Inside the Garage: No. 42 crew chief Donnie Wingo

Chip Ganassi Racing crew chief Donnie Wingo has the unenviable task of winning the second consecutive Nextel Cup Car of Tomorrow road race, this weekend's Centurion Boats at The Glen, albeit with the man with whom he won the first, Juan Montoya.

In order for the No. 42 Dodge team to achieve that, they'll have to hold off the same herd of contenders at The Glen, fortified by a couple of Glen stalwarts, including Canadian road racing ace Ron Fellows, whose Hall of Fame Racing team allegedly waxed the best of Hendrick Motorsports' cars at Road Atlanta recently.

Looking ahead, Wingo discussed the ideal Car of Tomorrow setup for Watkins Glen, his assessment of a southern boy communicating with a South American driver in 2007, working with a rear wing, fuel mileage and where Montoya fits on his career "intensity scale" of drivers with whom Wingo's worked previously.

Q: Donnie, Juan's talked about where he is, coming into Race 22 of the season, versus his expectations, and he feels ahead of the game; so what's your take on Juan, and the team's progress?

Wingo: I think we're a little bit ahead of where I anticipated we would be, really.

I think the biggest thing that's helped speed up the learning curve, along with the races he ran last year [in ARCA, Busch and Nextel Cup at Homestead], is that at the start of the year we had to start the cars out a little bit tighter in the races, and that caused us problems during the race, trying to get it freed up enough.

But now, in practice we're able to get the cars a lot freer before the race starts, to where we don't have to make quite so many adjustments in the races. And Juan's consistency has been a lot better because of that.

Q: What's been the most pleasant surprise to you, in working with Juan?

Wingo: The biggest thing I like is his attitude. I've never been around a guy with as much enthusiasm and a positive attitude. When we're not good, we hear we're not good -- and that's a good thing, you know, because you don't want to sugarcoat anything. So I think his attitude is one thing.

And speaking of the learning curve, he's gotten a lot better at knowing what to adjust, and that's been the biggest surprise, to me.

Q: Juan had a, shall we say, volatile reputation in his open-wheel career, and you've worked with some fiery guys in your career, including Jimmy Spencer and Ricky Rudd. So where does Juan fit on your driver intensity scale?

Wingo: I think he's just as intense, or more intense, than a lot of those guys are. To me, he's kinda like Jimmy a lot. When he vents, if you try to get back at him when he's venting, in the middle of his venting, it makes it worse.

So you pretty much let it run its course and then when it's all said and done, you make a statement, and then everything's good.

You've got to let it run its course, you know? But I like that in a driver. I want a guy who'll express how he feels, or whatever; because I think it makes the whole team better and makes the whole team dig in harder.

Q: Has there been any kind of language barrier this season, going either way?

Wingo: No, not really and that's surprising, because most people didn't seem to think he'd be able to understand me. But on the radio, we really haven't had any issues as far as that goes whatsoever.

It's really been kind of a pleasant surprise because it has really worked good as far as the communication and all that goes. We really don't have any issues.

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.