As NASCAR program manager for Ford Racing, Pat DiMarco knows all about racing rivalries.

But Ford and Chevy have nothing on the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry to which DiMarco, a two-time graduate of OSU (undergraduate and also grad school), is accustomed. DiMarco talked recently about his role in racing these days, as he heads up simulation programs and studies for all of NASCAR's Ford racing teams, and how he still tracks the Buckeyes on the gridiron.

Q: So you are a native of Ohio and attended Ohio State University?

“

When we race once at a track in a season, we learn from what we did wrong and really put ourselves in position for success the second time around at the same tracks. I think we learn from our failures.

”

PAT DIMARCO

DiMarco: I grew up in Cleveland, the suburb of Garfield Heights. I got bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering at Ohio State. From there, I moved up to Ford -- basically for the main purpose of going racing, to get into the racing division.

Q: Are there a lot of race fans at a school like Ohio State?

DiMarco: It's a stick-and-ball sports school, but I would go to Indianapolis for the 500 from when I was about 10 years old on. The first year I went to Indianapolis was the first year they brought the [IndyCar] race to Burke Lakefront there in Cleveland. So that's what got me started. I would go to those two races a year and I just loved it. I got into it and never let go until I got to Ford.

Q: Talk about what you do now with simulation, which seems to have increased in importance in racing in recent years?

DiMarco: I have sort of two roles now, where I'm in charge of the interface between the teams in NASCAR and Ford. I'm the guy on the ground every weekend at the race track. Then I've come up through and I'm also still responsible for our vehicle dynamics and chassis [development] with the engineering department. That's where all of our simulation and element analysis and computer software tools come from -- all the guys who work for me.

Q: How much has simulation changed in recent years?

DiMarco: I've been doing it for 12 years now. And the simulation program I used 12 years ago with the Truck Series was an Excel spreadsheet. You would type in numbers and get some basic balance characteristics of the car and weight transfer, and that's what we used for simulation back then. It was all programmed by ourselves in Excel. It was very tedious.

Now we have software guys who do that for us, and physicists that do all the math equations, and we pull it all together in basically what is the equivalent of a commercially available tool that engineers can buy off the shelf. We provide that to our teams.

Q: Sometimes when race fans hear about simulation, they think of drivers sitting in one of those race simulators -- but you really get most of your usable information from data generated by assets like the seven-post shaker, right?

DiMarco: The seven-post is equivalent to the simulation in that the seven-poster will simulate the car on the race track with the physical components that you're going to run. Simulation uses theoretical and made-up parts that we put into the simulation. We use 'em side-by-side. We rely heavily on the simulation for things that are tried and true. The seven-poster we rely on prototype parts and innovative ideas that we come up with that we can't really run in simulation until we prove them out on the seven-post.

Q: So are you doing now what you envisioned you would be doing in racing back in college, or as a kid?

DiMarco: Every year when I walk into the Brickyard, I walk out to the frontstretch and look up to the seats where I used to sit as a little kid. And then I say to myself, 'You know, I'm very lucky to be here. I'm doing what I wanted to do.' I used to sit up there and look down at all the guys working along pit road and say, 'Man, those guys have the best job in the world.'

And it is the best job in the world if you love what you're doing. If you don't love it, it's not the life for you. It's a lot of travel. I have twin daughters at home who are 5, so that's tough sometimes. But then they get to do some other things when I'm back home that maybe they wouldn't get to do otherwise.

Q: How do you feel about the Ford teams' chances the rest of this season?

DiMarco: Historically, the Ford teams run better as the season goes on. If you go back and look at the number of wins we've had in recent years, we're definitely a second-half-of-the-year type team. When we race once at a track in a season, we learn from what we did wrong and really put ourselves in position for success the second time around at the same tracks. I think we learn from our failures.

Q: So were you a big Ohio State football fan when you were in school?

DiMarco: Yep. I went to every game when I was there.

Q: What years were you there?

DiMarco: I left high school in 1989, so '89 through '95.

Q: Ouch. Those were when John Cooper was coach of the football team, right?

DiMarco: All John Cooper. But he had some good teams. He had a couple of years where he came into Michigan undefeated or close to it, only to have all of us walk out of that game with our heads down.

Q: Now you live in Ann Arbor, Mich., home of the dreaded University of Michigan? Do you ever go to OSU-Michigan games there and wear your Ohio State gear?

DiMarco: Oh yeah. I've done that.

Q: How did that work out?

DiMarco: Not so well. We lost. I walked out early. But I live in Ann Arbor and put out my Ohio State flag proudly every Saturday. It's fun walking around, going to the YMCA and wearing your Ohio State stuff -- and having people stare at you. Well, it's fun doing it now. I wouldn't have done it when Cooper was the coach.

Q: What about the irony of you living in Ann Arbor now? Woody Hayes wouldn't even stop in the state of Michigan for gas in the old days, would he?

DiMarco: Nope. But it works both ways. In fact, one of the guys who used to drive our tech trailer was a die-hard Michigan fan. He wouldn't stop in Ohio for gas or cigarettes or nothing.

Q: So you've got some pretty intense in-house rivalries going on at Ford during the football season?

DiMarco: My boss is a U of M grad and so is his boss, so it's really in-house. It's a good time to be on the Ohio State side in that deal, though.