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Ford Technical Support Center takes on bigger role with limited testing

Photo courtesy of Ford Motor Company

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Most NASCAR drivers spent the bulk of last week’s Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour presented by Technocom seated in front of a microphone fielding questions from the media.
 
Chris Buescher spent his turning laps at Dover International Speedway.
 
The 22-year-old wasn’t ignoring NASCAR’s limited testing policy for 2015. Instead, the Roush Fenway Racing driver completed nearly an entire race in Ford Racing’s full motion platform simulator during the media tour’s stop at the Ford Technical Support Center in Concord, North Carolina.
 
"Very close to 200 laps, very close," the NASCAR XFINITY Series driver said.

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The simulator is the centerpiece of the 33,000-square-foot technology center and is realistic enough that some folks have become ill after sliding behind the wheel.
 
"We put Robbie Reiser (RFR vice president of competition) in the SIM early on and I don’t think he took it too well," Buescher said. "There are people that have gotten sick. It’s a different motion, a lot of movement. The screen is constantly moving. Especially if you wreck, when you get into that position it gets a little crazy."
 
But it’s a bit more than fun and games. For teams, the highly advanced piece is the next best thing to turning laps on an actual track, and can be used to assess setups for each of the tracks on the NASCAR schedule — from superspeedways to short tracks, road courses to intermediates. For drivers, it’s also an opportunity to log laps and become familiar with the nuances of each venue. It’s also one place where weather is never an issue.
 
With NASCAR limiting testing for the 2015 season, such opportunities are more crucial than ever.
 
"The biggest help for me is just more seat time," Buescher said. "Last year before Watkins Glen … myself, (teammates) Trevor (Bayne) and Ryan (Reed), were able to get on the simulator and run some laps leading up to the road races. And that’s one of the places that I think it works the best, at this moment."
 
It should be noted that Buescher went on to win the XFINITY Series race a short time later at Mid-Ohio for his first career victory.
 
Officials said nearly every track would eventually be programmed into the system.
 
"I think that the ovals will come along … we’re making huge steps in that area but it’s still rather new technology," Buescher said. "… I think they were saying that the F1 teams, once they came out with this technology, it took them three to four years to really get it to where it was perfect. … Now that the technology has come so far, we expect our learning curve to be quicker than that. But still, certainly there’s a way to go."
 
Other tools available to all Ford teams at the center, which has been operational for less than one year, include three additional "rigs" used to fine-tune, test and measure specific areas of a race car.
 
The center also boasts a small theater where engineers from Ford as well as the Ford teams can gather to watch practice, qualifying and races with feeds that include live timing and scoring and the ability to sort and retrieve data almost instantly.
 
"Our plan is to use this facility for more than just NASCAR development," said Raj Nair, Ford Group vice president for global product development. "We want to make the tools and resources available to our teams across many of the racing series we compete in."
 
As for Buescher, win No. 2 can’t come soon enough.
 
"Absolutely," he said. "Getting that first one out of the way was huge for us. Now we are just looking forward to 2015 and adding on to that list. We need to get the second and third one and so on.
 
"I think with our XFINITY Series lineup we have here we should be competing for a championship this year. … Everyone in the shop has been working extremely hard and everyone is ready to get back to racing."
 
The simulator may be incredibly realistic and a tremendous learning tool, he said, but knocking off a few hundred laps here or there "isn’t enough practice through the offseason.
 
"We are ready to get to Daytona."

Posted on by Staff Report

Meet Glenda Official NASCAR Fan Council member of the month

Name: Glenda

Current City: Gulfport, Mississippi

Member since: 2008

Getting to know Glenda

Q. Why did you join the Official NASCAR Fan Council?

"For beginners, my family and I lived in Riverside, California when I was a very little girl. We lived near the race track and my two older brothers worked on the pit crews when the race was in town. My brothers always took me with them while they worked and I fell in love with racing. Til this day it compels me to learn more. So with that being said I am so grateful to be a part of a sport where fans can be interactive in helping change the face of NASCAR, by being a member of the Official NASCAR Fan Council so that we can improve the fan experience. No other sport that I know of can offer a Fan Council membership like this. I was one of the original starting members when the Council began and for that I am proud to be in such an elite council."

Q. What comes to mind when you think of NASCAR? What’s your favorite NASCAR memory?

"Well I am always thinking of NASCAR but what comes to mind is the feeling of the thunder in my chest when the cars go by. The feeling of the bits of rubber hitting your arm while sitting in the seats, the grateful feeling I have knowing I am so fortunate to attend as many races that I have, and to be able to give first-hand information to the council about the races that I have attended. In 201,1 I was able to get into Denny Hamlin’s car as well as talk face to face with him as he signed my purple cowgirl hat. It was exciting to experience behind the scenes activities I was so blessed to be a part of."

Q: Do you have a favorite in any of the following categories?

Driver: "Denny Hamlin"
Track: "Talladega & Phoenix"
Memorabilia: "My signed hat and car by Denny Hamlin"

Q: If you could go to any NASCAR race/track, where would you go?

"Talladega"

Q: Tell us about your family. Do you have children and/or pets?

"I have two older brothers and one sister who all love NASCAR. I have an African Congo parrot named Harley that talks and she can say ‘Boogity Boogity Boogity, let’s go racing boys!’ I have a cat, his name is Denny. I have one son and his wife that have thre boys that are our next future NASCAR drivers!"

Q: What do you like to do in your free time?

"I love woodworking but I collect NASCAR items to add to my 600 plus items in my collection."

Q: What’s your dream car?

"Mustang Cobra"

From all of us at NASCAR, we thank Glenda for her continued support and look forward to hearing from her in 2015!

Posted on by RJ Kraft

With SHR and GoDaddy deals up, this is a big year for Patrick

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MORE: Danica doubts she’ll ever do the double

Entering the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, Danica Patrick is focused on the chance to build off the gains she felt she made last season. Even with that, there is plenty of other buzz around one of the sport’s most popular drivers.



The Stewart-Haas Racing driver has a new crew chief as she enters her third season in NASCAR’s top series. The third season is often the measuring stick for a driver with team and sponsorship deals often coinciding with that length. Coincidentally, Patrick’s deals with Stewart-Haas and her primary sponsor, GoDaddy, are both up at the end of the year.



For her part, Patrick does not desire a change.

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"Stewart-Haas is an amazing team, and I have no issues here," Patrick said during the Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour presented by Technocom. "It’s been the closest thing to family.


"Obviously in the early days of wanting to run NASCAR, I’ve been lucky enough to have a great sponsor like GoDaddy and have the faith of the people around me that I could really name the team I wanted to drive for, and Tony and Gene made it happen, and GoDaddy made it happen. … I didn’t even want to run anywhere else necessarily; I didn’t pick to run anywhere else, and I still don’t."



RELATED: GoDaddy changes Danica, dog Super Bowl ad

Patrick also dismissed any talk of driving a Formula One car. Stewart Haas-Racing co-owner Gene Haas is starting up an F1 team for the 2016 campaign.



Haas sees great value in Patrick and would like to keep her in the fold.



"We’d love to see Danica come back," Haas said. "She’s a big draw, and we want to see Danica’s success as much as anyone does. I think NASCAR wants to see her success. … We’re very fortunate to have someone like Danica here."

While her rookie season of 2013 brought a season-opening Coors Light Pole Award at the Daytona 500, Patrick registered only one top-10 (an eighth-place finish in the Daytona 500), four top-15s and a 27th-place finish in the final point standings. Outside of the Daytona races, she never started in the top 12.



That changed in 2014, when Patrick made several significant strides. She started in the top-12 seven times at a wide variety of tracks (ranging from restrictor plate venues to intermediates to short tracks and road courses). She scored three top-10 finishes, including a career-best sixth-place result at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Labor Day weekend. 

Her average starting position went from 30.1 in 2013 to 22.3 in 2014 and her average finishing position went from 26.1 in 2013 to 23.7 in 2014. And while the end result was a 28th-place finish in the final standings, her overall improvement was not unnoticed.



"The results didn’t show it, but she had speed at a lot of race tracks that she didn’t have at the year before," said Tony Stewart, SHR co-owner, teammate and three-time champion.

MORE SHR: For reigning champ Harvick, pressure is off | Stewart ready to win again


Patrick considers the 2014 season a success, although she acknowledged that her final position in the standings wasn’t reflective of how she felt she had run.



"Progress is the standard," Patrick said when asked about measuring how she is doing in the sport’s top series. "I don’t think the championship standings really reflected what happened last year. There were many, many more times where I qualified in the top-12 or right there in the top-15 and that was a huge step in the right direction. … Restarts were definitely much better, especially when we got the car a little bit dialed in. Overall speed in practice was much better. All I can do is look to those things that I want to improve on and see if they have."

Now it is about taking that next step, where the speed is always there and those top-15s and top-20s become top-10s on a regular basis. And the key person in getting that progress out of the driver of the No. 10 Chevrolet SS will be crew chief Daniel Knost. SHR made a crew chief swap for the final three races of 2014 with Tony Gibson moving over to Kurt Busch‘s No. 41 team, while Knost came over to the No. 10 team with the interim tag.



In their three races together, Patrick averaged a finish of 25.3, with her best result an 18th-place finish in the season-finale at Homestead. The interim tag was removed from Knost’s title this offseason. Like all new pairings, hitting the ground running is easier said than done and Patrick is not blind to that fact.

"I’m sure there will be a little bit of a learning curve but I think we can overcome that sooner than later," Patrick said.



Patrick added that Knost’s background as an engineer is something she is used to and she welcomes the new perspective that comes with a new pit boss.



RELATED: Patrick’s crew chief for 2015 revealed

Greg Zipadelli, a former championship-winning crew chief with Stewart and the Vice President of Competition at SHR, liked what he saw from the pairing at the end of 2014 and said it was important to keep continuity within the SHR organization for Patrick.



"It just seemed like they were working better together," Zipadelli said. "We didn’t want to bring somebody from the outside, that didn’t know our program, didn’t know our tools. We didn’t feel like that was going to be beneficial to her."


Only time will tell if the pairing is the right fit. Eighty-two races into her Sprint Cup Series career, Patrick has yet to record a top-five finish or a win. Could a trip to Victory Lane be in the offing in 2015?



"I can’t guarantee anything," Patrick said. "… I have all the confidence that I need to do it. I definitely believe and know I can win."

Posted on by Staff Report

Veteran driver will pilot No. 44 Toyota full-time, lands sponsor

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TriStar Motorsports announced Tuesday that it has signed veteran driver David Starr to a three-year deal in the NASCAR XFINITY Series.

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Starr returns to the seat of the No. 44 Toyota with primary sponsorship — also signed through 2017 — from Zachry Group, a San Antonio-based construction and engineering firm. The team said it intends to contest the entire 33-race schedule starting in 2015.

"Words cannot express how excited I am to partner up with Zachry Group for the next three seasons in the NASCAR XFINITY Series," Starr said in a release provided by the team. "It will be an honor and privilege to represent a company with such integrity and commitment to their customers, employees and communities where we work."

Starr drove in 14 XFINITY Series races last year — all but one with the Mark Smith-owned team — with a best finish of ninth place at Talladega Superspeedway in May. The native Texan is also a four-time winner in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, where he has 317 starts.

The XFINITY Series is scheduled to open Feb. 21 at Daytona International Speedway with the Alert Today Florida 300 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1).

Posted on by Staff Report

Four-time champion talks about his future plans on FOX

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Four-time premier series champion Jeff Gordon was a guest Tuesday on "FOX & Friends," and he discussed more details of his new job as a FOX race analyst.

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"I am going to do three races this year for FOX and FOX Sports, XFINITY races," Gordon said. "I’m excited to get in the booth and see what it’s like. Who knows what might come out of it?"

Those three races comprise nearly a quarter of the 14 NASCAR XFINITY Series races that FOX and FOX Sports 1 will televise in 2015.

When asked whether he would consider going into the booth full time after handing the reins of the No. 24 Chevrolet SS to Chase Elliott, Gordon reiterated that he’d be ready but knows he has a lot to learn this year.

"I love to travel and I love racing," Gordon said. "I’m always going to be a part of Hendrick Motorsports. It’s not going to be like focused on driving a race car, but I don’t take it for granted. It is going to be tough to do, and we’ll see. We’ll find out this year."

Gordon was on the FOX News Channel morning show in support of new sponsor 3M and its work during National Children’s Dental Health Month.

"This is a new partner of ours this year, 3M," Gordon said. "You think of innovation and technology, you think of 3M, but they also do a lot of great things for charity like Give Kids a Smile. It’s about the American Dental Association, and this Friday is Give Kids a Smile Day where dentists all over the country are going to get involved with giving kids an opportunity to get dental work."

Click here for more information on Give Kids a Smile.


Posted on by Staff Report

Veteran driver will be one of several drivers to pilot No. 32 Ford

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Mike Bliss will be part of the Go FAS Racing lineup for the 2015 Sprint Cup Series season, the team announced on Tuesday.

Bliss will join Bobby Labonte and Boris Said as drivers of the No. 32 Ford Fusion for select races in 2015. His first start for the team will come in the Folds of Honor Quik Trip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 1 (1 p.m. ET, FOX)

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"With the top tier teams expanding, we believe our best strategy is to fill the seat with veterans who have performed well in the past," said team owner Archie St. Hilarie in a release provided by the team. "This helps ensure we maintain a healthy standing in the points as the season progresses. Mike Bliss has proven time and time again that he can be competitive in the Sprint Cup Series, while bringing the car home in one piece, which is crucial for a small organization like us."

The 2002 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion made eight Sprint Cup Series starts last season for both BK Racing in the No. 93 Toyota and Tommy Baldwin Racing in the No. 37 Chevrolet. His best finish was a 35th-place finish at Richmond International Raceway in September.

"I’m really excited to be driving for Archie St. Hilarie and Go FAS Racing in the Sprint Cup Series," Bliss said in a team release. "I’m really thankful for the opportunity to drive the No. 32 and achieving some good finishes that will help solidify the teams position in the point standings for the 2015 season."

The 49-year-old Bliss has made 169 premier series starts with his lone top-five coming in 2004 in the Richmond fall race. For the past seven seasons, he has run a full-time XFINITY Series schedule and will do so again in 2015 for TriStar Motorsports.

Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR Next driver was NASCAR K&N Pro Series Rookie of the Year

A new technical affiliation will offer an extra boost of support for NASCAR Next driver Jesse Little’s 2015 plans.

Team Little Racing and Larry McReynolds Racing announced Tuesday the formation of a technical alliance designed to help the 17-year-old driver’s efforts in NASCAR K&N Pro Series events. The new partnership will provide Team Little with engineering and technical support for its No. 97 NASCAR Technical Institute Toyota, plus LMR personnel for shop duties.

McReynolds — a two-time Daytona 500-winning crew chief, now an analyst for FOX’s NASCAR coverage — has the home base for his shop in Mooresville, North Carolina.

"From the very beginning we have been clear that our mission at LMR is to identify and attract the best young drivers in NASCAR and then surround them with the sponsors, people and technical support that they need to succeed," McReynolds said in a release provided by the team. "Not only do we believe that Jesse is one of the top young talents in our sport, but I have no doubt that this partnership will give Jesse the opportunity to show NASCAR and its millions of fans worldwide just how good this young man is."

Little, the 2013 rookie of the year in the K&N Pro Series East, notched his first K&N victory last season at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He also won the pole position in August at Iowa Speedway in a combined race for both the East and West divisions.

"This is an exceptional opportunity for me and everyone involved in our program," Little said. "To have someone the caliber of Larry McReynolds and his team approach us to join their efforts for 2015 is something we’re very excited about and I am looking forward to working with such a talented group."

Little wound up sixth in the 2014 final K&N Pro Series East standings.

Posted on by Staff Report

Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff reteams with four-time Truck Series champ

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Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff announced Tuesday that it has reached an agreement to sponsor Ron Hornaday Jr. in the season-opening Daytona 500 (Feb. 22, 1 p.m. ET, FOX).

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Hornaday, 56, is returning to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for the first time since the 2003 season finale. The four-time champion in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is scheduled to be the primary driver of The Motorsports Group’s No. 30 Chevrolet this season.

The Curtis Key-owned team announced earlier Tuesday that veteran wrench Pat Tryson will serve as crew chief. Tryson has eight victories as a crew chief in NASCAR’s premier series, the most recent coming with Kurt Busch in 2009 during his tenure with Team Penske.

The sponsorship deal marks a reunion for Hornaday and Smokey Mountain. The tobacco-free smokeless brand backed his Truck Series efforts in 2012 and 2013, and most recently adorned ThorSport Racing’s No. 98 as a primary sponsor for Johnny Sauter in six races last season.

"It’s an honor to have Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff back on board with me in 2015," Hornaday said in a release provided by the team. "Dave (Savoca, company president) and everyone at Smokey Mountain have always been huge supporters of mine and even after our partnership ended in 2013, we continued to stay in touch. To be able to represent their brand as I attempt to make the Daytona 500 is a dream come true for not only Smokey Mountain as a brand, but for me as a driver."

Hornaday ranks as the all-time wins leader in the Camping World Truck Series with 51 victories. His only top-10 finish in the Sprint Cup Series was a ninth-place at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 2001, his only full season at NASCAR’s top level, when he drove for car owner A.J. Foyt.

As a driver with a start-up Sprint Cup team, Hornaday will be required to qualify for the Daytona 500 (Feb. 22, 1 p.m. ET, FOX) on his speed in Coors Light Pole Qualifying or through his performance in the Budweiser Duel qualifying races.

"Everyone at TMG has been working so hard during the offseason to get ready for 2015," Hornaday said. "I know it’s a long shot, but I feel confident in what Curtis has put together. I honestly feel like we have a solid shot at making this race. It takes partners like Smokey Mountain to make this work and I’m going to give it everything I’ve got."

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‘Precise’ pit road system will take some getting used to

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RELATED: NASCAR bulletin details 2015 pit road updates

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series crew chiefs are anticipating a rise in the number of pit road infractions when the 2015 season gets underway later this month, but say they expect those totals to decrease as teams become more comfortable with the new technology used to police pit road.

Until this year, officials located on pit road monitored stops. Now those activities will be captured on video and streamed to a central location where eight officials will review each stop and rule on possible infractions.

"There’s going to be a fair share of penalties, just because the system is so much more precise," said Jason Ratcliff, crew chief for the No. 20 team of Joe Gibbs Racing driver Matt Kenseth. "I think teams are going to be cutting it really close, closer than they were before in trying to find where the edge is within the new officiating system.

"But it’s going to be spot-on. When it says you’re wrong, you’re wrong."

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Violations such as excessive speed on pit road and pulling up to pit (passing a vehicle on the inside) will continue to be handled by officials in the scoring tower. Infractions such as too many crewmembers in contact with the pit service area, crewmembers over the wall too soon and pitting outside the assigned pit box will be policed using the new video system technology.

NASCAR officials met with pit crew coaches and crew chiefs during the offseason to help familiarize them with the changes. Part of the process included detailing which infractions were the most common from the previous year.

Pitting before pit road is open (394 violations) and too fast on pit road (133 violations) occurred the most often. Because those will continue to be monitored by officials in the control tower, those numbers aren’t expected to increase dramatically

One of the biggest concerns for teams is the penalty for crewmembers over the wall too soon. Last season, the infraction was called only 23 times, in part because it’s a judgment call made by officials who often don’t have the best view of exactly where a car is located when crewmen cross the pit wall.

PHOTOS: Go inside the new pit road technology

Crewmen are not allowed to cross the pit wall until their driver is within two pit boxes of his pit stall. The driver whose team violates the rule must serve a pass-thru penalty (when the infraction occurs under green-flag conditions) or restart at the tail end of the field (when it takes place under yellow).

According to results obtained while testing the new system during the final 10 races of 2014, the numbers for that particular violation would have more than tripled.

"That’s a concern for a lot of guys," said Todd Gordon, crew chief for No. 22 Team Penske driver Joey Logano. "The reason we didn’t have a lot of calls for off the wall too soon (before) is because for an official to look back 60 feet and make a call on whether the car is six inches short of the line, a foot short or on the line, it’s so hard for him to do that they would never make it. So a guy could leave a little bit early.

"But that’s the same vision that our crewmembers have to have to know when that car gets to that line. The computers (video) will see that a lot better than the jackman will."

And because the jackman is the first crewman over the wall, Gordon said the onus would be on him to make sure he times his departure just right.

"He’s the first guy the car gets to," he said. "The rear guys come behind the car so they’re waiting for the car to get by; he’s the first guy in line. Those guys have worked pretty hard in how to be explosive off the wall and speed up their time from the wall to outside the car. That’s a piece that’s probably become more important with this new enforcement."

Faster pit stops can improve a driver’s track position, and teams are always searching for ways to get their driver on and off pit road in the least amount of time. Improvements in equipment and more athletic crewmen have sped up the pace tremendously in recent years to the point where a 14-second stop is now considered average.

"We know how important pit road is to results on the race track," said Paul Wolfe, crew chief for the No. 2 team of Team Penske driver Brad Keselowski. "We like to pass cars on pit road if we can, so knowing that we’re going to have equal rules to the guy next to us, that’s exciting for a competitor to know that if we work hard and do our part that we can be rewarded for it."

Rodney Childers, who heads up the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing team of driver Kevin Harvick, said he believes having veteran personnel going over the wall will make a difference.

"I think having experienced guys that have been on pit road a long time, that probably helps you out because they’re more relaxed, more comfortable and feel like they can jump off the wall later and still make up for it," he said.

One thing the new system likely won’t deter is the dispute that often ensues between crew chiefs and officials when a violation is called.

"I think the argument is still going to be there," Ratcliff said. "You know how that is.

"We’re still going to want to see it firsthand. … I think as we see where we made the mistakes and see how it’s going to work and how the system is operating differently than it has in the past, we’ll get a good feel for it and be able to adjust accordingly."

Posted on by Staff Report

Rule book bulletin details procedures for pit stops

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This week, NASCAR issued a bulletin to national series teams with several updates, including the following for pit road procedures.

Updates are highlighted.

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10.11. PIT ROAD PROCEDURES DURING THE RACE
b. Drivers or vehicles may receive service only when they are in their assigned pit box and/or the garage area or at NASCAR’s direction. Should a vehicle pit out of its assigned pit box and begin to remove a wheel/tire(s), crew members, must reinstall those same wheel/tire(s) and re-position the vehicle back within their pit box to avoid a penalty.

10.11.1. CREW MEMBERS
e. Only seven pit crew members will be permitted in the vehicle’s assigned pit box unless otherwise authorized by NASCAR. Additional crew member(s), assigned to servicing the vehicle or not, purposely assisting from an adjacent pit box on the work service side of pit road may be counted towards the seven crew member total.

k. Any crew member interfering with another crew’s pit stop, causing the other team to incur a penalty or not, may incur a penalty.

10.11.5. PIT BOX
b. Each vehicle must stop within the designated lines of its assigned pit box on pit road to be considered "in the box." Once stopped in the assigned pit box, refueling may begin. The fuel handler may continue to refuel the vehicle as it departs and crosses the front line of the pit box, provided any equipment used and/or fuel handler do not cross over the front or side line of the pit box.