CREW CHIEF KEVIN HAMLIN QUOTES:

With the new impounding procedure, how do you approach the weekend differently?
“This is the type of situation when it is very beneficial to have a Busch program here at RCR. Our Busch teams have gone through this process so they have filled us in with what we’ll need to do and expect. We’ll practice in race trim on Friday then come in Saturday morning and get ready to race, do our two qualifying laps that afternoon so on Sunday all we do is push the car out, start it up and race. The car has to be kind of tight during qualifying, but we need to be able to loosen it up with the adjustments they allow us to do before the race. The only post-qualifying adjustments NASCAR will allow are the handling adjustments - wedge, track bar, air pressure and tape configuration. It will take some getting used to, but we’ll adjust to it.”

What type of changes did you make to the car after returning from the test at California Speedway with the new tire and shorter spoiler rules?
“Honestly, we never really hit on anything during the test that we were really happy with. We tried several different approaches and ideas, but did end up that happy. At one point during our test we thought we found a good balance, but we didn’t have enough speed in the car, we were like two to three-tenths off where we needed to be. We brought the car back from the test and took it to the wind tunnel to do some work on it. With the changes we made, we about feel like we are just about going back with a different car. It is a lot different aero-balance wise. We’re still working on our starting set-up, but we’ll hit the track with something and then work it from there.”

Are you hoping to run the California car at Las Vegas?
“We actually built another brand new car that we haven’t even tested yet. It was a new style chassis we raced last year Martinsville and Phoenix … just put a new body on it. That car will go to the wind tunnel next week, then we’ll decide if we’re going to race the new car or the one we are taking to California. As another option, we have a third car that we’ve also run through the wind tunnel this week.”

Are you still happy with your plan to not build all the 2005 cars during the off-season, to wait to see what works?
“We actually built three different versions or configurations during the off season. Honestly, I can’t say that we are completely happy with any of the versions just yet. We’re starting to come around and figure out more with this shorter spoiler. The best way to prove that out is through the race and obviously this weekend will be our first chance at that, but we feel like we’ve made up a lot of ground in heading in the right direction.”