Missing Chase, Carter still sees growth in 26 team

CONCORD, N.C. -- Larry Carter came to Roush Fenway Racing at the beginning of the season to take over the No. 26 Ford team driven by Jamie McMurray.

For a while, it was a roller-coaster season, with runs of bad finishes mixed with flashes of brilliance. The brightest flash was at Daytona in July, when McMurray out-dragged Kyle Busch for the victory.

Carter was brought in to help solve a difficult situation at the No. 26, which faltered badly down the stretch last year in a bid to make the Chase. He made a difference, getting that first victory for the team, but the culmination of the 2007 season was that McMurray was unable to make the move necessary when he needed it most, and missed the Chase again.

That isn't slowing Carter and the rest of the team down, however, as the drive is on to finish 2007 on a high note so as to enter 2008 with some momentum.

Q: How hard is it for you as a crew chief to switch back and forth between the current car and the COT? It's got to put a lot of pressure on you and your team.

Carter: Yeah, it's been difficult, but everybody's had to deal with it. We've been trying to adapt to it, but I will be glad when we get to one car. It'll be a whole lot easier.

Q: How much time do you spend trying to figure out the setup for the COT?

Carter: Roush Racing is an engineering-driven company, pretty much, and the engineers do a pretty good job of generating a lot of our setups. We rely on them for a lot of that.

Q: Does it take the emphasis off your role as a crew chief, not coming up with the setups on your own?

Carter: I think the role of crew chief is an ever-changing one, and the guys that have been able to adapt to it seem to do pretty well. There's still a lot of things that we have to do where our experience comes into play. Sometimes the engineering stuff doesn't work exactly like you think it's going to, and we have to rely on some old-school basic skills. We're still out there.

Q: Martinsville is all about rolling the center, getting the car to turn well, and the COT doesn't seem to like to do that very much. What are the challenges you face in getting yours to do that?

Carter: The big thing is rolling the center at Martinsville, and turning. Trying to make all that happen with the bump-stop package or the coil-bind package is a little bit more of a challenge. It's just a matter of getting your car better than the other guy's. That's the main complaint against the COT right now, that it doesn't drive very well. I guess it's the guy who has his driving better than everybody else.

Q: When you put a setup on the COT, do you have a conservative approach because of the way NASCAR has approached any incremental interpretation to the rules?

Carter: We're definitely trying to keep that in mind, because the penalties today are pretty big. We just do what we can do and stay within the rules.

Q: Jamie missed the Chase by a little bit this year. Does that enter your mind during the race?

Carter: Not really on race day, so much. Before the Chase, it did every week. We just try to go out and do the best we can do every week, try to win some races. We had some bad luck, crashed some cars and things. I think, overall, the team has performed pretty well this year.

Q: Roush Fenway Racing seems like it's on an upswing right now. How is the mood in your shop?

Carter: I think it's pretty good. We've seen things kind of turn around for us, we've gotten a pretty good handle on our cars right now and they seem to be driving better. We're just trying to keep getting better.

Q: If you had to boil all you do as a crew chief down into one thing, what would that be?

Carter: It's pretty much like I tell a lot of people. It's like being a head football coach. There's a lot of personnel, a lot of motivation, a lot of working with people and keeping those guys working together, working with the driver and keeping his head on and give him the thing he needs. You're kind of like a big support person for the group.

Q: There are 12 drivers in the Chase and 31 who aren't. How much of a difference is there between those teams and the ones who aren't in it?

Carter: There is a little bit of difference. Those guys in the Chase, in the top 12, at the end of the day, when you do the average of week in and week out, those are the guys that are fighting for the win every week.

There are a handful of guys outside of the Chase that are good race teams, but because of the way the ball bounces, just didn't quite get it done. They're still good race teams.