 | | Numbers, drivers and even noses have changed in the Truck Series for 2007. Credit: Ronda Greer/NASCAR |
By Dave Rodman, NASCAR.COM
January 14, 2007
05:54 PM EST (22:54 GMT)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Brendan Gaughan felt the first hiccup of the new year in his team's Dodge-to-Chevrolet swap-over when the engine failed in his No. 77 South Point Racing Silverado, just over half-an-hour into Sunday afternoon's test. Gaughan previously shared the pain of the 24 teams still on hand at Daytona International Speedway for the Craftsman Truck Series' final day of Jackson Hewitt Preseason Thunder when morning rain delayed the start until 12:02 p.m. ET. Gaughan was in the top 10 on the early time sheet when his truck's engine erupted, prematurely ending the team's test. Gaughan explained his operation's engine dilemma when he returned to the garage. "We bought engines from someone else to jump start Kroyer Racing Engines' transition to Chevrolets," Gaughan said. "Kevin [Kroyer] has been piecing together parts to find horsepower and do what Kevin does best. "This motor was Round 1 of trying to make it a Kroyer Racing engine. There's no issue with our motors, and we don't doubt them. I believe that Kevin Kroyer builds the best motors in this garage. This is just part of the learning curve in trying to switch back to Chevrolets." Gaughan said there was no questioning his commitment to Kroyer, a former off-road engine builder whose shop is across the driveway from South Point Racing's facility in Las Vegas Motor Speedway's industrial park. Kroyer built the engines for Gaughan's back-to-back NASCAR West Series championships in 2000-2001. "I told the boys it was easy to be a team when you are winning championships, but sometimes it's tough to be a team when you are trying to get there," Gaughan said. "This team has a lot of fun together even in bad times, and this year we are going to make teamwork easy." NASCAR sweeps Chili Bowl Three drivers with NASCAR pedigrees swept Saturday night's Chili Bowl Midget Nationals' A Main in Tulsa, Okla. Two-time Cup champion Tony Stewart won his second Chili Bowl title to go with his 2002 victory by denying Joe Gibbs Racing Cup teammate J.J. Yeley, who was second, and part-time Craftsman Truck Series driver Justin Allgaier, who finished third. Hamilton outnumbered but not out-worked Of the 32 teams in Daytona's garage for the truck test, only two were Dodges, those of Bobby Hamilton Racing. Ken Schrader's crew chief, mechanical engineer Jeff White, explained what Dodge had done in the offseason for its Ram pickup to keep pace with reworked Fords, Chevrolets and Toyotas. "We tried to make it a little more aerodynamic than it was last year," White said. "It was a little draggier and we tried to round [the nose] and make it more aerodynamic without giving up any downforce -- or to try to make it more efficient at creating downforce. "It's what I look at as a 'L over D number' -- how much lift versus how much drag do I get? We didn't gain any drag but we gained some downforce, so it's more efficient at what it does." White said his team had tweaked with setups, getting Schrader's truck from where "it dragged the flywheel to where we just got it off the track, which is where it's running the best, trying to find what I call that magic pitch attitude." He also gave credit to Dodge veteran Joey Arrington's engine program. "Joey Arrington's been working hard on the engine program, and I think we're a little bit better there, as well," White said. "He's got us a program that works for this type of race, where you draft a lot. "You've got to have a good qualifying package but it runs at a different RPM during the race than it does during qualifying." Just trucking Kevin Harvick said that, in addition to his full Nextel Cup program and "about 25" Busch Series races -- both for Richard Childress and in his own cars fielded by Kevin Harvick Inc. -- he would also run some Truck Series races in 2007, in a No. 2 Chevrolet he'd share with youngster Cale Gale, who tested at Daytona, and RCR Cup teammate Clint Bowyer. Harvick said the truck would compete in 12 races. Beating around the Busch Travis Kvapil, the 2003 Truck Series champion who's returning to the series this season to drive the No. 6 Ford with which Mark Martin won six races in 2006, will also diversify with some Busch races. How many and in which numbered car remains to be seen, but Kvapil tested all weekend in a red Dish Network uniform with Busch Series patches on it, indicating he'd be part of another Roush Racing collaboration such as the Ameriquest Mortgage program of last season, in which from one to four Roush Fords -- driven by different men -- would carry the sponsor's signage. Musical drivers, musical numbers Apparently the Wood Brothers/JTG Racing Ford that carried No. 20 last season when Marcos Ambrose drove it will wear No. 09 this season, when it alternately will be driven by Joey Clanton, who wheeled the truck at Daytona, and former Cup and Busch Series veteran Stacy Compton. Aaron Fike tested the No. 1 Red Horse Racing Toyota for the better part of a day before he spun it off the banking and caused enough damage to end the test. Team co-owner Jeff Hammond said the team had a number of other sponsorship inquiries that might cause Fike's truck to wear a number of different identities this season. Hooters Pro Cup champion Clay Rogers wheeled Key Motorsports' No. 40 Chevrolet on Friday, but JR Motorsports' Busch Series pilot Shane Huffman took over the wheel Saturday and Sunday and was marginally quicker than Rogers in both single-truck and drafting sessions. Scott Lynch, 2003 NASCAR West Series champion, tested the Mittler Brothers Racing Ford on Saturday before turning the truck over to Englishman John Mickel on Sunday. After turning 35 laps and sitting next-to-last on the time sheet, Mickel spun the truck off Turn 4 and hit the wall hard enough to end the team's session. Mickel was unhurt in the only serious contact to that point in the test. | 
