"We're certainly ready to go back to Pocono. We had a chance to win the last race on fuel mileage until we broke fourth gear and were forced to ride around in third for the remaining laps. That really hurt us on our lap times and we weren't able to keep the huge lead we had on the rest of the field."
- Frank Stoddard, crew chief of Caterpillar No. 22
POCONO INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
PENNSYLVANIA 500
STODDARD ON POCONO.
"This is by far is the most difficult track that we race at on the Winston Cup circuit. You can't set the car up so that it handles well on the whole track, you have to learn to compromise in the setup and have the driver make up for the corner that you can't handle well in. We'll work at getting the car to handle well getting into turn one because you can pass through that turn. And we definitely want to be able to get off turn three real well too because that momentum carries you all the way down the frontstretch where great horsepower comes into play. I know Bill Davis Racing engines has the horsepower to get down the straightaway better than any other teams. We just need to get the car handling the best we can so Ward can get us in position to have a shot at a win."
STODDARD ON LAST MONTH'S RACE AT POCONO.
"We didn't qualify as well as we had hoped to for the race last month, but we had a respectable starting spot where we could definitely be in a better position to move forward than if we had to have started in the back. Pocono is a difficult track to pass at and we have seen so many times this year that track position is essential in a good finish. Whether you get good track position as a result of your qualifying run or if you use pit strategy, it is track position that will dictate if you have a chance to win or not. We used great fuel mileage to put ourselves in position to win last race and if that is what we have to do to get ourselves in that position again than that is what we'll do."
CAT EQUIPMENT.
· The Caterpillar team returns to Pocono International Raceway with car 72, an in house chassis, which they ran at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (started 20th and finished 25th) and Pocono Raceway (started 17th and finished 8th) event. The team cut off the old body and hung a new one after the race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and the results were positive after the #22 had an opportunity to win in Pocono last month.
