UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 - Tony Stewart Notes

TONY STEWART
New Rules Rule the Desert

ATLANTA (Feb. 26, 2004) - NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series teams entered 2004 facing a myriad of changes from 2003. A new title sponsor in Nextel and a new fuel supplier in Sunoco were amongst them, but what really changed the playing field was a softer tire compound developed by Goodyear and a reduction in rear spoiler height implemented by NASCAR.

But two races into the 36-race schedule, it's difficult to see just how the reduced rear spoiler height coincides with the softer tire. And that's because the first two races on the schedule were anomalies.

The season-opening Daytona 500 was a restrictor plate race, where the rear spoiler height was actually increased a half-inch from last year in an effort to curb speeds at one of the series' fastest race tracks. And at Rockingham (N.C.), the most recent race on the schedule, the tire used was of the same compound used during last year's race in November.

So it is Las Vegas Motor Speedway, home to the March 7 UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400, which will be the first venue where the softer tire and the new five-and-a-half-inch rear spoiler finally meet.

The combination of less rear spoiler and a softer tire should allow for better racing, with race cars being less "aero dependent", a term used to describe the unique handling characteristics cars experienced while in traffic. Race tracks such as the 1.5-mile oval at Las Vegas have in year's past led to finishes based upon fuel mileage and pit strategy, as gains for position were made by either staying out on the race track longer than one's counterparts, or by opting for two tires over four during a late race pit stop. Tactics like those were employed out of necessity, because making a pass on the race track proved difficult, if not impossible, as harder compound tires were stuck to the track thanks to the huge amounts of downforce being generated by the higher rear spoiler.

The new rules rip those tactics from a crew chief's clipboard.

Whenever there's an opportunity to pit, teams will take four tires. With the softer compound, tire wear will be significant. Those taking only two tires will see their speeds drop significantly in relation to those who took four tires. And as tire wear increases, so too does the role of the driver. Handling becomes more of an issue, and the driver who best wheels his car around the track's 12-degree banking will be the driver who ends up in victory lane.

What were some of things you learned during your test at Las Vegas Jan. 27-28?

"Any time you have a new tire, especially when you take some spoiler away and take some downforce out of the car, there's a learning period. But I think that suits this Home Depot team well. We have a team that's capable of winning a championship this year because we don't have to rely on what made us successful last year. We can take a new set of circumstances and pinpoint all of the variables to find a new combination that works for us on the race track."

How was the feel of the car during that test?

"It moved around a little more. But you knew that with less downforce the car wasn't going to be stuck to the race track like it typically had been. It wasn't a surprise. We knew there were going to be some adjustments we'd have to make."

With the softer compound tire Goodyear is using at Las Vegas, what was tire wear like?

"The performance of the tires has always fallen off at Vegas, but the new tire is falling off a little bit more, obviously. But that's a good thing. It's what a lot of us drivers have wanted for a long time because the fuel mileage and track position games we saw played last year have been taken out of the equation this year."

Will Las Vegas be the first true test of the new tire and aerodynamic package?

"I'm not sure that Vegas will be the first true test, because tire performance has always fallen off at Vegas. But the race will certainly have a different set of circumstances from last year with the reduced spoiler height. We'll still be able to learn form it. I think Atlanta will be the first true test of how this new package works for us, especially in traffic."

With the change in tire compound and the new aerodynamic package, is the racing back to where it was when you first started as a rookie in 1999, or is just another evolution of racing in the Nextel Cup Series?

"It's still too early to tell. I'm not sure it'll be exactly the way it was, but it will be a step toward how it used to be. In all reality, it'll be just another phase of how the competition side of this sport has evolved since I first came here."

A softer tire and a reduced rear spoiler height is something you've wanted for a while. Now that you have it, what do you think about it?

"I think it's a great idea. Now we have to budget our tires. We can't go out there and just run flat out the whole time, and with that comes a lot more passing. Guys who get in too big of a hurry and go out and abuse their tires early in a run will get passed by guys at the end of a run because they're more patient. When it was like that a few years ago, you saw a lot more passing and the racing just seemed to be better all around. By taking some downforce away from us and giving us some softer tires, it's given us a combination that's allowed us to race. We couldn't keep adding downforce to these cars and then at the same time ask Goodyear to go out and make a softer tire. That wasn't fair to Goodyear. The only way Goodyear could give us a softer tire was to take downforce away, and that's what we have now. So, I'm all for it."

Because the handling of the cars will change dramatically over the course of a race run, will drivers who have a background in dirt racing be better able to adapt to the changing handling characteristics of their race cars?

"We sure hope so, but it's still too early to know. All we have with this package are two days of testing, and we were running by ourselves during that test. There's still a lot to be learned."

Is Las Vegas Motor Speedway similar to California or Michigan Speedway?

"No. The corners are tighter. It's tighter coming off turn four and tighter going into turn one than it is at either Michigan or California. That's why the handling is so important there. Because the corners are tighter, it makes it really important that The Home Depot Chevrolet rolls through there free - not tight or loose. It's a real important track in terms of balance."

GREG ZIPADELLI, crew chief on the #20 Home Depot Chevrolet:

An off-weekend was built into the schedule before the Las Vegas race. Did that help your race team's schedule in terms of building cars?

"We'll take weekends off whenever we can get 'em. I'm sure it'll help most teams. I know it'll help us because we have a few decent cars built, but we don't have as many as we'd like to. Having this off-weekend will allow us to get a lot done in the shop before we go to Las Vegas."

Were you happy to see an off-weekend this early in the season?

"Like I said, we'll take all the off-weekends we can get. It's hard to space out those off-weekends the way we'd like them to be. If it were me, I'd just look at the schedule and space them out as evenly as I could. But I don't have to deal with race tracks and weather. So we'll take this early gift, enjoy it, and in another couple of weeks we'll have another one. We've got a few of our off-weekends early this year, so we'll take advantage of them and hopefully they'll get us rested for the fall."

Why has the new aerodynamic package delayed your car building schedule?

"They (NASCAR) changed templates, but what they did was they took a lot of downforce away from us. So we're working hard to try and get as much of that downforce back as possible. So that's why we're off to a little slower start than we'd like to be in terms of building cars, because we're not building a lot of them until we find what we think is the best solution. From there, it's easier to build what we want. Some of that information came from our test at Las Vegas back in January, but there's still more information we need from the next couple of races, Las Vegas and Atlanta being two of them, where we can use the feedback learned from those races to build a better car."

Will Las Vegas be the first true test of the new tire and aerodynamic package?

"It will be our biggest test to date, much more so than Rockingham because the tire we're using at Las Vegas is much different from the tire we used at Rockingham."

Chassis No. 88

This is a brand new chassis, with its only track time coming during a pre-season test at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Jan. 27-28. Since that test, chassis No. 88 has visited the wind tunnel.

Notes of Interest

• The UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 will mark Stewart’s 179th career NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series start and his sixth career Nextel Cup start at Las Vegas.

• Stewart’s best Nextel Cup result at Las Vegas came in the rain-shortened race in 2000, where he finished second to winner Jeff Burton. In the two most recent Nextel Cup races at Las Vegas, Stewart has finished fifth.

• Stewart has won at Las Vegas – just not at the 1.5-mile oval. It came in November of 2002, when he swept the USAC Sprint/Midget doubleheader at the Las Vegas Bullring. It was the first single night USAC sweep for Stewart on pavement.

• Stewart is currently sixth in the Nextel Cup point standings with 265 points, 75 markers behind series leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. At this point last year, Stewart was ninth in the standings with 254 points, 91 markers behind series leader Kurt Busch. Stewart has scored 11 more points this year than he did last year heading into the third race of the season.

• Home Depot store #2314, located in Paducah, Ky., and Home Depot EXPO store #6524, located in North Richland Hills, Texas, will be represented on the lower rear quarterpanel of the #20 Home Depot Chevrolet during the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400. Store #2314 and #6524 were judged to be the outstanding stores of the past two weeks, thereby earning their place on the orange and black Joe Gibbs Racing machine.

• Stewart’s World of Outlaws team with driver Danny Lasoski will be competing at The Dirt Track during the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 weekend. Lasoski comes to The Dirt Track sixth in points, a mere 18 points arrears series leader Tyler Walker after just three races. In those three events – Feb. 20 at Manzanita, Feb. 21 at Manzanita and Feb. 28 at Perris – Lasoski set fast time. A three-time feature winner at The Dirt Track, Lasoski looks to maintain his string of fast times while also picking up his first victory of 2004. Lasoski won the series championship in 2001 and finished second in 2002 and 2003 to 18-time champion Steve Kinser. The Home Depot joined Stewart’s World of Outlaws team as an associate sponsor last year.