Insider's View: Robbie Loomis

The first half of the season was pretty darn good for us, and I think we're championship contenders right now. But I do think it took us awhile to get a handle on what we needed with these new bodies.

	Robbie Loomis

We've got great bodies right now, great horsepower, and heading into the second half of the season we have to start stacking up a lot of top-fives, and maybe three or four more wins before the year's out.

But the main thing is to get really consistent with the top-fives. Matt Kenseth and those guys have been so consistent with top-10s, so beating them will require us being consistent with top-fives. And if you look at the numbers, that's doable.

To do it, though, we need to improve in some areas. One thing we've been working hard on, and have come a long way but we've still got to improve on is consistency on our bodies.

I think that with every team, that's probably the biggest weakness that shows up across the board in the Winston Cup garage, is being consistent with bodies.

That's what drivers are feeling these days. As close as the rules are, those little differences in the bodies make a huge difference. So does pit road.

We've been very competitive all year. Jeff's really been on top of his game and the guys have, as well. But we've got to get the consistency situation with our pit stops smoothed out. We just had a change a couple weeks ago, lost our rear tire changer and are working hard to recover from that.

We brought in a new guy, but any time you're trying to get seven guys to do something in sync in 13-and-a-half-second time frame, and you install someone new in the system, it takes a little while to perfect.

ROBBIE LOOMIS  •  Crew chief page  •  Jeff Gordon's driver page  •  Hendrick Motorsports  •  Insider's View archive

Right now that's one of the biggest areas we have to stay on top of. And like I said, these days with the car makes being so equal, pit road is crucial in the effort to make up track position. So getting our pit crew as solid as possible will be very important as the season progresses.

I really believe we can win anywhere we go. It's nice to know that when you come to the racetrack your driver can win at every track you go to. It's nice to know you have a bunch of guys on your team that want to race because they're racers and they love it, and aren't just here for the dollar.

I think with the engine shop and the things we have going is incredible. Our engine shop is working on some things right now that other race teams won't have for a year, year and a half, and Randy Dorton and our guys are working hard on them right now.

I'd like to think we could finish up the year with five wins. I figure that's about one out of every three or four races we have left. You know how Jeff is when he gets on a roll, and I can see it in him.

I can see it in his eyes how bad he wants it, can hear it in his voice. There's a lot of determination in him right now that you can see on his face. That's refreshing. Jeff Gordon is the best driver out there, and we're in the hunt for this championship, you can count on that.

We just need to improve in a couple areas, and when we do, look out. We'll be right in the thick of it.