No. 24 team chasing chassis setups on new car

[Schwartz Fan]

Gordon, No. 24 team chasing chassis setups on new car


By SceneDaily Staff
Wednesday, June 11, 2008


Chassis setups with the new NASCAR Sprint Cup car seem to change with flip of a daily calendar, and Jeff Gordon and his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team are continuing to work on the evolutionary process.

Gordon first drove a version of the new car in August 2006 at Michigan International Speedway, site of this weekend’s LifeLock 400. Clearly, the setup under him that day is drastically different than what he’ll use this weekend on the 2-mile track.

But the suspension is also different from the one Gordon used to lead 68 laps and finish third earlier this year at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., a 2-mile sister track to Michigan.

“It probably won’t work for two reasons,” crew chief Steve Letarte said. “One, we’re using a completely different tire compound than we ran at California. Two, the setups have changed so much in only a few months time.

“It’s a fine line you have to walk, and sometimes we are stubborn to change. If a setup works extremely well one year, sometimes you are hesitant to move too far away from it. Other teams may be trying different setup combinations, and if they hit on something you can quickly find yourself playing catch-up.

“Some setups that worked well last year can be average at best this year.”

Gordon has won twice and has posted 15 top-five and 20 top-10s at Michigan.

“From a driver’s perspective, this has always been a great track to race on,” Gordon said. “It is wide, with a number of grooves we can race on in the corner.

“This will be our first time here with the Impala in race conditions, and so much has changed since the first time I drove the car here in 2006. We’ve learned a lot and have come a long way with the setups.”

The team tried some new setups with a test this week at Nashville Superspeedway.

“We saw some things at Pocono last weekend that we want to try, so Team DuPont is heading to Nashville this week to test,” Letarte said. “We don’t want to wait until race weekend to see if they work.

“We’ll take the same car we used at Pocono to Nashville, and the crew has been working 16-to-18-hour days to get the car turned around and ready. We’ll use the same tire that we’ll run in Michigan.

“Hopefully, we learn some things that will benefit us this weekend.”


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