Rusty Wallace and Larry Carter brought home a 10th-place finish in the first race at Lowe's this year. Credit: Autostock

Shop Talk with ... Larry Carter

In Rusty Wallace's final season of racing in the Nextel Cup Series, Penske Racing South crew chief Larry Carter has done a masterful job of focusing Wallace's sizeable driving talent, providing competitive race cars and marshaling an effective support group.

	Inside the Numbers Rusty Wallace's career at Lowe's (and his stats for this season) Category Lowe's 2005 Starts 47 30 Wins 2 0 Top-5 8 8 Top-10 22 17 DNF 12 0 Poles 0 0 Avg. Start 16.5 18.1 Avg. Finish 16.2 11.7 Laps Led 940 259

Heading into Saturday evening's UAW-GM Quality 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway, Wallace's No. 2 Dodges have proven to be durable, as Wallace holds the current longest streak of races without a DNF, 43 stretching back to last season; and competitive, as Wallace has a league-leading 24 top-15 finishes this season in 30 races.

Carter took a break at Kansas Speedway to talk about working with a competitive former Cup champion, the challenges of returning to the newly ground Lowe's track under the stress of competing in the Chase for the Nextel Cup and preparing for 2006 with a new driver.

Q: Larry, talk about how enjoyable it's been this season, working with a competitive Rusty Wallace?

Carter: Well, we've had a good season and it's been a lot of fun. Rusty's done a really good job, he's driving hard and he's been really competitive.

I feel like we've made some gains on our race cars and we've had some really good cars for him to drive -- but overall, it's been a lot of fun.

Q: Rusty has spoken at length about the strengths you've brought to the table, organizationally, demanding respect and getting the cars right; but flipping the coin, what does Rusty bring to the equation in his last full season driving?

Carter: Rusty has just wanted things to be right. I've had some demands on the team as well as Rusty has had some demands on me -- so it's really worked out good.

The things Rusty wants in his cars are generally the things he feels will help him go faster and as a crew chief I try to give him that.

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And we have a lot of good people working at Penske South -- a lot of guys who are hands-on and keep their eyes on things, but I think we've just really jelled and we work well together.

We don't rub each other the wrong way and we're all working for a common goal. That's kind of what we've been trying to do this year.

Q: The mile-and-a-half racetracks have been a strong point for you guys, so was it much of a chore to get the 2005 Dodge Charger competitive on those layouts?

Carter: Yeah, I think anytime you have a body change there's a little bit of a struggle that goes on, in fine tuning it and finding the balance that the driver's happy with.

We fortunately were able to work off of the balance that we had with the 2004 car and try to get the numbers pretty close on this 2005 car. They seemed to be what we were looking for and we've just kind of tweaked on it and tried to make it a little better as we've gone along through the year.

I think our cars have gotten better and we've learned some things on our chassis that we've been able to help Rusty with some problems he's had. So we've kind of been able to get a pretty good package together.

	Larry Carter looks to send Rusty Wallace out a champion. Credit: Autostock
	ALSO •   Rusty Wallace Driver Page •   Larry Carter Crew Chief Page •   Penske Racing Team Page •   Dodge Fast Track

Q: Have you had much input into the "new" Dodge nose the manufacturer is trying to get in place for you, in 2006?

Carter: I haven't really had any input on that, because we've sort of let Roy McCauley, who's our head engineer, head that program up for us. He really knows more about what's going on.

But the input I've heard is that it should be good for us, if we can get it. But that's about all I know about it.

Q: What are you and Rusty's opinions on the current Lowe's Motor Speedway, since it's been ground again? Have you tested there and what do you feel like you'll be faced with, this week for the UAW-GM Quality 500?

Carter: We didn't test (the Cup car) there, but Rusty did test his Busch car there with Jamie (McMurray) and I think they got a little bit of information from there that we'll be able to use.

It seems like the track's really fast. It's still got some bumps, but it's a lot smoother than it was the last time we ran there, but I think the track is still going to be susceptible to the weather changes.

You'll just to play that game, as you always have, anticipating how the track will be when the sun goes down and so forth -- but I think we'll be able to adapt to it.

Q: So setup package-wise, there is not really anything different you anticipate having to adjust?

Rusty Wallace last failed to finish a race last season at Michigan. Credit: Autostock

Inside the Numbers Rusty Wallace's 43-race DNF streak Year Race Start Finish 2005 Kansas 33 7   Talladega 41 25   Dover 6 3   Loudon 7 6   Richmond 15 5   Fontana 34 15   Bristol 20 5   Michigan 38 13   Watkins Glen 4 6   Indianapolis 41 25   Pocono 13 2   Loudon 6 8   Chicago 33 12   Daytona 9 4   Sonoma 14 4   Michigan 12 10   Pocono 12 11   Dover 11 5   Charlotte 20 10   Richmond 8 19   Darlington 12 12   Talladega 20 22   Phoenix 9 36   Texas 6 10   Martinsville 4 5   Bristol 3 13   Atlanta 32 27   Las Vegas 21 12   Fontana 23 10   Daytona 36 10 2004 Homestead 10 8   Darlington 16 18   Phoenix 15 7   Atlanta 12 11   Martinsville 2 10   Charlotte 14 31   Kansas 36 18   Talladega 33 26   Dover 7 13   Loudon 17 14   Richmond 12 10   Fontana 26 10   Bristol 13 26

Carter: Well, as we've gone along I think we've made some changes on all the mile-and-a-half tracks and I think we'll be able to take what we did in May and then tune what we've done at the other tracks and come up with a package that should put us pretty close.

Then I anticipate we'll have to make a couple changes, once we get there, to fine-tune the thing, but I think we'll be able to get there.

Q: Even though, at this point there hasn't been a full weekend that's gone by since the new, stricter rule for rear shocks went into effect, but has that had much impact on your program?

Carter: No, that shouldn't affect us at all. We don't have any problem with those rules and they won't affect in any way the way we're constructing or building our shocks -- so we're fine with all that.

Q: Looking at a 500-mile race at Lowe's Motor Speedway, how would you like the end of that race to come down, to best enable your team and Rusty to win?

Carter: Traditionally, our cars have performed better on long runs so pretty much everywhere that we go, if we can get into a situation where it comes down to a long run at the end of a race, that would play into our hands.

Our cars seem to handle better on long runs.

Q: Three or four races into the Chase, how is the team holding up? Are you at all concerned with burnout, or the guys just getting worn out with the strain of competing in the Chase?

Carter: You know, last year we didn't make the Chase so this year, our goal was to make the Chase for the Nextel Cup. So we used the majority of our testing up at the beginning of the year.

So now, where a lot of these guys are racing every weekend and testing every week, I think that could become an issue -- but for us, we only have one test left.

So we've pretty much been business as usual, and not a lot of pressure on the guys. We've been trying not to put a lot of pressure on them by making them work a lot of overtime.

We're trying to do just the opposite and give our guys some time (off) because I think that when they're rested they can do a better job than when they're under stress.

So we've been pretty relaxed.

Q: Where are you going to burn up that last test session?

Carter: Homestead is our plan, right now.

Q: Finally, even as we're finishing up the 2005 season, you're always looking ahead and getting your stuff ready for the future. How much does the uncertainty about who the driver of your car will be in 2006 affect your preparation program?

Carter: It really doesn't at this point, because all we can do is go forward and try to build good race cars.

We've started to build some 2006 cars, and you know, I think it's just a situation of whoever it is (that owner Roger Penske selects to drive), we'll just have to do whatever we have to do to get the cars to where the balance is where this particular driver likes them.

And I feel confidence that that is something we'll be able to do, so I'm really not worried about it.

We've just got these last races with Rusty that I want to do a real good job for him in -- and then we'll kind of look beyond that.