Crew Chief Corner: Tommy Baldwin

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Tommy Baldwin elevated himself into a select group of NASCAR Winston Cup crew chiefs when he engineered Ward Burton's victory in the 2002 Daytona 500.

He and Burton won again, at New Hampshire International Speedway later in the season for their fourth victory together, but he left Bill Davis Racing by the end of the season.

In 2003, Baldwin will have to start over again, at Ultra Motorsports, but he'll have a great comfort zone working with veteran Jimmy Spencer -- another graduate of the Featherlite Modified Series, NASCAR Touring.

During a break in NASCAR Preseason Thunder at Daytona International Speedway, Baldwin sat down with NASCAR.com's Dave Rodman to discuss new rules, working with Spencer and removing Winston Cup cars' aerodynamic dependency.

Q: With an entirely new body style, and with new body location rule and template package -- how much is Speedweeks 2003 like going back to Square One for you and your team?

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TB: Not necessarily on the downforce stuff, but for qualifying for Daytona there will be a lot of things different. We used to run the bodies so far forward on the restrictor plate races. Now, they've regulated that body location so that has changed a lot of the direction on getting the attitude of the car in the position of how we need to run it.

I'm not sure about the downforce stuff (for tracks such as Las Vegas, Atlanta and Rockingham). The body location is right about where we've been running them in the past so that shouldn't change much. The other templates that NASCAR is putting on our cars now are definitely a restriction of some stuff that we used to not have to worry about -- when we used to have more total downforce.

But, it's just like everything else. We will work around whatever they give us and try to make our cars better. It's the same old deal. You get a good group of people together and a good race car driver and build decent cars with good horsepower and you're going to run up front.

Q: In terms of the staff that you have as a crew chief, do you find yourself working more with your engineer on things and are there less or more seat-of-the-pants type things you have to do?

TB: It depends on the situation. You'd definitely like to fall back on the engineers and get some information on the engineering aspects of what you're trying to do to the race car (but) everybody has a pivotal part on that race car -- not just the engineer. It's important that he lays out a plan or that I lay out a plan, but you've got to have good people putting all that stuff together and getting to the racetrack and nothing is falling off and the cars are clean, and stuff like that.

I'm excited about the future here at Ultra Motorsports. We've got a real good bunch of really good people and we're working slowly but surely, trying not to rush just to build cars but trying to build good race cars and we'll see what happens.

Q: There's a new twist at Daytona for Speedweeks 2003, and that's about a 13.5-gallon fuel cell. What kind of kink is that going to throw into strategy here, for both the Gatorade 125s and the Daytona 500?

TB: We've thought about it and I think the biggest twist is going to be the 125s. That's going to shuffle around a lot of people. If you have a bad pit stop, you're out of the race or you're not going to make the Daytona 500 if you either don't have a good points position from the year before or a good qualifying time (to get a provisional or a Daytona 500 starting position based on qualifying speeds).

So I think it's going to be a pivotal point -- definitely in the 125s -- and I think we'll learn more from that for Sunday's Daytona 500.

Q: From the crew chief's standpoint, do you crave the opportunity to have your pit crew have more of a say in the outcome of one of your races?

	Jimmy Spencer Credit: Don Bok/ISC Photo

TB: It depends if you're leading and you have enough fuel to go to the end -- you don't want nobody to affect anything -- you just want your driver to do his job. If you're second or you're third and you have a good enough over-the-wall group of guys that can definitely pick you up a spot or two you want to come in and if the car's not running as good as you'd like you want to get a chance to make a little change and go back out. You definitely want to throw the whole thing at the ballgame.

Q: There's a new rear weight distribution rule in place for Speedweeks 2003. What effect do you see that having on the cars' setups?

TB: It didn't really seem to change anything, I don't think. Again, it probably just took a little speed from our qualifying time -- probably a two- or three-tenth (of a second) drop in the pole speed from last year to this year. Again, NASCAR has done a really good job -- looking at all the test times we're two-tenths off the fastest time and we're probably 23rd overall from the last practice session to this one. It's tightened up the field, even in restrictor plate racing.

Q: You're the defending champion crew chief of the Daytona 500. What can you carry over in terms of momentum or confidence?

TB: Aaahh. You're starting all over. It (the 2002 Daytona 500) was just one of those days where everything falls into place and you win a big race. You've got to hope (in 2003) that you come with your game face on, make no mistakes, you stay out of the wrecks and you see where you're at in the last 10 laps and what you're going to do, then. It's always exciting to come back to Daytona, to see if you can get another one.

Q: You're working with a completely different driver than a year ago in Jimmy Spencer, but he has a race win here in the 1994 Pepsi 400. What are you looking at for Speedweeks 2003?

TB: We're really high on Jimmy -- we know he can get the job done in restrictor plate racing as good as anybody. I don't think we're at a disadvantage anywhere, by no means. We've just got to give him good equipment and the confidence that he knows we're behind him and that we can run up front. We're building a lot of new race cars and we're just going to do our best.

Q: If there were one element in your set-up here at Daytona that is critical, what would it be?

TB: It is just a whole bunch of things that we do. Our cars always seem to go real good at the end of the long runs -- they don't seem to fade as much as everybody else does and that's a plus. Hopefully, with all the success I've had through the years with the 90 and right through with the 22, we can carry that over to the 7 car.

Q: NASCAR is talking about creating a downforce reduction in the race cars and in conjunction with that possibly going to a softer tire later this season. From a crew chief's standpoint, what's your take on that?

TB: It just puts the racing back into play, a bit. It will make it so you have to come in and pit and take tires, not just stay out there to maintain track position. There's a lot of things that would probably change but I'm in favor of it. You've got to take the downforce away in order to run softer tires -- so you don't have tire problems -- so that will have to go hand in hand. I'm all for it, if the veteran drivers think that will put the racing back into it. We'll see what happens.