"Racing in Chicago is real exciting. It's a new market for us. It's fresh
territory and most of us look forward to going there. It proves how much
the sport has evolved in the past eight to 10 years. 10 years ago, we didn'
t race in any big cities, now it seems that we race in more cities then
tracks in small southern towns."
- Frank Stoddard, crew chief of No. 22 Caterpillar Dodge
CHICAGOLAND SPEEDWAY
TROPICANA 400
STODDARD ON RACING AT CHICAGOLAND SPEEDWAY.
"We look forward to going to Chicago this weekend. We'll be racing in front
of about 50,00 Caterpillar people, since Illinois is home to Caterpillar.
We're certainly hoping that the second racing groove has come in, just like
it did in Kentucky. If that happens, it should be a lot of fun to race and
make for a really good race. It is so tough at these new tracks because
they haven't had time to get the grooves worked in, but the more the teams
compete on them and just make laps, the better the track comes in. I think
this year's race will be much better than the past two years. We need to
put together a string of strong finishes to make a climb in the points. I
thought we were headed in that direction, but we kind of stumbled a little
bit."
STODDARD ON RUNNING A NEW CAR THIS WEEKEND.
"We're bringing a brand new car this weekend. We keep trying to make our
cars and bodies better. The best way we can do that is to keep trying new
things, taking them to the wind tunnel and then testing them in a race. You
can get a better sense of where the car is at when you race it, rather than
testing it because you have all the variables of the race. The new car
showed good numbers in the tunnel and if it performs well, we will
definitely take it to Indy next month. If it doesn't, we'll bring it back
here and go to work on it some more and just keep making it better. The
entire program is working hard at making progress and I think we're gaining
in a lot of areas. We'll just have to keep moving forward."
CAT EQUIPMENT.
· The Caterpillar team goes to Chicagoland Speedway with a brand new car.
If it runs well, the team will turn it around and compete at Indianapolis
Motor Speedway in the Brickyard 400 with it.
CAT NEWS.
· The Caterpillar team will be guests in the CAT suite at Wrigley Field for
the Chicago Cubs who are hosting the Atlanta Braves on Thursday, July 10
· Caterpillar will also host the family of Mike and Donna James, their son
Grant and nephew Adam at this weekend's race. The James family lost their
son Evan in the Iraq war. The James Family is from LaHarpe, Ill., and their
son Evan was a Marine Corporal. Chicagoland Speedway will provide race
tickets and Caterpillar will provide hospitality passes as well as give them
the opportunity to meet Ward Burton, driver of the #22 Caterpillar Dodge,
during his visit to the hospitality tent Sunday morning.
