The Dale Earnhardt Inc. teams head to Las Vegas next week for another round of testing. Credit: Turner Sports Interactive

Garage experts split on rules changes for 2005

MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- Dale Earnhardt Inc. Director of Competition Tony Eury thinks the rules changes affecting the 2005 Nextel Cup season have already had an adverse effect on his team.

Eury says his pair of Nextel Cup teams -- including Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s and Michael Waltrip's -- have spent all winter redoing their fleet for the changes, which includes a reduced spoiler and a different tire compound.

A four-day test is set next week in Las Vegas and Fontana to help teams deal with the changes, but Eury wonders if all the work is necessary.

Tony Eury Credit: Autostock

WALTRIP ON HOT SEAT It's a make-or-break year for Michael Waltrip, and Tony Eury says the offseason's management shifts at DEI are designed to give Waltrip his best shot at keeping his job for 2006. Waltrip went winless last year and didn't even finish well at his specialty -- restrictor-plate tracks. "That race team needs a spark. We have just had a lot of problems down there in that shop," Eury said. "We're trying to pick Michael up, he's got one year left. Take him and see if he can win some races."

"(NASCAR) thinks taking downforce off the car is going to make the racing better," Eury said Wednesday during a stop at the Nextel Cup Media Tour. "It is not going to make it better. All it is doing is costing us a bunch of money, wind tunnel time."

And Eury is not convinced the rules won't change soon again anyway.

"If the racing stinks, (NASCAR) will change it," Eury said. "And that is exactly what will happen. If cars can't run side-by-side, you're not going to sell tickets in the grandstands."

Mike Ford, Dale Jarrett's crew chief, agrees that the changes will probably discourage two-wide racing on tracks like Vegas and Fontana.

"It's going to affect the racing," Ford said. "The cars I think will have larger gaps between them. I think side-by-side will go away. They will be very uncomfortable side-by-side."

Unlike Eury, Ford said his team wasn't bothered too much by the changes, which Ford says are overrated.

"The changes are less than they have been in year's past," Ford said. "We have spent time (testing) at Kentucky and we were pretty comfortable with it. We feel like we can get a handle on it pretty quick."

Eury says his two drivers will have a harder time adjusting.

"I don't think either one of them are going to like it," Eury said. "Michael (Waltrip) definitely does not like a loose racecar. Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. does not either.

"I don't think any driver likes a loose racecar getting into the corner. Their biggest fear is getting loose and slapping the left side into the fence.

"It's going to happen with a short spoiler. I think all the teams are going to struggle with it."

Michael McSwain

Eury and Ford both work for large, multi-car teams that saw much of their 2004 data wiped out by the rules changes. For a smaller team like the Wood Brothers, that can be an advantage.

Down the road from the gargantuan shops of DEI and Robert Yates Racing is the modest facility of Wood Brothers Racing, which has taken the changes in stride.

Michael McSwain, preparing for his first full season with driver Ricky Rudd, likes the new rules, mainly because it will allow him freedom to experiment at next week's vital test.

"I like it. It kind of cleans the slates with all the teams," McSwain said. "Everyone has to start over. It's different for single-car teams.

"It gives everybody a fair chance."