Dale Jarrett is 10th in the Nextel Cup Series standings. Credit: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

Shop Talk with... M. Ford

RYR crew chief on the changing role of head wrenches in NASCAR

Robert Yates Racing crew chief Mike Ford has been as much of a circus performer as any other chief mechanic in the Nextel Cup Series this season, juggling a new car specification package, variable schedules and the sanctioning body's general limits on creativity and self-expression.

	Mike Ford said the new set-up package puts more emphasis on drivers in the Nextel Cup Series. Credit: Autostock
	Shop TalkCrew chief Mike Ford talks about working on the No. 88 Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

But after six events, and coming off two consecutive beat-and-bang outings at short tracks, Ford and his driver, 1999 Cup champion Dale Jarrett, are thankful to have their No. 88 UPS Ford solidly in 10th in the series standings.

And the pair is even more grateful to be coming into Sunday's Samsung/RadioShack 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, a track at which Jarrett won in 2001 and his teammate, M&M's Ford driver Elliott Sadler, is the defending champion.

Ford talked this week with NASCAR.COM senior writer Dave Rodman about getting through the short tracks, the new set-up package's biggest surprise and what variables different schedules throw at teams.

Q: How much relief is your team feeling after getting through two consecutive short-track races fairly well and heading to a racetrack at which DJ has won previously?

Ford: You kind of look at the short tracks as something you go into blind. You know what your capabilities are, but you expect nothing. And whatever you come out with, you have to be happy with it because you're not going to change what happened.

We did come out decent, although we could have done a little bit better at Martinsville, where we got behind. But we got back on the lead lap and had a shot at moving forward.

That was about all the drama involved in our short-track racing the last two weeks, and that's probably the least amount of anyone. So we feel like we got out of the short tracks very successful.

We're looking at Texas, knowing we've had a lot of emphasis on that race and Elliott actually winning there last year as a teammate gives us that information to fall back on.

Dale's run well there and I've run well there in the past with Bill (Elliott) so we feel like, moving forward I think this could be somewhat of a breakout weekend for us, possibly.

Q: Going to Texas, we're getting back to a racetrack where the new spoiler, tire and gear rule combination will play have more of an impact again, so in the races we've run so far at California, Atlanta and Las Vegas, what's been the biggest surprise to you as far as this package goes?

Ford: I think the biggest thing is, last year in particular, there was a lot of separation as far as lap times during the race. You could separate from a car and a lot of times you could drive away from a car.

It seems like this year, in particular, there has been no separation and people were thinking there was going to be a lot of separation. At Fontana, from say the third-place car all the way back to 20th, everyone was within a couple tenths of each other, and depending on where you're running on the racetrack time-wise is extremely close.

I'd have to say that's my biggest surprise, starting off. I didn't realize it'd be that close. With the softer tires coming in, you have to pit when the caution comes out and two tires is less of an option than it used to be.

So a lot of weight's been put on the pit crews. Bottom line, the lack of separation in the cars has probably been my biggest surprise.

Q: Has that been a case where the teams have come to grips with it better; the tires aren't dropping off as much, or a combination of both?

	Inside the Numbers Dale Jarrett at Texas Year Start Finish 2004 11 18 2003 23 13 2002 5 24 2001 3 1 2000 5 33 1999 12 2 1998 13 11 1997 1 2 Average 9.1 13.0

Ford: I personally think that the box of what the teams can do is just getting smaller. The range of adjustments is getting narrower and everyone is becoming a lot smarter.

The box now is narrowed down and you don't have your teams that are months ahead of the next team. The aero programs are less sensitize because you have less downforce and there's a narrower margin from good cars to bad cars.

And the tires seem to be a little bit forgiving, but there does seem to be some figuring out to be done and not too many people have hit the ball out of the park, yet, with that.

So I think the box has just gotten narrower and everyone in the garage has gotten smarter.

Q: You could say a simile for crew chief is "innovator," so if NASCAR is making the box you can work in so much smaller, is there any degree of frustration in that?

Ford: Every day it gets more and more by the day (laughing), because you get to this level by being creative and thinking out new avenues to get an advantage.

It's obvious that NASCAR doesn't want anyone to have an advantage and they're putting more of the game onto the drivers. So the level of creativity has gotten a lot smaller and that is frustrating, but that's the game we're in.

So the next thought process that you have, is if you can't be the innovator that you once were, where is the advantage? The advantage is to deal with change and whoever can adapt to change quicker.

As a group, whoever doesn't make mistakes is going to benefit at the end of the day, and that's where the focus has gone. It's not that you don't pay attention to your racecar, because there is still a lot of room that you can improve there, but it's a lot less than what it has been in years past.

Q: With your teammate, Elliott Sadler being the defending champion of this race, but there being a new aerodynamic and tire and gear rule package, how much transfers over from a year ago?

Ford: It's a good baseline. I know they've done a tire test out there and they actually went for another one-day test. It's not too much different from what they had last year, and the racetrack still stays the same.

We know what the differences are in the racecar and we can adjust accordingly for that, but the racetrack still remains the same and that's probably the largest factor that we tend to overlook when we start changing the racecars.

I think if you have a good baseline it's still going to apply. You may have to fine-tune it, but you'll still have a good package.

Q: At Texas we're going to have a more "traditional" schedule, with practice and qualifying on Friday and a pair of practices on Saturday. For Texas, are you happy to have that in place, and what's been your preference, in general with the schedule variations we've seen this year?

Past gloryDale Jarrett celebrates his win at Texas in 2001 Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

Ford: I really don't have a preference. As a team, we've elected to not put a lot of emphasis on qualifying -- which sounds terrible -- but if we get one qualifying run in practice, that's good enough for us.

We're there to work on race trim and we spend 90 percent of our time working on a race set-up and accept where we end up in qualifying. Either way, we spend the majority of our time in race trim.

The new confiscate (impound) package -- we haven't been bit by it but I know that a few of the people have.

If you do have a problem you pay a high price for not being prepared when you get to the racetrack or you pay a high price for making a mistake during the course of the two-hour practice.

That puts added pressure on you to be prepared and it puts added pressure on the mechanics here at the shop to not make mistakes and not leave anything overlooked.

The confiscate races are a little more pressure for you as a team, but we can adapt either way.