Pruett Looks to Get Job Done with New Crew Chief at Rockingham

Scott Pruett, driver of the No. 32 Tide Taurus, is winding down his first year in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series after 10 years in the CART series. The team just recently hired its third crew chief, Scott Houston, and is in 38th place in the season points standings heading into Sunday’s race in Rockingham, North Carolina. Pruett didn’t qualify for the first race in Rockingham in February.

SCOTT PRUETT—32—Tide Taurus—ON ROCKINGHAM. "It’s a tough place in general. The fact the tires go away so quickly, so when you’re in a qualifying trim it doesn’t give you the opportunity to go out and really work on your style. You got to go out and lay one down, and then you sit and wait very much similar to Darlington. And so we did get the opportunity to run a few laps down there. I feel we have a very good race car going down there with the Tide car, and now we’re just focused on qualifying."

HOW HAS THE ADJUSTMENT GONE FROM OPEN-WHEEL RACING TO STOCK-CAR RACING—PARTICULARLY ON THE SHORT TRACKS LIKE ROCKINGHAM? HAS THAT BEEN THE BIGGEST ADJUSTMENT? "That’s been a big adjustment—and the superspeedways, you know, learning to drive, how to use the draft effectively. And then on the short tracks, you know, running on the tracks that we do, learning them—I mean just going there for the first time, learning them. The short tracks have been more of a hurdle for me than the intermediate—like a Michigan-, Fontana-type—track. But, I think we’re learning a lot. We’ve had a bit more turnover, moving around people that I’d like. It’s been a little frustrating from the standpoint that, you know, trying to get that right group. As we talk about team, team effort, it’s frustrating that we don’t have everybody in place that we want, but that’s all part of being a new team. Overnight would you like to everybody in place that you would like? Of course. As we move forward we’ve moved around people, we’ve let some go, added some more new. We’re still trying to find that right group, and, hopefully, by the time we end up finishing off this season we’ll have that group pretty much in place."

ON PUTTING THAT GROUP TOGETHER, IS IT STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS? "It’s still a work in progress. Certainly, Cal’s philosophy, in his view, is ‘I don’t care, whatever we got to do to get in the best people in place and get the job done.’ And being that you may have some very talented people but you got to put the right personalities together, as well. You’ve got to have the right mix of guys, because, I mean, they’re our family. They’re together week in and week out, thirty-six, thirty-eight weekends a year plus testing, and they have to get together. If there’s a friction there it’s got to get resolved or something’s got to change."

AS THE LONG SEASON WINDS DOWN, SINCE YOU’RE STILL BUILDING YOUR TEAM, WOULD YOU RATHER SEE IT CONTINUE FOR A WHILE? "We could always use more time—especially with my newness to the sport, with Cal’s newness to the sport. Right now to continually going racing would be a help for us more than a hindrance. But we also got to take the opportunity to catch our breath a little bit, get caught back up and re-focus our energy, take all that and focus it on testing through the winter and be that much better come Daytona next year."