Skinner, McClure working on communication

Pontiac pulls off pair of surprises in 600 qualifying

CONCORD, N.C. -- They are barely in the top 40 in the NASCAR Winston Cup points standings, but Friday at Lowe's Motor Speedway, they were solidly in the top five in qualifying for Sunday's Coca-Cola 600.

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Mike Skinner, who is 39th in the points, qualified the Morgan-McClure Motorsports Pontiac in third, while Jack Sprague, who is 40th in points, qualified the Haas CNC Racing Pontiac in fifth.

Were both runs flukes? Or were they signs of a turnaround?

The numbers point to a fluke, for Skinner has qualified 20th or worse in all but one race this season, while Sprague hasn't started better than 12th all year.

"I wouldn't say surprise," Skinner said. "A turnaround would show up on Sunday, not Friday."

	Skinner: "Either I'm saying the wrong things or they are hearing the wrong things." Credit: Autostock

Skinner doesn't sound like a man convinced his team has indeed turned things around. Of course, in five of the last six races, Skinner has finished 31st or worse. Things don't get turned around quickly.

Recently, Skinner met with team owner Larry McClure to give the team a communication grade. Skinner said it was a "D."

"It's just communication and getting the right setup under the car," Skinner said. "Either I'm saying the wrong things or they are hearing the wrong things, and we're really working on that."

After talking with McClure, Skinner, crew chief Chris Carrier and the rest of the team's leadership got together. Skinner insisted that while he can help with the setup of the car, his main focus is drive and provide proper feedback. It's the crew's job to make the right decisions on the setup.

Friday, they seemed to make the right decisions. After making horsepower gains, the team made a late switch with the rear-end gear.

"We changed the gear right before qualifying," Skinner said. "It was a pretty bold chance since we're sitting 39th in points with a car that we knew we could get in the race with. But you've got to be a little risky once in a while."

It paid off with a fast lap. But Sunday, there are 400 more fast laps Skinner would like to make.

"As far as a turnaround goes, we'll see what happens on Sunday," Skinner said. "We've got to start getting some top-10 and top-15 finishes. When we start doing that consistently, then we can say, we're starting to turn things around."

Sprague insists that his team is turning things around. After finishing 14th in the Daytona 500, Sprague hasn't been in the top 20 in any race since. Crew chief Dennis Connor left the team and was replaced by Tony Furr - who used to work with Skinner.

	Jack Sprague will start in the top 10 for the first time in 2003. Credit: Autostock

"We're just trying to climb the hill and turn the corner," Sprague said. "We're trying to get better. We have been, and it's a slow process. We didn't get screwed up overnight, and we're not going to fix it overnight."

Sprague said the poor start to his season has bothered him, but he hopes Friday's qualifying run is a good sign.

"I've never run that badly in anything," Sprague said. "It's discouraging for me and for everybody else, I'm sure. I always said that if I wasn't having fun I'm not going to do it anymore, and that's about the least amount of fun that I want to have.

"Hopefully we're turning the corner. I'd like to be able to race with these guys, race at the front and do what we've done for the past eight years: be contenders to win races.

"But we've got a long way to go and I know that. We're about halfway there, but we've come a long way in a short period of time. This is the start of my year, right here."

The car Sprague is driving is the first new car Furr and the team has built since the season started. It's also the first car with a Furr body. Sprague said the team has an even better car for Dover next week, but Furr didn't want to bring it to Charlotte.

"We're turning the corner," Sprague said. "It's just that this is so hard. This series is so hard. The people have no idea in the world how hard this series is. You have to have equal stuff to those guys to even think about keeping them in sight, let along beating them.

"We're getting there. We are getting good cars. This is the first car that Tony built and the one I've got for Dover is much better than this. I tried to talk him into bringing it here but he wouldn't do it. I'm happy."