be slower than the speed they are doing. Definitely one of the things that is crucial is the brakes. The brakes are something that everyone told me, ‘The cars are heavy. It’s hard to stop the car.’ It’s a big difference compared to what I’m used to driving.”

What is the biggest adjustment going from open-wheel cars to stock cars? Is it the brakes?: “The brakes obviously, and the weight of the car. In our (open-wheel) cars, everything really reacts very quickly. In these cars, everything reacts very slow (because of the car’s weight). You have to think slow here, because everything happens slow. You have to get used to the roll of the car, which I’m not used to. Our cars, they really don’t roll. These cars, they roll.

“If you want to get into a corner, at the apex, you really have to think ahead and turn earlier. If you think about it in our cars, you’re too late already. The more laps I do, the more comfortable I’m getting. The more I know when to push, when not to push, how to take care of the tires and stuff like that. The key thing is just to be consistent and not make mistakes.”

Q&A WITH CREW CHIEF JIM LONG

How did your test session at Virginia International Raceway with Adrian Fernandez turn out?: “It went really well. I was amazed at how quickly he figured out how to drive a stock car around a road course. By the end of the day, he was up to the point that I think he’d give most of the (NEXTEL) Cup road racers a run for their money. He was one of the smoothest I’ve seen in a long time, in terms of how he worked his way up through the gears and handled the turns. It was amazing to watch.”

What do you think is going to be the biggest adjustment for Adrian in going from the Indy-type cars to the stock cars?: “It will probably be the pit stops that will take the most getting used to in the stock cars. Adrian spent some time at the Hendrick shop, driving the car we use to practice pit stops, just to see what it feels like when the car is jacked up. At the test in Virginia, we had him do three or four pit stops with us to get a feel of entering pit road.

“I also went through some of the reminders over the radio with him. You know, ‘4,000 (RPM’s), second gear,’ so he’ll know what his pit road speed is. I set up some cones in the pit stalls ahead of him and behind him to simulate cars pitting around him. He practiced turning in and turning out of his stall, and he got pretty good at it by the end of the day. I think pit road is going to be the biggest challenge. Hopefully, we can get through the entire race on only two pit stops, so maybe he won’t have to come down pit road too much.”

CHASSIS INFORMATION- Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 335 - Chassis No. 335 is new to the Hendrick Motorsports stable in 2005. The first time this chassis was driven was when Adrian Fernandez tested with this chassis at Virginia International Raceway last week.

STATS & FACTS