Tech Q&A: Tommy Baldwin

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Crew chief Tommy Baldwin and driver Kasey Kahne were brought together for the 2004 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series season based on a tremendous amount of potential.

Evernham Motorsports owner Ray Evernham had been struck by the talent of both Kahne, 24, a veteran of rough and tumble open-wheel racing and Baldwin, who got his start with his father in open-wheel Modifieds and had honed his craft in a journey up through the Cup ranks.

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The pair's performance so far this season has been nothing short of phenomenal, as Kahne sits ninth in the point standings with three second-place finishes and two Bud Poles on his resume in only eight career Nextel Cup starts.

During a break in their preparations for the Advance Auto Parts 500 at Martinsville Speedway, Baldwin sat down with NASCAR.COM senior writer Dave Rodman to discuss Kahne's progress, strategizing in the Aaron's 499 at Talladega and

Q: Seven races into this Nextel Cup Series season, what impresses you the most about your driver, Kasey Kahne?

Tommy Baldwin: The communication between myself and him and the team is going real well right now. He's very competitive and a very smart racecar driver and he knows what he likes to feel.

The things that he tells us are wrong with the car, when we do make a change in that direction it's easy to know if it's good or bad because it shows up when he likes it.

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Overall, it's just been a good deal. We started testing in December and I was like, "Man, this is good." Then we did some more testing in January and I said, "Man, this is good."

Then we showed up at Vegas to test with all the competition that was there and we were real good, and it was like, "Man, this kid is really going to be pretty good."

It's just gotten better and better and he's gotten more comfortable running around the guys we're running around. He's still got a little bit more to go on the short tracks -- learning them and getting a little bit more cautiously aggressive, you might say.

We'll see what happens.

Q: So, to you it hasn't really been as much of a surprise as it has to a lot of people who didn't know anything about Kasey? And are you impressed with how well he can focus and communicate for a kid that only has seven Nextel Cup races?

Baldwin: Yeah. I think his background really helped that. I think his background from running his own equipment and building his own cars, running those Sprint Cars and Midgets has really helped that learning curve.

Doing that, you've got to deal with so many different kinds of conditions on that racetrack. The horsepower to weight ratio on those cars compared to a Nextel Cup car is pretty close.

And I don't think he has that in the Busch car. I don't think he really has enough horsepower in that (Busch) car to do what he really needs to do. We've seen that with a lot of drivers.

You've seen that with Jimmie Johnson, you've seen that with Tony Stewart when they were running the Busch cars compared to the Cup cars. So I just think this is what he does.

He races, he doesn't want to do anything else. He talks about racing. He loves his Midgets and he loves his background where he comes from.

Q: Same scenario, race team question. What impresses you the most about your organization at Evernham Motorsports?

	Baldwin has propeled Kasey Kahne to four top-five finishes early in his rookie season. Credit: Autostock

Baldwin: I think the deepness of the field; so to speak, of what Ray has built in our organization is the key to our success. Success starts with a lot of people that are working in those little offices in the back of the shop, working on things daily that we don't even see for three, four or five months later until the project's ended.

We don't even know what they're working on. It's good and I think we just have all our ducks in a row. Ray's real big on communication and communicating with the team and the guys.

The best part about Ray is you always know where he's at. You can walk into his office and you can talk to him about things.

You're not dealing with a car owner that doesn't want to hear the truth -- you're not dealing with a car owner that just wants to worry about racing and making money.

He just wants to win races and to do his job for the Dodge dealers and the UAW people.

Q: You're a guy that started out racing Modifieds out of a garage behind your house. With what you describe at Evernham's, how much of an adaptation has it been for you to get used to that, because it appears you're thriving?

Baldwin: It's not that I've gotten used to it. I've always thrived on trying to "get this." There was just never anybody in the organizations I've been in, up to this point, that already had this.

I always had to try to build that in our programs that I was involved with, and it took a lot away from what I had to do with the racecars. I probably didn't see that, then but I can see it more, now.

It's either, or. You're either going to run a race team or you're going to be a crew chief in Nextel Cup racing. And (before) there was never anybody stepping up to do it, so I had no choice but to do it.

It was not that we didn't have success where we were. I had a bunch of good teammates that we worked with, on the 22 car (Bill Davis Racing) and the 7 car (Ultra Motorsports), and we had a little fun with Dick Trickle back in the early days (Donlavey Racing).

You know, we run some top-fives and top-10s with that little race team at Junie's, so I think we're just in a big organization now and Ray has set the standards that he expects out of us and he's stern enough, and he means it enough -- you can see it in his eyes -- that you have no choice but to go along those guidelines.

Q: Going to Talladega this weekend, you'll have the same car package you did at Daytona?

Baldwin: We're running the same stuff. NASCAR really hasn't changed anything and I really don't see any different kind of race at Talladega than we've had in the past.

Talladega really doesn't have anything to do with handling or anything like that. It's just a big old track that you run around, 43 cars together and wait for a big wreck.

You survive the big wreck, hopefully, and you get a top-18 finish because usually there are about 18 cars racing at the end. It's really not any fun, but it's a place we have to go to, two times a year and hopefully survive.

Q: After a few races with the smaller, 13-gallon fuel cell you have to use at Talladega, what's your opinion of it?

Baldwin: It doesn't make a difference. It changes our philosophy a little bit about pit strategy and what we've got to do there. Again, it probably makes more of a difference at Talladega, believe it or not, because the handling doesn't come into play so you can do two tires, and two tires, and two tires.

You can two-tire the race to death without worrying about handling. It will all come down to having good pit stops and keeping the car up front.

Q: What's Kasey like on the radio during a race, and what kind of information does he need or want?

Baldwin: We talk almost every lap. I just let him know what the lap times are and where he's at, and what he needs to do. He tells me what's going on with the car probably about every 10 or 15 laps.

We've gotten lucky because we've come out of the box running well everywhere we've gone, so it's been really calm, you know? I don't think we've gotten in a situation that it's been heated yet, but it'll come.

That's all part of the racing. I don't hope to have that situation, but we'll be ready for it.

Q: At Talladega, it would seem like you wouldn't want to be talking to him when he's in the middle of 43 cars running 195 miles an hour. Is there any change in your communication pattern there?

Baldwin: Yeah, I mean, you don't even worry about lap times or handling or anything, so you just need to let the spotter do his job on Sunday and, like I said, hopefully escape from getting in that wreck.

The team I was with last year, the Ultra team, ran a total of eight laps at Talladega last year so it definitely can be not very fun if you get in that wreck. We've just got to hope that we stay out of trouble and get a good top-15 finish out of there, just like the short tracks and head to the bigger tracks where we can go racing.

Q: At Talladega, with DEI in general and Dale Earnhardt Jr. specifically having so much success there, do you think you have what it takes to stop them?

Baldwin: We definitely don't feel that we're there, yet. We probably feel that our big track, superspeedway program is our weakest link in our organization.

It's not that we're not working on it -- we're working on it daily. We built a couple new cars to go to Talladega and we're going to build a couple more new cars to go to Daytona (for the Pepsi 400).

So we're not leaving any stone undone, so to speak. We just do the best we can, build the best pieces that we can, do the most testing as we can and hopefully we'll get a good finish.

Q: In the Daytona 500 you had your only mechanical problem of the season, with an engine failure. Were you able to go back and determine what happened?

Baldwin: Yeah, the engine department found out there was a part failure. There was no problem with that. The motor guys have done an awesome job this year of giving us great horsepower and great durability.

Those guys are No. 1 in my book. I've never seen such an organized group of motor people working together to gain what we've gained all year 'round. We've got some new and exciting things coming up as far as horsepower comes.

We're going to run some good stuff in The Winston (NASCAR Nextel All-Star race) that we're excited about that Bill's (Elliott) already tested at the races at Vegas and Texas.

We're just working on the durability issues that we have with it and we'll go from there.