NASCAR Media Conference: 2006 NASCAR Competition Update

Topics:  NASCAR

Wayne Auton
Joe Balash
John Darby
Robin Pemberton
February 14, 2006

THE MODERATOR: I'd like to introduce the panel for the 2006 NASCAR Competition Update. First I'd like to introduce vice president of competition, Robin Pemberton; our NASCAR Nextel Cup Series director, John Darby; NASCAR Busch Series director, Joe Balash; and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series director, the only guy besides me and Bill France who has been around that long, Wayne Auton.
I think probably what we ought to do first today is hit things head on because we do have members of the media here. I guess first thing first, I'll ask the first question for you guys. Can you explain the penalties that were imposed as a result of post-qualifying inspection.
JOHN DARBY: The easiest way I guess or the clearest way to do this is to split the two penalties because there's two completely different situations that surround the two cars that were involved.
The first one is pretty simple. The 96 car that Terry Labonte was driving had some carburetor modifications that are not allowed at a restrictor plate race. From what we've investigated, what we really and truly feel, there was an error made in the engine shop as that car was produced. The modifications to the carburetor are something that are permissible at all other the tracks that we run except Daytona and Talladega with the restrictor plates.
Quite frankly, the modification done to the carburetor is more to enhance fuel economy than it was performance. Understanding qualifying is only two laps, and it's not really a concern of the teams to try to save fuel on those two laps, but ultimately to get the most speed out of the car. That carburetor kind of falls into, yes, the piece is incorrect, so we have to react as we normally do. But as far as the intent to circumvent the rules, we don't believe that was there. That one is pretty cut and dry.
The 48 car, the difference is, there isn't necessarily an illegal part that we can hold in our hand from the 48 car. It was a procedure that the team had worked on and developed to circumvent the template fit from the time the car was inspected prior to qualifying and having the ability to change that fit before the car actually went onto the racetrack.
There's adjustable components in the rear of all of the race cars. There's a right wedge bolt, left wedge bolt and what they call a track bar. The track bar is responsible for holding the rear-end centered in the car and doesn't move. As the teams adjust that up and down, it affects the car being looser or tighter, okay? All said, all done with the track bar being like it is, it's a very valuable tool to the teams. It's used every race. It's completely aboveboard, in the parameters of the rule back.
With the addition of a locking collar on that adjustor bolt, however, that was positioned to be in contact with the guide tube that is to the back glass, as you adjust the panner bar in a normal fashion, you are additionally pushing the rear window up into the air. That's what was detected on the car. The rear window in the right side lower area of the windshield was raised significantly. That's a very aerodynamic, sensitive area of the race cars.
Anything that you can do to raise the rear window in there essentially diverts air away from the spoiler. As everybody here well knows, Daytona and Talladega is all about aluminum parts. It's the little aluminum plate that sits under the carburetor. It's the big aluminum spoiler that sets on the back of the trunk. We use those in an effort to control the speeds of the cars to keep the race cars and the racing as safe as we can.
With that, we're pretty sensitive about procedures that try to detract from that.
THE MODERATOR: I think I'm going to open it up to questions from the media, while we're on the subject of the penalties, if anybody has any questions.
Q. Can you define the severity of the penalty? Had so many callers about Chad being ejected from the track and whatnot.
JOHN DARBY: In all penalties, we try to look at each individual situation on its own merits. We try to stay consistent with penalties from previous situations of the same type and kind.
If you'll remember, I think it was October of last year, a similar situation created the same type of a penalty where a crew chief was ejected from an event. This just follows in line with that.
Q. John, has there been a decision made on whether that team will be allowed to use that car in the 150s and the 500 or will that car be disallowed?
JOHN DARBY: The team will be able to use the car once the car is returned back to the shape and configuration and state that it should be. In other words, basically Wednesday morning, the first function of the 48 team will be to repair the automobile and bring it back into specifications as it was before the situation happened.
Q. Robin, is it likely that you guys are going to, sometime after the Daytona 500, is there going to be more penalties coming down on this situation?
ROBIN PEMBERTON: We'll get back to Concord, as we always do, we'll sit down Monday and address that and any other infractions we had this week. But more than likely, it's going to get some more discussion. We got time.
Q. What can be done to limit the crew chiefs from committing all these infractions? Obviously, the occurrences are happening more and more where they're being caught.
ROBIN PEMBERTON: Can you repeat the question, please?
Q. What else can be done to stop them from cheating?
ROBIN PEMBERTON: You know, every time these infractions happen, I mean, it's the reason we have 65 inspectors over there. You know, we try to stay consistent, keep our guys on their game. We'll elevate the penalties as time goes on. You know, there's a lot out there for the crew chiefs to go after. Big money, nice trophies. They'll never stop doing it. We'll have to work just as hard to stop it.
Q. Exactly how did you catch the infraction? What went into catching it? Does that put you on the lookout to check that area on the other teams also?
ROBIN PEMBERTON: Well, I think it was an observation by one of our inspectors. They look at all the cars as they come back off the racetrack. It was an observation on one of our inspectors that they didn't think that that car looked like it should have. As we inspect, as everybody knows, we inspect numbers of cars post race, post qualifying. We change it up all the time. We have randoms that we use. We could take 10 or 15 cars if we wanted to. We change up the inspection process quite a bit from week to week just for different violations like that.
Q. John, Chad Knaus had a penalty last year and pushed the rules a couple other times last year. How much did his previous record have to do with the reaction this time?
JOHN DARBY: I mean, we're aware of Chad's past penalties. Is it a topic of conversation as we meet with a penalty? Yeah, but probably pretty briefly. It's much easier for us to address each penalty situation on its own, with its own merits.
But along with that, I mean, it's like -- it's not that much different than the world we live in. A first-time offense for somebody is a lot of times treated a little softer than a multiple or somebody that has a history.
Q. John or Robin, how will you all address how they were able to do what they did to the car? I mean, if the car had fit the template in post qualifying inspection, you would not have known that they had used any type of device or done anything like that. What steps will you all take to see that something like that doesn't happen?
JOHN DARBY: It's pretty simple. That's why we have prequalifying inspections or prerace again, and why we have post.
From our standpoint, what we look for is more of an explanation of if this car was in this configuration and passed all its specifications here at this time, and from that time it traveled down pit road, ran two laps on a racetrack, came back into the garage, obviously didn't roll over, didn't hit a wall, wasn't involved in a crash, and came back through post race inspection, why is it different, okay?
At that point, the onus is put on the team to make us understand why it's different. When a reasonable explanation is not offered up, then it's very easy to assume the obvious. You know, the car passed here, it doesn't pass here. It's all very clean, black and white facts, we go on.
Q. Robin or John, whoever wants to answer this, this may be more of a philosophical question. When you have a car or 58 cars here trying to get into the race, and 23, whatever the number is, are going to have to go home, you have a team that's basically obviously trying to circumvent your rules, could you address the fairness maybe of making that car go home and letting one car that actually does play by the rules get into the race?
JOHN DARBY: Robin touched on racheting up penalties. Penalties are such that they need to be severe enough to deter either the individual that received the penalty, and more importantly the rest of the garage participants, to put them in a mindset that the penalty is severe enough that you don't want to gamble with.
We will continue to rachet up the penalties until we get that message across. Yes, your point is valid. The teams in the top 35s actually have a little bit more room to move or to manipulate rules because they know that ultimately they're in the starting lineup. There may be some merit to that, which is why we feel strongly enough to invoke emergency action to remove the individual from the event, and we'll continue to rachet that up.
Q. Since a lot of us won't get a chance to talk with Chad, what was their defense? What was the reaction as you ejected him from the track, the activities, I should say, for the 600? Since I deal in talk radio, the people that don't like that team call in one thing, the people that do call in the other. Does he cheat more than other teams or is he just getting caught more?
JOHN DARBY: Obviously, the 48 team is a very competitive race team in our garage. There's a huge, huge part of every race team's agenda that the more aggressive you can be in your approach to competition, the better your results will be.
Where we have to or the team needs to manage through a little bit better is where that aggression needs to stop or where the aggression turns into concerns that are outside the box of what the rule book allows for all the competitors in the garage, okay?
We've got the 48 team, and Chad specifically is not the only crew chief in the garage that has received a penalty from NASCAR in his career. I think it would be more fair to say there's probably more that have than haven't. Each time the penalty is given out by NASCAR, the team reacts to it or absorbs the penalty and we go on to the next week. That's part of the process.
If anything, it's a barometer of how tight and how hard it actually is to compete in the Nextel Cup Series because, as teams get better and better and better every year, individuals on teams continue to look for that one little margin that may give them an advantage over the team that's housed next to them in the garage, it just gets tougher to find.
Sometimes you have to be a little bold. Sometimes you think you need to try to be a little bit more aggressive than the rest of the competitors. The key to that, though, is always staying inside that box.
Q. And the reaction from Chad? Did they have a defense? Did they say, "We understood, we whatever"?
JOHN DARBY: Well, obviously we had meetings with Chad up in my office, the trailer, with the door closed. I think you know how that works.
THE MODERATOR: That means he's answered that question, I think (laughter).
Q. Robin, there's a lot of talk the other day about the bump-drafting after the shootout. Obviously it's not a new topic. It's something that drivers complained about in the past. Is there anything that can be or will be examined that can be done short-term this week? Will you guys be taking a closer look at what happens in the duels? What's the next step long-term on this area?
ROBIN PEMBERTON: Well, long-term, we're looking at some different bumper configurations in the R&D center now. It's obvious that we can't do that right now. Our goal is to not take away any part of the safety of the cars. So when we make that change, they'll have to be at least as safe as they are now and absorb the same energy. We just may have to reconfigure the bumpers where when you do bump-draft, it might disturb the nose or bend it permanently where you'll lose your aero advantage.
Let's see. I think what we are going to do over the remainder of the week here as the races unfold is we'll probably have some -- we may have some zones that we post some added officials in where we might be forced to make a call of a bump-draft that is unnecessary. You know, the straightaways obviously don't appear to be a problem, but we're working on it. We've talked to some of our competitors about some of the problems. We may be put in the position that we have to make some calls that we really don't want to make. But we'll have to get through the week doing it that way, I think.
Q. Will you start doing that with the twins, posting officials? Are you going to be putting extra officials?
ROBIN PEMBERTON: We're going to start as soon as they start racing again. It will be the duels, it will be truck, Busch, Cup. Any time they're out there. Hopefully we won't have to make that call. It's not a call that's going to be fun to make. Hopefully the drivers will remember they are in control.
Q. Talking about penalties, how they're enforced, handed out. Normally they're big fines, sometimes points, sending people home, probation. Is there a level right now within your mind, though, that you would say, "This infraction is so egregious that you would send teams home, the whole team, you have to sit out this number of races?" Do you already have a line that if you cross this, that could be the ultimate penalty?
ROBIN PEMBERTON: I don't think we've got a line that we think that's too much. Yeah, we look at -- I know people think that the penalties sometimes are inconsistent, but there's a lot of thought that goes into the penalties and how we write them.
It's prerace, it's prequalifying, it's post qualifying. It's where we are racing at and different things. The beauty is we've got road courses and short tracks and superspeedways that we have to write penalties for.
We'll continue to rachet up, but we don't want the driver or the sponsor or someone who is not responsible for this action to pay the price. We owe it to the fans to have those cars out there, to have those drivers out there. So if a mechanic makes a mistake, the mechanic needs to pay the price for it. Just like if a driver is out there and they're not doing the right thing, we have to bench somebody, that's happened in the past, so we're not going to send the whole team home just because of one or two individuals.
Q. Joe and Wayne, is bump-drafting a factor at Daytona for your series? If so, is it as much of a problem as it is in Cup at this point?
JOE BALASH: At this point, yes, bump-drafting is a factor with the Busch cars. We'll be taking the same close look that John's taking a look at with what's going on out on the racetrack because it is an issue with us, as well.
WAYNE AUTON: We haven't been on the racetrack yet. As Robin said, we're going to instruct our drivers, crew chiefs and owners as we do our drivers meetings later on in the week that we will look at the zones that Robin is talking about the officials around the racetrack.
Q. Robin, you mentioned you might have to make a call. Can you explain maybe what that call might be? Also, can you address Tony Stewart's comments the other day where he said that somebody is going to be killed if the racing continues like this?
ROBIN PEMBERTON: Well, the call, I mean, we might have -- it might be a pass-through as far as coming down pit road on the call. It could be anything, stop and go. You get repeat offenders or something, you could park somebody. This is a serious matter.
Everybody's got to remember, we don't drive those things. There's not a person in here that I think drives 'em. The drivers are in control. They've got pedals in there that they can push and steering wheels they can turn. To leave it in our hands, when we're not out there, they're going to get -- they may get a call that they didn't bargain for, just like the pit road rules and everything else we've done over the years, the yellow line rule. Those are things that we've done. We have to enforce.
Now, on Tony Stewart, Tony is a competitor and Tony gets keyed up. Tony five minutes after a race and Tony two hours after a race, you know, like all the drivers, are two different things. He's a champion, he's a two-time champion. He's our defending champion. We respect all of our competitors. We listen to them. We've had conversations, not just about -- about bump-drafting and how we can go forward, fix it for the next race.
You know, all of our guys, I mean, they've got everybody's ear and we've got to listen to them. They're out there. They're our only feedback. We know what bump-drafting does. We don't know how rough it is until the drivers actually come in and complain about it. Tony is a good guy and we'll always listen to him.
Q. Talking about the yellow line situation, what was going on with Carl Edwards? He claimed he didn't overtake anybody and it was avoiding an accident. We never heard the whole story from your side.
ROBIN PEMBERTON: Well, that one situation, you know, we had the call going into three. That was a no-brainer. The call I think he's complaining about, there was cars getting ready to pit. He was in a situation that it didn't need to be in. It wasn't just that Carl put himself in that situation. You know, we feel like the team didn't do a very good job communicating to Carl that those teams were getting ready to pit.
As we're up in the tower, we listen to all those conversations, we know when everybody is going to pit when they say it. It's up to them to be organized enough to help Carl make those decisions. It was obvious to us that he didn't.
The problem that we had after that was actually the fact that Carl didn't want to come down pit road when we told him to do his pass-through. We had one of those talks with Carl after the race. We listened to what he had to say, and he had some points.
But the bottom line is, it's the shootout, it's not a points race. It's a good time for all of us to get up on our game, you know. It isn't just the driver. We've got spotters on both sides of the racetrack. Everybody needs to be paying attention because if that was the 500, there's no telling what could have happened.
We just want to bring it to everybody's attention, those situations, and try to keep them from happening.
Q. Mr. Darby and Mr. Pemberton, the original purpose of that sleeve was to guide the rachet extension safely to the adjusting bolt, is that correct?
JOHN DARBY: Yeah, that's correct. In watching any race on race day, during pit stops, you'll see the teams with either a rachet and a long extension or a special-made tool that they'll very quickly slip into a hole and adjust the race car.
The tube that connects to the -- right underneath the glass, transfers down to and actually houses the adjusting bolt is a guide. As they're performing a pit stop and they go to make a very quick adjustment, it enables the crew member to hit the top of the adjusting bolt with accuracy and very quickly.
Q. Going back to the bump-drafting deal a little bit. The zones that you're going to put out there with extra officials, would I be correct in assuming that's probably going to be in the turns rather than in the straightaways? Is this the basic problem with bump-drafting now, they're hitting in the turns, from the sides, causing problems that way?
JOHN DARBY: You're picking up very quickly. Obviously, bump-drafting is not new. It's something that has evolved over many, many, many years. Some of the most exciting modified races that we watch in New Hampshire hold a great quantity of bump-drafting that actually enhances the excitement of the race. But as that transfers to the stock cars and on a speedway as large as Daytona and Talladega, with the cars running as closely together as they are, so on and so forth, a bump-draft in the right timing, in the right place, is not the worst thing in the world.
But as it evolves and has now evolved to the point here where you may change the term "bump-drafting" to "slam-drafting" because the hits continue to get harder and harder and harder, and as the bold get bolder, it transfers from not only down the back straightaway or in the short chutes over here on the front side, but actually where we witness cars trying to bump-draft in the center of the corners.
With that being said, there's a lot of times where a line may have a huge run, a lot of momentum that's going to carry them into a corner. It's almost impossible to keep from rolling up with that momentum and bumping the car. We understand that these no zones, as we go forward with attempting to control the bump-drafting in those areas, there's going to be some very subjective calls being made. That's the reason we would like to get this underway as quickly as possible because if we can establish it in the twins, and hopefully we don't have to make a call, but if we do make a call in a twins, it wouldn't be quite as severe as making that same call in a Daytona 500.
We're going to work with the competitors. To echo the comments that Robin has, the drivers have that ultimate control. We've just got to establish a forum with them that understands that enough's enough. Every bump-draft will not create a penalty. Every time a car touches another car, it will not create a penalty. But if it becomes very apparent to us that that there is an unnecessary hit, and specifically in one of those no zones, then we will have the ability to react to that.
Q. I know in the past whenever something illegal was taken off a car, it would make its way to the Table of Shame. Is there or is there not something from the 48 car that will be on display starting Wednesday?
JOHN DARBY: There will be Wednesday. There are some parts that through our process we'll see necessary to confiscate from the car. But keep in mind the situation is created through a procedure using legal parts, okay? You understand what I'm saying? I mean, there's a back glass in every car out here. As long as it fits the templates, it's legal.
There's adjustment, panner bar adjustment tubes on every car in the garage. When they're used for what they're intended to be used for, they're perfectly permissible. Yes, you'll see parts and pieces in the back of our trailer. But to look at any one part individually and say, "That's an illegal part," we won't have that ability. It's the procedure that was created through the additional or the combination of the parts that promoted the disallowance at this time.
THE MODERATOR: I think there are 30 cars in one duel, and 28 cars in another duel. Why is there 30 in one and 28 in the other? I was asked that question.
JOHN DARBY: Well, understand, first, this is only our second attempt using the new qualifying format for the Daytona 500. It was put into play last year. Real simply where that comes from is as the entry blank explains, with the type 35 cars, odd point systems, even point systems, it designates which duel they're in. If you're working with 35 competitors, you have one more odd car than you do even. Then to compound the problem, what has happened is we have 23 cars that are outside the top 35.
That odd number, again, presents one more odd car than even. That's where the imbalance came from in the twins. We've talked about it and had some meetings this morning. We will be issuing a bulletin to the entry blank tomorrow morning that will simply give us the latitude to move one of those cars over to balance the field.
Q. There are 400 some media people down here this week, national radio, national television. Everybody that is ever going to cover this sport comes to Daytona. I know I've had five or six interviews this morning about cheating. That's been the topic of discussion. From a philosophical standpoint of NASCAR, is this culture of trying to get by with everything, shading the rule book, playing in the gray areas, what do you think about the message that sends about this sport to the broadest public audience you'll have in the course of a season?
JOHN DARBY: Like many of us, I watch a lot of football games. I see a lot of face masks getting grabbed. I know you're not supposed to do that, okay? I smoke cigarettes, and I know I'm not supposed to do that.
I don't think we're a unique sport. I don't believe we have a unique situation. What we do have is when you compound a team of 20 people, and you add in a machine that has over 5,000 moving parts, right, there's a lot more there to play with.
With that ability, there's a lot more there for us to inspect. There's a lot more rules that we continue to look at. It's a bigger candy jar to reach in. There's more than one jelly bean in that jar.
So much like in the efforts of competition, the intensity of the competition that's in all the NASCAR national touring series, teams are going to look for those opportunities, okay? No different than the block in the back, no different than grabbing the face mask that the ref didn't see because he was behind you, no different than spitting on the baseball, the rest of that stuff.
I think the other unique difference is NASCAR addresses those violations much differently than any other sport. We're not necessarily ashamed of having cork in a bat. We'd rather let the world know and our fans know that the cork was there and here is the penalty because of it. I think that's another difference in our sport.
WAYNE AUTON: One thing to remember, too, is NASCAR racing is a competitive sport, just as any stick and ball sport is today. It's not the teams against NASCAR. It's our job to try and equalize the field. But the team needs to beat the team beside them. That's who they're trying to go after. So the competitiveness of the teams from one to the other, I don't think you're ever going to see it stop.
THE MODERATOR: I might add, part of that, you're absolutely right that the number of media is growing every year, and certainly this is the biggest media audience NASCAR has each year. I think part of what we're trying to do is to educate the media on our sport. The other sports, we're still relatively young, 54 or 55 years old compared to a hundred or more. I think as we educate the media more, particularly media who are newcomers to our sport, I think eventually we will overcome the fact that it seems to be pointed out, like you said, that this happens in NASCAR like it doesn't happen in other sports as people know it today.
If there are no further questions from the media, I would like for our guys, one by one, the media might want to stay for this, but for an example, we've got team reps here, we got track reps here, and what I'd like to do is go through some of the changes that we've made in your particular series for this year so that all of us can get on the same page.
For an example, we have a new testing policy in the Cup. Robin, you or John, want to explain the test policy in simple terms.
ROBIN PEMBERTON: Yeah. It's actually a new test policy across the board for our three national series. It started about eight or nine months ago, 10 months ago, that we started talking about what we can do to help some of the teams that were probably disadvantaged because they only had maybe one car or two cars in their stable.
What we've done is the Nextel Cup Series will test six times this year. Those six tracks were Daytona, Vegas. It will be Richmond, Indianapolis, Lowe's and Homestead. Those tracks were picked by the competitors. We polled the competitors during the summer to see the places that they would most likely like to test at. We did it numerous times, pared it on down. They picked those racetracks.
Along with that, obviously, the truck and -- the truck is a little bit different, and Wayne will tell you about that, and the Busch is a little pared down from those six tests. But along with those tests, it helps us go into -- it goes part and parcel with the tire lease program.
The teams will not be able to get tires, current tires, at any other place other than the racetrack, and the racetrack that we are holding an event at, such as this week, and the tests that we conduct during the season. So all of that is an effort to close the gap between the have's and the have not's. It's hopefully to bring the competition a little bit closer. It's just an all-out effort with all the series to try to help some of the smaller teams not get -- not be disadvantaged by the larger teams. Last year, some of them could test 75 days under last year's policy. That's about where we're at on that.
THE MODERATOR: Robin, as I understand it, to keep track of the tires, we have a tire implant device now?
ROBIN PEMBERTON: Yes. It's an RFID we can read, just like it works at the grocery store. We log our tires in and out at the Goodyear stores at the events. The teams can still pass tires back and forth. They can still trade 'em out, you know, if they get certain codes that they want or whatever may be. So all of that is still the same.
The teams have to -- they are charged with the responsibility to return those tires that they use for the event back to Goodyear before their rigs are even allowed to leave the premises. That is just to keep the tires from getting out.
THE MODERATOR: Joe.
JOE BALASH: The thing I can echo of that with the testing, although we have a limited amount of testing in the Busch Series, away from the racetrack at each event, we've added an additional 30 minutes of practice for the rookies. That way the rookies still get track time on each and every track that we go to to help build the experience base they need to compete in each race.
Along with that, as far as changes for the Busch Series, we've tried to keep as many things as we could constant within the series to help the teams control the cost that it takes to run each and every week. The only other significant change that we have, and I think Wayne also parallels with that, is we have reduced the diameter of the outlet neck on the fuel dump cans to slow the speed of the fuel dump can by approximately a second.
WAYNE AUTON: As far as the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series goes, our tests and policy is we did a two-day test -- excuse me, a three-day test here at Daytona in January. Then we're going to do a test at Lowe's Motor Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway the day before we open the event. Teams will be allowed to bring their rigs in, their whole teams in. We'll take them through a partial inspection before we approve them to go on the racetrack. They're allowed to bring two trucks with them to that test, but they only get one garage stall.
We have advised the crew chiefs of that today. With Lowe's Motor Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway making an announcement that the configuration of the racetrack is going to change, it turned out to be the two good racetracks we could go to. The Truck Series, we're on four sets of tires per event that they can utilize any way they want to. As soon as they come in, they unload four sets of wheels, the tires were mounted on it, and those tires also at the end have to be turned in and checked in before the haulers are allowed to leave.
Here at Daytona with the extra practice day, the 36 trucks that make up the field for the race will be allotted a fifth set of tires. We also had a 30-minute practice for the rookies at all the 25 races this year. The races that we run later in the year with the Nextel Cup, which makes it great for the series, everybody says we got the old series, but we got 16 rookies signed up, to my knowledge, for Rookie-of-the-Year. We're going to have a lot of trucks out on the racetrack during that 30-minute practice. The teams are allotted a set of tires for their rookie teams to run for that 30 minutes. That's the only time they can use that set of tires.
Some changes that we made here for Daytona. We have put a right side glass in the trucks. We have extended the side skirts on the trucks. We've opened up the (inaudible) flaps after Rick Crawford early in the race last year got upside down. It was actually the first truck by itself had ever been upside down. We went to work with engineers, with our R&D center, went and spent a lot of time in the wind tunnel, and felt like it was time to step up the program to that area. Hopefully everything that we've done is going to definitely make the racing better.
We've got 42 trucks on the ground. We started inspections this morning. It's probably going to be the best field of trucks that we've ever had.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks, John, Robin, Joe, Wayne. Appreciate you taking the time. Also thanks to the members of the media. You guys are done for the day as far as this is concerned. I'm sure you have plenty to do.