Inside the Garage: Martin

Teams have rarely faced as many unknowns entering a Nextel Cup race as they do this weekend, when the Car of Tomorrow visits Talladega Superspeedway. It's a volatile combination: a facility infamous for producing large-scale accidents, a car that's been on the 2.66-mile track for all of two test days, and 12 drivers vying for the series championship.

One of those drivers is Clint Bowyer, a second-year pilot at Richard Childress Racing competing in the Chase for the Nextel Cup for the first time. Calling the race-day shots for Bowyer is Gil Martin, a native of Nashville, Tenn., and an eight-year RCR employee who's also worked with Robby Gordon and Kevin Harvick. Martin became Bowyer's Busch crew chief in 2005, and moved up to the Nextel Cup tour with his driver the next season.

Bowyer hasn't had the best of luck at Talladega, crashing out of two of three starts on the big track and never finishing better than 35th. But RCR has traditionally been one of the top teams in NASCAR on restrictor-plate tracks, with 14 victories combined at Talladega and Daytona International Speedway, where Harvick won the season-opening Daytona 500.

Q: From a crew chief's perspective, what kind of unknowns do you face at Talladega this weekend?

Martin: Our major concern is what these cars are going to draft like in a 43-car pack. We drafted in 10-, 12-car, very small packs [at the test], and we don't know what's going to happen when we get 43 of them. With that being said, we also don't know the speeds we're going to run. We've got some concerns, too, that NASCAR may change the wicker, the plate size, and everything we learned in testing. So everything we learned at testing may go away, and we'll be faced with something else. We need to be prepared for all kinds of scenarios, just because there is so much unknown going into the race.

Q: You're going to race this car full time next season. How little do you still know about it?

Martin: I think the majority of this COT car is an unknown for us, because of the fact that we haven't raced them on a mile-and-half track yet, because of the fact that we haven't drafted them in huge packs yet. It's still unknown how far you can lay back before you actually lose the draft at Talladega. There are so many unknowns that we have. The known column is very short right now.

Q: Any idea what the full-field draft at Talladega might be like with the COT?

Martin: I think these cars, they're going to have a lot larger closing rate. They're going to close a lot faster. And also, too, it looks like these cars are easier to bump-draft. When I say easier, I mean I think they can get there before the driver knows it. At Talladega, we saw a lot of guys with the front bumper and the rear bumper hooked together all the way around the racetrack. Obviously, when we go back, NASCAR is going to mandate that there be no bump-drafting in the corners and the tri-oval. But with that being said, the cars are going to be easier to do that with. It's going to be easier to make a mistake that it was in the past.

Q: Will there be a difference in speed between the old car and the new car?

Martin: NASCAR will end up dictating how fast we run by the plate size and the wicker size. What I mean by that is, they're not going to let us run 200 mph, but they're also not going to let us run 189. They'll have us in the 192, 194 mph range. That's what they feel comfortable for it to be at, right there. Fans or anybody else will never know the difference in the speeds we're actually running. But if we have to put more wicker on the cars, that's going to make the visibility tough for the driver behind us. That's a negative right there, because of that. Already, the driver behind can't see through the windshield in front of him. He can't see what's going on, because the wing's so big. That's one thing they were noticing at the test. When we went a half-inch bigger on the wicker, the visibility for the guy behind was harder, because he couldn't see through the front. Did it put more drag on the car? Maybe a little bit. When you got into the car, it still drafted up. The major restrictor is still going to be the restrictor plate. That's going to be different, because it's going to make the cars have less acceleration.

Jason Smith/Getty Images

Gil Martin

Q: At Talladega, the driver looks through the windows of the car ahead of him?

Martin: I think most of the driving is probably done through the window of the car in front of him. A lot of the drivers had a lot of concern about that. These cars are so visually impaired, because you can't move your head from side to side and everything else. You're dependent on seeing what's going on through the car in front of you. When you close that off, it makes the driver feel he's that much more confined. I'd have to say I'd have to agree with them. They need some sort of more visual help right there. They were talking about looking for some sort of a clear wicker or something like that, but I don't know if there's anything we can put on there that they can actually see through and still take the beating it's going to take in that race.

Q: In many COT races, we've seen one car hit on a setup and run away from everyone. Could that happen at Talladega?

Martin: I don't think you're going to see anybody hit it and run away, but you're going to see a larger disparity in some of the cars than we've seen in the past at Talladega. The fields may be just as big, the draft may be just as big. but as far as the chess game that goes on, going front to back, front to back, that may not be as big. You'll have the stronger cars that will occupy the front spots more. I think you'll see that.

Q: Will it be as hard to pass the leader at Talladega as has been in other COT races?

Martin: I don't think so. I think some of that is still going to be the same because of the draft. I think it's going to take on some of the characteristics of the Busch race, how it's been with all their wickers. It's going to take on some of those characteristics. But still, there are going to be guys who have a better cowl combination, who have a better setup, who has a better attitude, they're going to be a little faster.

Q: Crew chiefs have complained that it's hard to adjust on this car because the technical box is so small. Are you finding more ways to adjust it the more you work on it?

Martin: I think the biggest mindset we've had to go through with this COT car is, there's no big hit. There's no major hitter. You've really got to pay attention to minute details on these cars. There are things you can do. I'm not saying there are things you can do outside of the box, there are just things that you can flat pay more attention to on these cars. The teams that are running up front are actually paying more attention to detail.

Q: We saw Carl Edwards' No. 99 car hit with a penalty last weekend. The No. 24 of Jeff Gordon and No. 48 of Jimmie Johnson were hit with severe penalties for COT violations at Sonoma. As a crew chief, does it all make you wonder where the box ends and where it begins?

Martin: It really does. The thing that happened with the 24 and 48 at Sonoma, they were just working in an area I think the whole garage is under the perception that we can probably do a little bit in. Where theirs is a little bigger or whatever else, they pushed it a little bit right there, and NASCAR didn't like it. But you've got to try that stuff. What happened to the 99 at Dover, that could happen anywhere. Whether they had a jack bolt backed out, whether they had a rear clip flexing, the box is so small on these cars right here that even through the construction of these cars, the cars are moving around. The chassis are moving around on them just through the physical running of the racecar. I think we still have some growing pains at RCR, and I know other teams do, too, on how to build these cars so torsionally when they flex, they flex in a direction that stays in the box. We're trying different procedures of welding the cars up. I think it's a learning process everybody has to go through, and I think the inspection process will go through some of those growing pains with us.