Tech Q&A: Lee McCall

LAS VEGAS -- Of the top crew chiefs in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series, Lee McCall is probably the least well-known. But you can't argue about his talent.

Since taking over as Sterling Marlin's crew chief at Chip Ganassi Racing in 2001, McCall has engineered five victories, including one by pre-rookie Jamie McMurray last year at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Marlin was also a top contender for the 2002 Winston Cup title before a fractured vertebra sidelined him late last year.

	The No. 40 Dodge that McCall and Marlin will bring to Vegas this year differs from the car they won at Vegas with in 2002. Credit: Autostock

Marlin is back in the No. 40 Dodge for 2003, and he's the defending champion of the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. McCall recently spoke with Lee Montgomery of NASCAR.com to talk about preparations for Las Vegas and the rest of the season.

Defending champion. Does that really mean anything, as far as going back to Las Vegas? Does it affect preparation at all? It seems like a lot has changed since then.

Last year was last year. The track's sat another year. It's probably got a little more abrasive. The cars are a little bit different this year. All we can do is feed off last year's notes and tune the car from there.

Do last year's notes, because of the body style change, change much as far as setup goes?

You may have to do a few minor things to work around the new to work around the new bodies. All in all, it would be a very good starting point off last year's setup.

The casual fan may think, "You just changed the location of the body. What difference does that make?" Is it a 20 percent change, or is there any way to quantify that to explain how much that's changed?

All we can do is go off last year's wind-tunnel numbers vs. this year's. There's quite a bit of difference between the 2002 and the 2003. Wind-tunnel numbers show one thing, but on-track performance will hopefully show another thing.

Is downforce the most important thing about getting around Las Vegas really well?

Certainly. You have to have all the front downforce you can get, and obviously rear. At the same time, you want to try to keep the drag as low as you can on it, too. We try to take our best downforce car to Las Vegas and, certainly all the other flat tracks.

ALSO Sterling Marlin wins the 2002 Las Vegas race. Play video  •  McCall's Crew Chief Page  •  Marlin's Driver Page

Have you guys found a decent balance with the '03 car yet, or is it still a work in progress?

It's going to be a continuous learning curve for us. We haven't done a lot of testing this year. We did a little test at Lakeland, Fla., and, of course, Daytona. But we haven't tested anywhere else. Right now, all we can rely off of is 2002 and then the 41 and 41 notes because they tested at Vegas.

With two rookies going to test Las Vegas, are you able to gain as much, say, if Sterling went and tested?

Working with Jamie for six races, we can use some feedback off him because we know what he's accustomed to and how close Sterling's and his driving style is. Casey, his feel is a little bit different from the open-wheel cars. We'll just put all the information in one pile, work off 2002 and, hopefully, we can put a good combination under the car.

Aerodynamics, obviously, is a big topic all the time. Is there any way to quantify how much time, effort and money you guys spend just on bodies and aero?

It's hard to put a number on it. We certainly put a lot of hours into it. The guys back at the shop, they work 10, 12 hours a day. It may be a deal where we go test somewhere, learn some things aero-wise and have to come back that week and cut the whole car up. It's countless hours and a lot of money spent. At the same time, you have to do that to stay on top of your game.

How many times do you go to the wind tunnel a year?

It depends. We probably go 10, 12 times a year, depending on which wind tunnel is available. We've got two or three different wind tunnels. We've got to get in there as much as we can. The more we can go, the better off we are. We do some straighline testing also.

	Lee McCall and Sterling Marlin have engineered four Winston Cup victories together. Credit: Autostock

There's been some talk about reducing downforce and softening tires. What do you think about that, and how will that affect the car's handling?

It will be good. It kind of reminds me of the 5-and-5 rule. I thought that was some really good racing. You can take your 2002 setups and throw them out the window because of having a softer (tire) compound and a little less spoiler. I'm probably not for it this year. I'd like to see it happen maybe over the wintertime, just to give the guys some time to test it instead of going to a racetrack cold turkey with it. Whatever they want to do, we'll adjust to that.

Has inspection been more difficult this year? At Daytona, it's always tough, but is it tough at other places, too.

It hasn't been tough. It takes a little longer to go through inspection. Our guys at the shop have done a wonderful job making sure all the templates fit. We have about 10 or 12 more templates now that we have to worry about, and the tolerances are so close between all those templates that there's very little margin for error. It's really not any harder. It's just being more tedious and trying to feel those low tolerances.