Tech Q&A: Donnie Wingo

Donnie Wingo hasn't won a race as a crew chief since 1993, and his driver, Jamie McMurray, is a mere rookie.

Yet here they are, getting ready for The Winston, NASCAR's all-star race. Wingo and McMurray are there because of McMurray's stunning victory in the UAW/GM Quality 500 last year as Sterling Marlin's replacement.

The veteran Wingo is McMurray's crew chief, and the combination has worked well thus far, especially when you consider the team didn't exist until late last year.

ALSO  •  Donnie Wingo  •  Jamie McMurray  •  2003 Rookie Standings  •  Chip Ganassi Racing  •  NASCAR Tech

Now, Wingo and McMurray will tackle the craziness that's called The Winston. Don't be surprised if they end up in Victory Lane on Saturday night.

Wingo recently spoke with Lee Montgomery of NASCAR.com about the unique race and how his team would handle it.

A lot of people, because this race is so crazy, don't bring their best cars. Is that what you guys are doing?

Wingo: "We started building a car a month or two a go for The Winston. If it pans, and all the testing we've done with it shows like it's a real good car, we'll run it in the 600. We're not taking a car that we don't want to run somewhere else. It's a real good car."

The race distance is shorter than normal races. Other than chassis setup, do you do anything differently to the car? Do you lighten it up or anything like that?

"Nah. You basically just set the car up for the shorter runs. You don't have to worry about longer runs. A 40-lap run is the longest run you have. You do everything to make sure the pressure's up in the tires, maybe run a little different bleed on the shocks just to make sure that the car will go fast on the get-go. As far as lightening up this or lightening up that, we don't do anything different there. The gearing maybe be a little different, and the engine combination may be a little different because of the short runs."

We hear people say that some things that are normally not any lighter, are for this race. But you guys aren't doing that at all?

"Nah, we're not doing anything different there."

As far as the setup, is it radically different than a normal race?

	Credit: Autostock

"It's somewhat different. If you were going to run the 600, you plan on a full fuel stop. You've got the car set up where it's good on the long runs. It's kind of like the way we were at California. You want the car to go good on long runs. There again, it bit us there. We weren't good on short runs. Here, we'll be concentrating mostly on short runs, to make sure it'll go good on short runs."

In the second segment, they're going to invert a certain amount of cars. Do you plan on any kind of strategy to make sure you're up front for the last one? Or do you tell Jamie just to go and get all you can?

"You've seen in the past where some people try to lag back and be at the front, but the good cars usually always come back to the front anyway. You basically are going to try to run as hard as you can, unless you're car's way off. If your car's off some, you may want to lag back some and try to work on it during that break and hope to start up front. Maybe you'll have a little better shot at staying up there. The good cars, you've seen over the years past -- even people pitting with 10 laps to go -- still come back with four tires and win the race."

Having a young guy like Jamie, who is young and aggressive, is that a bonus for your team?

"Oh, I think so, definitely -- especially on restarts. He is real good on restarts. On some races, he's passed as many as five or six cars on a restart. In a race like (The Winston) that makes a lot of difference. If you can get by even two or three cars on the restart, that's a lot better when you're only running 10, 15, 20 laps."

Jamie has talked before about not being as aggressive and looking for the long run. Is this the one race where you don't have to say, "Whoa, slow down boy"?

"I'll be honest with you, you really don't have to say that too much. Sometimes on restarts, he gets a little too aggressive maybe. We've talked about that. But this race here, you don't have to hold any reins back. You'll be gung-ho going forward."

This is a big race for the fans, and the drivers love the attention. Do the crews get just as jacked up for this as everybody else?

"Oh, yeah. It's a short race, a night race. All the teams like the night races because you're off on Sunday most of the time. Everybody gets jacked up for this race. We've been practicing pit stops, just for qualifying for The Winston. We put a lot of effort into it."