Blake Bainbridge says having a revolving door behind the wheel of the No. 64 Dodge makes it tough on his team. Credit: Autostock

Shop Talk with... Blake Bainbridge

RWI crew chief faces many challenges in heading startup team

The crew chief for Rusty Wallace Incorporated's first-year Busch Series team has an unusual treat this season in that he's working with an all-star cast of drivers.

Blake Bainbridge is a young Alabamian who has thrived in the role, keeping the No. 64 Dodge in contention for a top-10 in the Busch owners' championship.

	Credit: Autostock
	Inside the Numbers Rusty Wallace Inc. in 2005 Starts Wins Top-5s Top-10s 21 0 2 7 NOTE: RWI is currently 15th in the Busch Series owner standings, 757 points behind leader Teresa Earnhardt.

Heading into Saturday evening's Wallace Family Tribute 250, Bainbridge took a break from preparing for Gateway International Raceway to talk with NASCAR.COM senior writer Dave Rodman about working with the boss, a winning setup for Gateway and the Busch Series championship race.

Q: Blake, going into the Wallace Family Tribute 250, you feeling any extra pressure with a Wallace in the seat -- not to mention the boss?

Bainbridge: Well, I tell you what (laughing), we went and tested for two days and that took a lot of the pressure off, because we had a really good test.

We unloaded good and we learned a bunch. We took what we learned to Pikes Peak last weekend with Bill Elliott and the car just ran great. That's a lot more comforting than going in blind, you know?

The fact that we did get to test is good, and Rusty, me and him work really well together everywhere we've been so far. I want him to run good and that's a little added pressure, but I feel like we'll be OK.

Q: You guys have actually performed better than the typical start-up team, since you're in contention for the top 10 in the owners' championship -- so are you looking forward to getting Rusty more involved in your operation next year after he retires from driving in Nextel Cup?

Bainbridge: Yeah, I sure am because there are a lot of things on his mind that won't be on his mind next year, and he can spend more time over here, helping me run the business end of this place.

He'll be able to go test and maybe run some more races with us. That's the main thing, you know? I'd love for him to run more races with us next year -- the non-companion races.

We want him to just have fun with it and make him a bigger part of RWI than right now -- not that he isn't already, but even more.

Q: You've kind of had a unique experience this year where you've had the opportunity to work with a real all-star array of drivers. Rather than considering that pressure, how much fun has it been and how much of a learning experience working with Rusty, and Bill Elliott and Jeremy Mayfield and Jamie McMurray?

Bainbridge: It's been overwhelming, to be honest with you, and I tell you what -- the whole team feels a little bit more pressure when you've got drivers like Bill Elliott and Rusty and Jamie.

I mean, you know if you give them what they want you can go to the front -- you should never run out of the top 10. You know you can win.

We're just going through the same thing that any other team goes through when they start up, you know, we've had pit stop problems here and there, which, the last three weeks have been awesome.

It's just growing pains and not working with these guys (every week). Since Chicago, we've had a different driver in the car every week and it's not looking any better until after IRP.

That's five weeks in a row with different drivers and it's hard to adapt. But it's a good feeling to have, knowing if you have a good race car, somebody's going to have the experience to put it up front.

Q: I think everyone remembers the Gateway inferno in the first daytime race there. This race is at night, but it will still be hot, so how does that affect the track and how much different do you feel it will be than racing there in the daytime?

Shop TalkBlake Bainbridge on working with an all-star lineup of drivers Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

Bainbridge: We tested last Tuesday and Wednesday and it was 132 degrees track temperature. I look for the track temperature to be under 100 degrees at night so it's going to be a pretty big difference.

I just feel like the cars are going to grip quite a bit better at night, and maybe tighten up a little bit because the asphalt's a little worn there.

Tracks like that bother me sometimes because you really don't know what they're going to do, because it's an older surface and you're kind of guessing just a little bit.

That's why I feel pretty good about having Rusty in the car there, because he's got so much experience on the short tracks like that and I feel like we're going to be OK.

Q: Is getting a car that will turn and come off the corner critical at Gateway, and how do you achieve that?

Bainbridge: When you set a car up for St. Louis, you're setting it up for as free as you can get it, up of the corner because you know when you get there you're going to be a little bit too free, but you know that the track's going to come to you as the day goes on and the rubber gets down.

So that's pretty much our mindset here. When we went and tested, it was just making everything we can for that car to turn on throttle up and off the corner.

But it's tricky when you start getting loose in. That's a little bit tricky.

Q: Even though it's an off-weekend for the Cup Series, there aren't a lot of Nextel Cup drivers entered. But even if there were, does that really affect your approach to a race?

Bainbridge: I'll be honest with you -- no, because we have so many Busch competitors that are tough that we don't look at them any different.

The non-companion race last weekend at Pikes Peak, I had no different strategy at all. Even though we had a Cup driver in the seat, we're not racing against any.

Bainbridge says he's hoping to get more input from Rusty Wallace once he retires from Nextel Cup competition. Credit: Autostock

The guys in Busch are tough. They're like scholars. They've grown up racing short tracks and that's why they're there. They're gonna be tough any time you race against them.

Q: When you look at race strategy at Gateway, what's the difference between winning, running top-10 or something else?

Bainbridge: I think tires are going to be more of an issue there than fuel is. I could be wrong, but just from what we've gathered from the test, that's what we think.

I just feel like keeping four fresh tires and keeping your track position is going to be the difference between winning and finishing 10th.

Q: As a crew chief who's right in the middle of it with your race team, how do you see the Busch drivers' championship race shaking out, with a couple young guys, Martin Truex Jr. the defending champion and the veteran Kenny Wallace?

Bainbridge: It's going to be interesting, because I know what Truex is capable of doing. I'm not really sure because this is Carl Edwards' first year in Busch, but they've come out of the box strong.

And everybody knows what Kenny can do. Kenny's just got that finish in the top five every week mentality and nine times out of 10 that's what it's going to be all about at the end.

But you know, Truex has proved he can do it before, so it's going to be pretty interesting between those two guys.