 | | Bill Wilburn (left) with Dale Jarrett Credit: Autostock |
By Dave Rodman, NASCAR.COM
June 14, 2005
03:28 PM EDT (19:28 GMT)
LONG POND, Pa. -- Veteran NASCAR mechanic Bill Wilburn briefly stepped out of the Nextel Cup Series at the end of 2004 to work in the Craftsman Truck Series. But by April, Wilburn had a craving to return to North Carolina and NASCAR's premier series, and circumstances allowed him to join Robert Yates Racing and to serve as crew chief for driver Dale Jarrett's No. 88 Ford. At Pocono, Wilburn sat down with NASCAR.COM's Dave Rodman to compare series, the two veteran drivers he's worked as a crew chief for, Michigan strategy and his Sprint Car future. What kind of perspective on Nextel Cup racing did going to the Craftsman Truck Series with Brendan Gaughan and Orleans Racing give you? Bill Wilburn: I tell you -- it gave me a better perspective of the Truck Series, actually. It's pretty competitive over there -- super competitive, actually. I enjoyed my time there, but it also gave me a little different viewpoint on some things. Obviously, being able to come back to the Cup Series, I'm super-thankful for that, No. 1 and No. 2, it made me realize how much more competitive Cup is. I have a definite comparison at this point versus what I had before because I had never been in another series. I had competed in Busch, either on a pit crew and I had called a Busch race or two. The Truck Series, I had only watched those guys race, before. Now I have a pretty good comparison of one versus the other. At Darlington we talked about how quickly Nextel Cup could become somewhat of a "closed shop." What did getting this opportunity with Robert Yates show you about the sport? Is it that timing is everything in some cases? Bill Wilburn: Oh definitely. After I left Orleans in Vegas at the end of April I came home and my goal, naturally, was to get a job somewhere. I focused most of my attention on Cup teams that had a Busch team. I really felt that I would have a better opportunity to do something with a team that had a Busch team -- maybe one of the teams like Evernham or Yates that potentially could have a third Cup team. Basically I wanted to go in and start at a lower level and work my way up, if they felt I was capable.  |  | DALE JARRETT | |
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The situation -- I spoke with the Yates team and the situation with Mike (Ford) happened. I got an opportunity to come in and work with the 88, and I didn't even have a clue that that could ever happen. It was timing. I was at the right place at the right time and I talked to the right people and I guess what I presented or what I brought to the table was what they were looking for, so I got the opportunity. Now, it's up to me to do the job that they want me to do and hopefully we can have some success and I can make this a long-term deal. It's like anything at this point. There's got to be some performance. There has to be some performance there and we have to make some results happen, because the only way these teams can keep going is to put it on the bottom line. Compare if you could, how similar or different it is working with a couple veterans on the radio -- Rusty Wallace when you were with Penske Racing and Dale Jarrett. | | |
| Welcome home |
| MIS has always been one of Dale Jarrett's best tracks: |
| Races |
36 |
| Wins |
4 |
| Top-Fives |
15 |
| Top-10s |
20 |
| Laps Led |
356 |
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Bill Wilburn: Well, Rusty is one type of guy. I think they're similar in a lot of ways in their styles. Rusty is outspoken, vocal, dominant. Dale can be the same way -- he wants what he wants -- but he is less resistant in some ways, to change. He's more willing to let you control the pace, at certain points, although he will step up and say you know, "I don't like this or that." A lot of it is tendencies and habits, and I understand that. Even when I worked for Rusty there were times when I had to state the case and say, "This is what we have to do or this is the reason we have to do it." It's no different with Dale. Dale is just a lot more mild-mannered than Rusty. Rusty is just a vocal person. What's your anticipation level going to Michigan, a racetrack at which both Robert Yates Racing and Dale Jarrett have had success? Bill Wilburn: Every race since we started at Charlotte, we're going to win. We've got the package to win. The driver can do it and this team can do it. They've got a great history there. It's one of Dale's favorite tracks. We're going in there with every anticipation of winning the race, qualifying well and doing everything it takes to be up front. There's no letdown in that department. What was your philosophy when you came over to this 88 car? Have you tried to reinvent the wheel or reorganize things, or are you sitting back observing, first? Bill Wilburn: I think that what I came into here is like most big companies. They have a plan and an objective that they're working towards and a program that they're working on. |  | | Credit: Autostock |
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It's like with motors. Some guys build motors one way and some guys build motors another way. They all make 840 horsepower, or 890, or whatever the number is. They're all capable of getting there. Some guys go around to the front door and some guys go around to the back door and they all end up in the same place. They have a plan here, they've laid that out for me as to how they want to do it and I understand what they want to do and I'm doing my best to work within that program. The decisions that we make are what are going to determine the final outcome of everything. They give you this direction and along the way there are a lot of decisions to be made. You know, "Do we do this, do we do that or the other?" That's been left up to me and my group of people to make the right decisions. We feel that the package that we work with each week, motor-wise, chassis-wise, aero-wise -- is good enough to win races. We've got to make the right decisions and when we put it on the track hopefully the driver can make the fastest laps, qualify good and race well. Going to Michigan, do you concentrate more on your qualifying setup or your race setup? Bill Wilburn: It's an impound race so naturally we're going to work hard on race stuff right up until the point we race. Qualifying is paramount everywhere. A lot of times you start up front you finish up front -- more so at some tracks than others. We're working hard on marrying the two together -- not only to have a good race setup, but to make those changes that are allowed and to still make a good qualifying lap in relation to what everybody else can do. We're working on that. (Pocono) is the first impound race that I've been to with the 88 car. We'll have to see how we stack up today (at Pocono). That will give us more information for (Michigan) and even into Indianapolis and coming back (to Pocono) in July. We're starting to build on the direction they want us to go, to allow us to be more competitive. We're three races into that, now, and hopefully we won't stumble too badly, so that we can't recover. Michigan is a racetrack where you have a lot of long, green flag runs -- so are you concerned with getting your race setup real close from the start, in case you can't adjust it? Bill Wilburn: Yeah. Any time you run green at places like Michigan where three stops can he made and you're done with the race, you need to be as close as you can because you don't have time to adjust shocks, pull (spring) rubbers and put in rubbers. It needs to be a tire pressure adjustment, clean the windshield, put some tires on, gas and go -- because if you don't, you'll be behind and you'll never catch up. Track position in Michigan is a prime example of track position being a big plus. If you're sitting in the pits making adjustments, it will never work out for you, green or yellow. Strategically, when it comes down to the end of the race at Michigan what goes into making the decision on two tires, four tires or no tires? Bill Wilburn: At Michigan, it depends on the number of laps you run between cautions and how the tires wear. We'll learn and get a good feel for that in practice. We'll learn how our car reacts on two tires and we might even try that in practice to understand what we can do. If we're in the front of the pack and the cautions fall in such a way that we can afford to take four tires -- four tires are better than two. But it comes down to how much track position do you sacrifice to take those four? There's going to be guys that have not been up front all day and if they think they're good enough they're going to take two and get out toward the front or gain a lot of positions. If you take four it's simple math -- you're going to be sitting in the pits longer so you make those decisions based on where you're at, how your car's running and how close you are to the end of the race -- how it's going to set you up for the next stop. It's a crapshoot, because when they throw the green flag you know if it's going to be 10 laps or 50 or 100 -- you might not see any more yellows. You want to put yourself in the best position to finish the best you can on the best tires and setup that you can. Like I said, it changes every time they throw the yellow. Let's get people up to speed on Bill Wilburn. You love racing, like everybody else in this garage area, but you added a twist, Sprint Car racing. What's up with that program? Bill Wilburn: Well, no. Two years ago -- at the end of 2003 -- we basically shut down the Sprint Car program. I tinkered with it a little bit in 2004 but I didn't really have a driver and I didn't have the money to do it. I couldn't do it myself with my commitments to my job, so we pretty much sold all of that. Are you planning to do any side racing at any point? Bill Wilburn: The Cup program is what I'm focused on. That's what I want to do and that's where I want to finish my racing career. But if I win the PowerBall, I will have a Sprint Car team again. | 
