Doug Richert won five races for Jack Roush in 2005. Credit: Autostock

Shop Talk: Richert

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Thanks to a cut tire on the last lap of the Daytona 500, Roush Racing crew chief Doug Richert heads to California Speedway this weekend a little worse off than he did in 2005 -- about six spots in the standings worse.

But since Richert and Greg Biffle, who drives the No. 16 Ford that the veteran mechanic tunes, are the defending champions of Sunday afternoon's Auto Club 500, they once again stand ready to march up the Nextel Cup standings.

Richert took a break during his preparation for the Daytona 500 to talk to NASCAR.COM senior writer Dave Rodman about his team's confidence level as defending race winners, the benefit of the Ford Fusion on downforce racetracks and the benefit of Biffle competing in two series this season.

	Credit: Autostock
	Inside the Numbers Greg Biffle at Fontana Race Start Finish Spring '02 29 13 Spring '03 29 18 Spring '04 18 33 Fall '04 7 36 Spring '05 5 1 Fall '05 4 2 Average 15.3 17.2

Q: From a crew chief's standpoint, what's your mindset going to California Speedway, the first downforce racetrack of the season?

Richert: The one thing that we're really focusing on, is that my start-to-finish last year -- the way that we ended up on our cars, I felt like I was a little off from where we were at the first part of the year.

So I really took our team this year and tried to put us back to where we started the 2005 season. We made some changes last year, thinking we were really helping something and I think we were really hurting something, in the interim.

So we'll focus a lot on just the balance of the car. With the new Ford Fusion that we're going to be running this year, it's much better right out of the truck, but we still want to make sure that our balances are what we want.

Q: You have tested the new Fusion on the downforce track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but have you tested the car anywhere else besides Daytona -- like Kentucky or Nashville?

Richert: No. With NASCAR regulating the test sessions [which Nextel Cup tracks teams are allowed to test at], we haven't had an opportunity to go to a Lakeland [USA International] or a Kentucky or any of these other tracks yet.

But those will certainly be on our schedule in the future.

Q: What are your impressions of the Fusion as a downforce piece, and what are its plusses and minuses?

Richert: Just the styling of it is a big plus. We've got drag reduction and we've got more downforce, which is what we all strive for.

Q: Tuning wise, does it react in the same way to changes that you make to it as the Taurus did?

Richert: Yeah, all the same adjustments we make on the car affect it the same way. It's more of just a total downforce, less drag scenario is what we've got with the new Ford Fusion.

Q: Since you guys won this California spring race in 2005, are you going to be able to go there with a similar set-up as you used a year ago, is it greatly different or how is that going to work?

Richert: We're going to start there pretty much exactly as we were in '05. We felt like we had a good package there, as long as my balance numbers come back to what I had at the beginning of the year and not what I had at the end.

We're going to start in race trim and get some feedback on it so we know how to start Happy Hour.

Q: You're going back there as the defending champion of that race, and you guys were the second-place team in the 2005 Nextel Cup championship, so is it impossible to understate how much confidence that gives you, not only coming into the season but going back to that racetrack?

Richert: Well, definitely winning six races last year is a great boost to any team on the circuit, to be able to accomplish that, and we carry a lot of momentum going into California.

I know he is looking forward to getting to some of the fast, intermediate style tracks that Greg has really excelled on himself.

So we're excited and the crew is working hard, pit stop wise so I think we should come out of the box strong.

Q: Just as he is, you're doubling up and working over on the Busch side with him, so what's the benefit to that? I assume any time you can work with your driver, that's a good thing, but what is the concrete benefit you can pull out of that?

Credit: Autostock

Richert: It's a good thing any time you see the trends of the racetrack, you see the trends of the tires and you see the trends of whatever the racing moment is.

It kind of gets your brain tuned up a little bit and it gives him a good feel for what the track conditions are at the start compared to where they were at the finish of the race.

Q: Do you know what tire you're going to be using at California? Is it going to be the same as what you've used in the past?

Richert: I think with the tire deal, the biggest thing they've done is introduced that lease program. Naturally, with that they've had to change all the code numbers of the tires.

But really I don't think Goodyear has made much change to the compounds and constructions and stuff like that. I don't see why they should, because we had good racing last year.

I think all they have to do now is the lease program.

Q: With what you saw at Vegas, were there any surprises about anyone who's going to be a contender in 2006, maybe more than they were last year?

Richert: Uh, no -- I saw about the same trends. You try to get a grip on how people were on the long runs, there.

A car on the short run there doesn't necessarily mean it's good on the long run [because] it gives up quite a bit and the tires fall off quite a bit, so the consistency part is about as critical as it is at Darlington.

Q: How much fall off did you see with your car, because in talking to some of the other guys they saw a range of between eight-tenths of a second up to as much as a second-and-a-half?

Richert: It really depended on what time of the day it was. We had more fall-off and slower speeds through the mid-par of the day, with the sun out.

You could knock off some good speeds in the morning and maybe pick it back up again in the afternoon, but during the middle of the day is what we've got to tune towards and that's what we'll be faced with in the race.