Over The Wall

Drivers and their radios

  After we blew a motor on Sunday I had stay late and wait for the motor to be torn down by Nascar because we sat on the pole.  During this time I decided to scan some other teams and listen in on some radio conversations between drivers.  I guess I had no idea how lucky our team was to have a driver who rarely  runs us in the mud.  I scanned about 5 drivers and two guys in particular were dog cursing there team for the way they were running.  It got to the point on one drivers radio that he spun the car out and wanted the crew chief to tell him what just happened and why.  My first thought was, you wrecked you jack ass and its your fault.  Either way, there is no room for radio talk that tears apart a team.  Nothing good comes out of making some one else look stupid over the radio just because your mad at the way your running.  Thats why drivers are paid the most money, because they have the most influence on how the car performs.  If its the crew chief or pit crews that make everything happen then we need to adjust the pay scale.  Everyone wants to take the bows when things are going good but only the good drivers will stand up and tell you it was there fault when things go bad.  I guess its a side of racing I hadn't really seen yet.  During the race the only team I usually listen to is ours.  It definitely opened my eyes.  Its off to Dover. 

Back Up Front

By: Dennis Terry

Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 marked the first race with our new revamped FedEx pit crew and everything went smoothly for the most part.  There were a couple of minor "hiccups" but nothing that our team can't work out with a little more experience together.

The 600 is not the ideal race to debut a new pit crew.  Pit stops are tough because half of your stops are in the daylight and half are in the dark, so you have to adapt to a different level of light on every single stop. 

I'm back to changing the front tires after changing rear tires all of this season.  I actually started my NASCAR tire changing career in 1998 changing rear tires and in 2002 I started changing in the front for Rusty.  I later moved to the front of Newman's team and then on to fronts with Truex last year. 

When the FedEx team went looking for a new guy to change rears last year, I was up to the challenge. But, with our recent pit crew changes my position has taken a different but very familiar path.

I constantly get asked to compare the differences in changing rear tires to changing fronts.  The best analogy that I can give is that you pretty much change fronts in a "right handed mode" and change rears in a "left handed mode".   

In the front you take two steps around the car to your right and in the rear you take five steps around the car to you left.  There is a lot of heat and break dust on the front tires which slow you down and there is the spoiler (or wing) in the rear to slow you down. 

Everything else is pretty much the same, two tires, five lug nuts, twelve seconds... and a ton of pressure to get it right every single time.

DT

Lot's to talk about

  I guess the first thing to talk about was our big win last week in the pit competition.  We finished the night with 4 of the 5 fastest times of night and won the 2007 competition.  It was one of the coolest things that has ever happened to me.  After talking to DT, who was part of the winning team last year, I realized how bad I really wanted it.  It's one of those competitions that's so easy to win but so easy to mess up.  It really takes everyone on the team to make it happened and to do it with no mistakes.  So that started the week out pretty good.

  On to Saturday night.  The all star race was boring as hell to me.  The cars got spread out and there wasn't any real racing.  As much as I like the all star race being in my home town, the racing would be better at Bristol or some other short track.  As far as the pre race intros went, well, I was put on a little bit of probation this year since I almost killed my self last year.  It was still a good time.

Well I guess thats all for now.  Holla back

Darlington Disaster

By: Dennis Terry

It's weeks like this that I wish that I wasn't committed to sharing my racing lifestyle in an online blog.  It's fun writing about my adventures at the track and my philosophy on winning races in the pits, but when you loose races in the pits it makes it very difficult to be devoted to a weekly post.

By now everyone has seen the Sports Center highlights of our pit road mishaps on Sunday and also seen our driver's commentary concerning his disappointment.  It was almost as painful for me to watch the slow motion pit stop on every highlight show as it was for me to experience it first hand. 

I'm a big boy though, and I can take my medicine because I want to win as bad as anyone else. So, I don't have any issues with the driver being disappointed and vocal about it on TV.  When you loose a race on pit road, you should get called out on it.

There are a lot of drivers that finish in 40th place, four laps down each week that blame their pit crews and those guys are just looking for someone to point the finger at.  Denny just wants to see everyone perform up to his level and that's an incredibly high standard.

Darlington is too big of a race and too special of a victory to just give away.

Each week you guys check out this blog and listen to me complain about another third or second place finish and this week is no exception.  We blew it again and we should have won again!

There have been extensive changes to our pit crew because of the lack of chemistry and consistency for the first twelve races of the season.  Some guys have been taken off of the crew and I have been moved to the front tire changer position.

On the eve of the pit crew competition and the week before the All Star race we find our team with four new crew members and two of us have been moved into different positions.

DT

The excuses stop and the winning needs to start

  I guess I'm as guilty as anyone in this category but all the teams competing on Sundays need to stop crying and start winning.  Denny Hamlin has been all over his crew this week about there performance during the race.  He said they gave another win away to Hendricks and that it has to stop.  We had a chance in Phoenix to win and we messed it up on pit road.  The difference right now is that Hendricks is not making the mistakes that other teams are making and there putting them selves in a position to win every week.  There have been plenty of teams capable of beating the Hendrick cars but we all seem to step on our foot when its crunch time.  Hendricks doesn't.  Forget the caution theory and start finishing races and all the other teams can stay with the Hendricks cars.  Its not just the driver any more that has to be good, its the crew, the set up, the mechanics, etc.  The competition is so close right now that you cant afford to over look any aspect of your team.  Making excuses each week wont get you to victory lane, but a solid team effort will. 

  The pit crew competition is tomorrow night in Charlotte and it should shape up to be a good night.  The brackets are out and everyone in the first round knows who they are going up against.  The format is a little bit different this year but mostly the same as last year.  We have a good team and I hope we do well.  We match up against the 44 car in the first round due to the points position that each of us are in.  I haven't seen much of there team so I cant tell you how we match up but it should be a good heat.  Its single elimination so there is no room for mistakes.  First year we finished 3rd and last year we finished 7th.  Ill let you know Thursday how we do.  Holla back.

Bold Move by Teresa Earnhardt?

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By: Dennis Terry

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Is maintaining 100% control of DEI in Teresa’s best interest or would retaining NASCAR’s biggest superstar no matter what the costs be best financially???

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No matter how loyal you are to Jr. and Sr. you have to accept the reality of the business and that DEI’s sole ownership is in Teresa’s hands.  A lot of people are saying that Dale built DEI for his kids, I don’t know if that’s true or not, but the fact remains that after Dale’s death Teresa legally received 100% ownership. 

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There was no will or any other legal documents that stated that DEI was to be divided among his siblings… not that I’ve heard of anyway.

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So, the fact remains that DEI is Teresa’s company to run as SHE sees fit. 

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Teresa got his company, Jr. got his name and both are working to make the best of what the Intimidator left for them.

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I realize how interesting it is for fans and the media to romance about a grand DEI legacy that will be operated by one big happy Earnhardt family of brothers and sisters, but in the real world, families never really get along anyway so I doubt that a family DEI would be any different.

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DEI is what Dale left to Teresa and she is running the company the way she thinks is best.

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Teresa is not going to just give away half of a $75 million company because Jr. threatens to leave, she is doing what is in her best financial interests.

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Or is it?

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Do you think Teresa would have benefited more by giving away half of DEI to keep Jr.? Or will she be more financially secure by retaining sole ownership no matter who her driver’s are?

DT

Confidence is never a bad thing

  Last week at Richmond was a good week for us. We finally finished where we were running and didn't do something boneheaded to mess it up.  We didn't have a top 5 car but we definitely had a top 10.  Heading into Darlington I feel we have a good chance at a good finish.  We have always done well there and hopefully we can keep it up.

  Now onto some other news that bothers me.  If Dale Jr. leaves DEI Teresa E. should be up for idiot of the year.  DEI is struggling as a company this year and Jr. is the biggest draw in the sport.  Why in the hell would you let him go else where and take another driver with him.  Like it or not you need to keep the money man in the shop.  Just a thought but it was worth mentioning.  Holla back.

Budweiser & Clean Underwear

By: Dennis Terry

Another third place finish for our FedEx team this weekend moves us up one spot into fourth in the point standings. 

NASCAR is filled with "if's & buts", so I'm going to add mine. "IF" we had raced on Saturday night Denny's car would have been much, much stronger....  BUT we raced on Sunday and third is still respectable considering how competitive the top teams are this year.

Rain outs at Richmond aren't too bad for pit crews because it's only a 45 minute flight from home.  After the race was cancelled on Saturday night we were able to fly back home instead of piling into hotel rooms and fighting over new socks and clean underwear at the local Wal-Mart!

The rain delay also gave all of the Jr. fans time to finished off their Budweiser cache before Sunday's race ended.  As a result, Jimmy Johnson didn't receive the same beer can pelting that highlighted Gordon's win at 'Dega last weekend! 

That may be a better strategy for Talladega officials to consider once banning fans for life proves to be ineffective.

DT