Posted by Maskat
on September 10, 2008, 6:25 pm
74.44.72.61
TED comes to New Hampshire Motor Speedway with three consecutive top-ten finishes under his belt. He was eighth at Nashville and scored back-to-back tenth-place finishes at Bristol and Gateway. He has moved from 15th in the standings prior to the Nashville race to 13th following last Saturday's race at Gateway.
Will the Toyota teams find any horsepower for the New Hampshire race after NASCAR mandated the smaller spacer plate last week?
"No, I don't think we'll have anything for this week. I know Toyota and TRD are working very hard to regain what we lost. I think we'll see the Toyotas race very similar to how they were at Gateway because there are a lot of similarities between the two tracks. There is a big difference in RPM from the center of the corner to the end of the straightaways. It takes a good handling truck at New Hampshire so that's the only saving grace we have. We'll work on our setup and hope we can make up for it."
What can you do to your truck mechanically to help make up for the horsepower?
"We haven't tried anything really crazy but we have made some little changes. The big thing is we want to get the spoiler out of the air as much as we can. We want to take out as much drag as we can but the trade off there is you lose downforce. That means we'll probably be skating around on older tires. The bigger concern for me though is when we get to some of the bigger tracks like Las Vegas, Texas and Homestead. You'll really see that become a problem at places like that."
Do you like racing at New Hampshire?
"It's not too bad. I like the track and the area and the racing is okay. Handling is important there and you are on and off the throttle which means the driver is a bigger part of the equation. What you really need though is for the second groove to come in. If it doesn't then you have a single file race and track position becomes the most important thing. If it turns out to be like that, pit strategy will be key to getting to the front and I would expect you will see a lot of teams trying something different on pit road to get up to the front."
Have the changes made at New Hampshire opened up the second groove?
"Not as much as I think we were all hoping. It's not like Bristol. I think it's more like when they redid Martinsville a few years back. They wanted to create a second groove there but the changes they made really didn't help too much. You can put New Hampshire and Martinsville in the same category. If they wanted to open up that second groove at New Hampshire I think they would need to go in and add some more banking to the top. That would give us a real second groove and give the drivers another option to make a pass."
TED's New Hampshire Stats: He has seven career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, with three top-five and five top-ten finishes. His best finish was third in 2005. His average starting position is 11.6 and his average finishing position is 9.9. He has completed 1,297 of 1,407 possible competition laps. Also, he led 65 laps in the 2003 event.
This week’s truck: Crew chief Danny Rollins has chosen Chassis # 12 for Saturday’s Camping World RV Rental 200. Musgrave most recently raced this Tundra last weekend at Gateway International Raceway, where he finished in the tenth position. Also, this chassis has been raced at The Milwaukee Mile earlier in the season.
The 2008 No. 59 Team ASE/Harris Trucking Toyota Tundra Pit Crew:
Danny Rollins-Crew Chief
Larry Jarvis-Jackman
Danny Rollins-Front Tire Changer
Jeff Holley-Front Tire Carrier
Josh Martin-Rear Tire Changer
Rob Winfield-Rear Tire Carrier
Chris Taylor-Gasman
Troy Kelley-Catch Can Man
As always,
Maskat
Pest to the best.
Still TED after all these years.
UniTED in '09110
Message Thread:
« Back to thread