THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, March 28, 1995 TAG: 9503280398
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
As NASCAR heads to the wind tunnel today for the first comparative tests in the history of the sport, the worst nightmare for the Ford teams is that the results will show little difference between their Thunderbird and the all-powerful Chevrolet Monte Carlo.
Many Ford team members, convinced that the Chevys have an aerodynamic advantage, refuse to believe that the results might be the same for the two makes.
``Feed that stuff to some other mule. I'm not buying that,'' said Bill Ingle, crew chief for Ricky Rudd.
Others, however, are not so sure.
``The worst-case scenario for me would be to find that the GM teams were all better than the Ford teams - that they worked harder over the winter; that the Monte Carlo is not a better car than the Thunderbird,'' said Jack Roush, who fields Fords for Mark Martin and Ted Musgrave.
And a lot of Chevy folks are almost expecting the wind tunnel to show just that.
``I think there's a good chance when you put the cars in the wind tunnel, you're not going to see much difference,'' said Joe Gibbs, who owns the Chevrolets driven by Bobby Labonte.
The unprecedented tests start today at the Lockheed wind tunnel in Marietta, Ga., and conclude Wednesday at the GM wind tunnel in Warren, Mich.
The Chevrolet Monte Carlo of Darlington race winner Sterling Marlin, the Ford Thunderbird of Derrike Cope and the Pontiac Grand Prix of Bobby Hamilton survived Sunday's wreck-filled TranSouth 400 and were selected to represent the three makes in the tests.
The wind-tunnel tests exemplify NASCAR's growing willingness, under the leadership of Winston Cup director Gary Nelson, to master the technical issues that affect race-car performance.
In the past, NASCAR officials made changes after listening to the arguments of the various manufacturer's officials. If you needed a change, you presented your case over a period of time, waited for NASCAR to see the need for the change and then hoped that you got at least part of what you asked for.
In fact, one of the more common arguments heard from Ford drivers was that the Chevy teams had obviously done the better politicking over the winter.
The NASCAR tests will give Nelson hard data to use to change rules.
But even if the tests show significant differences between the three makes, there are more elements at work than aerodynamics.
``If you pull the Hendrick (Motorsports) teams out of the equation, then it's pretty even,'' Steve Hmiel, Martin's crew chief, said Sunday.
The three Hendrick teams (Jeff Gordon, Ken Schrader and Terry Labonte) have clearly been building momentum. And one of the things Hendrick does that none of the Ford teams do is build its own custom chassis. It's possible that the Hendrick Chevys are beating the Fords, and outperforming most of the other Chevys, because they've found some chassis secrets through their own development.
Jimmy Johnson, the Hendrick racing general manager, does not dispute this. ``Yes,'' he said. ``The chassis is a big part of it.''
But he cited tremendous improvement in the quality of support from General Motors engineers as a key factor in the overall improvement of the Chevy teams.
``Chevrolet's cooperation this year is more helpful than they've been in the past nine years that I've been here combined,'' Johnson said. ``They committed this year to do what Ford committed to do two or three years ago when they really starting kicking our butts. Before, it had not been that way.'' by CNB