Conversation: Matt Borland

Matt Borland was the mechanical genius behind the immediate success of driver Ryan Newman, who won 12 races on the Nextel Cup tour between 2002 and 2005, eight of them coming in one season alone. The crew chief parted with Penske Racing after a winless 2006 campaign, and served a brief stint at Michael Waltrip Racing before joining Haas CNC Racing as competition director in May. Borland, a former open-wheel engineer who turned 35 at California Speedway on Sunday, now oversees the racecars of Jeff Green and Johnny Sauter.

Q: What are the differences between the job you have now, and working on top of the pit box as a crew chief?

Borland: Well, the biggest good difference is that you don't have the weight on you as far as what decisions have to be made during the race, two tires or four tires, things like that. I'm trying to help give both crew chiefs advice, but it's kind of fun to let them carry the stress of the decision. That part is a little different. Basically, I'm just trying to set the direction of what things we need to do, what things we don't need to do. Basically I just help out in any way I can.

Q: As competition director, how much of your focus is on the car, and how much is on the big picture?

Borland: It's 50-50. You're trying to help learn more, do simulations and things like that. We're trying to utilize more and more of the technology and the pieces that we share with Hendrick [Motorsports], and trying to incorporate more of that into the team. Big picture, we need to do that, but we also need to be doing that on a weekly basis.

Q: Do you miss any part of being a crew chief?

Borland: Not necessarily about crew chiefing. I definitely miss all the guys I worked with on the other team. That part, I miss. But as far as sitting up on the box and carrying that stress with you, no, I don't miss that.

Q: You'd think making those spilt-second calls would be an adrenaline rush. How much of it is a competition high, and how much of it is a burden?

Borland: It's both. There's definitely an adrenaline rush, especially when it works out good. But after a while, it can get to where it's just a burden that can wear you out.

Q: You came up with Ryan Newman and the guys on that No. 12 team. Are you still close with them?

Borland: We're still real close. Actually, right before you got here I was just talking to [Newman's crew chief] Mike Nelson. Our birthdays are like two days apart this weekend. We still pick at each other, we still play poker. I still hang out with a lot of those guys.

Q: You and Ryan had so much success together, much of it quickly. Why do you think you clicked so well?

Borland: It was probably just timing more than anything else. He was just at the start of his professional racing career, and I was just getting into NASCAR, and there were some things we were able to take advantage of that a lot of teams hadn't taken advantage of yet. Timing-wise, all that worked out. We're just real good friends, and the whole deal just worked out good.

Q: Were you guys doing things that maybe weren't mainstream then, but maybe are mainstream now?

Borland: Yeah, there were definitely some things going on then that we were able to bring from the Indy-car side of things, and even Ryan was able to bring from sprints and midgets. A lot of that stuff is normal now. But just as well, we picked up on a lot of things from [former Penske crew chief] Robin [Pemberton] and Rusty [Wallace]. Those were things that people called old school, but were things they taught us that we didn't know at the time.

Q: As competition director, what do you do on race day?

Borland: Just try to be there for the guys to bounce ideas off them. Talk about different things, what adjustments should be made. Just basically try to help wherever I can and let those guys make their decision as best they can.

Q: When you stepped down as a crew chief, one of the reasons you cited was a desire to get off the road and spend a little more time at home. Yet we're still seeing you at the racetrack. Have you been able to skip many road trips?

Borland: It hasn't been very many. I'm hoping pretty soon I'll be able to stay back. I'm going to try at least to stay back for one race a month, if I can. But if hasn't worked out yet.

Q: After the penalties we saw assessed to the Hendrick crew chiefs at Sonoma, and with the Car of Tomorrow becoming standard next season, is a crew chief's job tougher than ever?

Borland: Definitely, it's more stressful. The penalties are so high now. It's one thing when you do things intentionally to break rules that are clear. You know that going in, and it's not a big deal. But things that were done that weren't even necessarily against the rules, and you catch a fine like that that's huge, it's definitely stressful. Those guys have to put up with that on a regular basis.

Q: Make you glad you got out of it?

Borland: Oh, yeah. Absolutely.