Inside the Garage: No. 42 crew chief Donnie Wingo (cont'd)

Q: Do you feel like The Glen this weekend starts a stretch of races that potentially could be pretty good for you guys -- with the road course where Juan's already won twice in stock cars; intermediate tracks like Michigan and California, with you guys running so well at Atlanta; with Bristol being the wild card?

Wingo: Yeah, but really, at Bristol we had a pretty good car. He had done a really good job and we kind of got in a little skirmish there and got spun out, and sat on the backstretch and lost two laps under caution because he couldn't get it started.

Worlds apart, united

They make for an interesting partnership, a combination of driver and crew chief that's all about contrast. But somehow, writes David Caraviello, despite a clash of accents over the radio, they make it work.

• Complete story, click here

But going back to these racetracks in the second go-round, like going to Pocono after leaving Indy with a good run, I feel like we'll start out further ahead than what we did in the previous races and that the car will be a lot closer for him when we start out on the second time around.

Q: Putting aside what people have said is the shortcomings of the Car of Tomorrow, is it easier to set up for a road course, because it's a symmetrical car, or was the standard road-course car symmetrical anyway?

Wingo: I don't really know if it's that much difference, because the cars were pretty much symmetrical before for the road courses. So as far as the road course goes, with the Car of Tomorrow, it's a little bit more of a challenge because of the [suspension] travel you're limited to in the front, with the splitter.

So yeah, it's more of a challenge, but I think with a road-course ace like Juan it makes life a whole lot easier.

Q: So is the biggest setup challenge getting that front end to work, and do you have to do things with the suspension geometry to make that happen?

Wingo: At Sonoma, we had issues with getting the car turning, but mostly it was problems with getting it off the corner. Watkins Glen is usually not as bad for that, but I'm sure it will be worse this time, with the Car of Tomorrow than what we've seen in the past.

But the biggest thing is just trying to get the car to turn good and get good forward bite, and that's what we've really worked on. We've done a little testing lately for that so hopefully everything will go well.

Q: With the COT, what do you have to do to achieve that type of package, and are the fixes at all different than what you used to do with the standard car?

Wingo: Maybe to a certain degree they're similar, but not really, because like I say, your travels are limited, with the splitter, so your camber curves and all that plays a big effect.

With the bump stops [in the front suspension] you can put whatever springs you want to in the front of it, but the biggest thing is getting these things to change direction through the esses and all that, because that's where you're going to pick your speed up on the road course.

Q: How much variance have you found, and have you been able to use with the rear wing on the Car of Tomorrow?

Wingo: We pretty much try to get as much downforce as we can put on it. A 16-degree angle is what you can run on it and we leave it maxed-out -- we don't mess with that. We just try to keep as much wing in it as we can put in it.

Q: I know it's tough to call going into the race, but what's the ideal strategy to have, to win a race at Watkins Glen?

Wingo: It's just like when we went into Sonoma: We were a little worried about the pit-stop strategy we were going to have because we felt like we didn't know if we could do it on three stops or two stops.

So we'll just have to see what our fuel mileage is and see what kind of windows we can put that in -- but I think that the least time you spend on pit road, the better off you're going to be -- just like Sonoma. There were a few cars that were faster than us at Sonoma, but made one extra stop and any time you do that, you're going to put yourself behind.

So I feel like if we can get our strategy the same as we had at Sonoma and we can make the same amount of stops, I think we can have a good day.

Q: How much do you work on fuel mileage?

Wingo: We've worked on it a lot. It paid off for us at Sonoma, and we've worked on it everywhere because it's beaten us a few races in the past, last year and the year before.

So that's one thing the engine shop has really worked hard on, and we're going to continue to do that because the race at Watkins Glen is going to be the same way. The least amount of time you spend on pit road, I believe, is the car that's going to win the race.