ALAN, HOW HARD WAS IT TO FIGURE OUT WHAT THE CAR WANTED SINCE YOU HADN’T YET GONE THROUGH A RACE WITH IT?
“I think to answer that question correctly you’ve got to step back a little bit. We don’t have the ability to get these cars into the race track like we used to. They don’t make as much downforce, the suspension configurations limit us, the spring rules, the splitter travel limit us as to what we can do so what happens is drivers, by nature, want to drive their cars very hard. That’s what they’re paid to do. They want to go fast. With this car, that’s not the way it is. You have to be smooth and very consistent to be fast. I think that’s where Kyle’s frustration comes and as for me tuning it, it will change. You can definitely over-drive the car and things will happen. We all want that pie in the sky - we want it to handle perfect. I want it to be perfect for Kyle when he’s driving 100%. Unfortunately we weren’t able to achieve that so that makes it tough to tune. As far as the adjustments in tire pressures, wedge, track bars; that’s all physics. It still works the same way, it just works to a lesser extent because these cars don’t have the same grip. “
WAS THERE ANY TIME THIS WEEKEND WHERE YOU WERE ABLE TO ADJUST OR FIX A PROBLEM WITH THIS CAR THAT YOU WEREN’T ABLE TO DO IN THE PAST? IF NASCAR TAKES YOUR CAR BACK TO THE R&D CENTER, WHAT WILL THAT DO TO YOUR FLEET?
ALAN GUSTAFSON: “Our fleet is two cars and they’re both in our trailer. So I hope they don’t take this car or we’re going to be one short at Martinsville. We need this for our back-up. As everybody has done, we’ve struggled learning this race car. We have less tools to work on and less tools to adjust with. During the history of Hendrick Motorsports and the eight years I’ve been there were all the engines and tools we’ve used to go fast. They’ve kind of gone away a little bit and we’ve got to reevaluate what we do. During the course of the weekend, we were constantly learning. I felt like I was in school there for a while - just trying to figure out what we need. Kyle did a great job in adjusting his driving style in what he has to do in those cars. Our engineering staff at Hendrick Motorsports did a great job to give us the tools, but it’s harder because there is not as much you can do. You’re more boxed in the corner and we’re still paid by Mr. Hendrick to get an advantage so we’ve got to work that much harder to get an advantage. Our guys at Hendrick Motorsports and all the guys on the No. 5 CARQUEST/Kellogg’s Chevrolet deserve the credit because after 500 laps, we were the best. We were the team who adapted to the new car the best. Kyle adapted to the race track and the new car the best. We got the trophy and I’m real proud of that. “
IS THERE ANY PARTICULAR CAR THAT THE NEW RACE CAR REMINDS YOU OF?
“No, I haven’t ever driven anything that I haven’t been able to work on or fix or anything like that. Legends cars you can fix—Late Models, Dirt Modifieds, Pavement Modifieds - everything I’ve been able to work on. You’re in a box. The tools you have are limited. There are rules, but you can get around some stuff. With this thing, they want everybody to be equal. They want parity. They want the Michael Waltrips to be able to win races. It’s going to take time to develop it and research it. ”
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