Dodge's road still runs uphill

Sporting News, The, April 7, 2003 by Lee Spencer

Just hours before Ryan Newman scored Dodge's first victory of the season last Sunday at Texas, three of the manufacturer's bigwigs huddled with Mike Helton in the NASCAR trailer.

Helton, NASCAR's president, can pull many strings. But unless he gave Tony Stewart's impounded Chevrolet to Newman and told the team to hang Dodge sheet metal on it--this is NASCAR, it could happen--the fact the No. 12 wound up in victory lane simply was coincidence.

It couldn't have come at a better time.

A little more than two weeks ago, before the race at Bristol, Dieter Zetsche assembled the Dodge teams for a pithy meeting at corporate headquarters. Zetsche, the CEO of DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler Group, was not happy. His message: The Dodge teams need a victory, and they need it now.

So in steps Newman to save the day, or at least to give the Dodge boys a little more wiggle room.

But Zetsche's concern still is justified. With the investment DaimlerChrysler is making this season--especially after bringing Penske Racing with Newman and Rusty Wallace on board--it isn't getting much bang for its buck.

Seven races into last season, Dodge teams had three wins and two poles. Sterling Marlin took the points lead in the second race, at Rockingham, and held it into September.

Dodge's best 2003 finish before Newman's win was a fifth by rookie Jamie McMurray at Rockingham. Newman jumped seven positions, to eighth, in the points standings, but Wallace, at 14th, is the only other Dodge driver in the top 15.

So where has the Dodges' ability to perform gone? Considering DaimlerChrysler's resources, the juggernauts of Ganassi Racing and Evernham Motorsports should not be getting spanked by the competition.

The problem is not simple to solve. NASCAR has put the Dodge teams on a mechanical merry-go-round that would be difficult for the best rocket scientists to make sense of. All of the cars in Winston Cup are overengineered and far too dependent on aerodynamics. Since Dodge returned to Cup competition at the start of 2001, its cars have gone through an inordinate number of changes. Testing that should have helped make competitive cars stronger instead has been used to make the cars merely competitive.

Changes mandated for the noses of the cars have the Dodge teams scrambling to find aerodynamic balance--having the front downforce match the rear downforce with all four tires working in unison. The lack of aero balance makes it difficult for drivers to turn through the corners without the car getting loose. That issue is complicated by new body location rules that made the Dodge setups from last year obsolete.

Though Newman says the Texas victory doesn't mean his team has solved all of its problems, there is more optimism--and there is some proof that a Dodge can run up front in race trim and win.

Don Miller, an engineer and co-owner of Newman's team, says he thinks his group slowly has been closing ground on the competition. "This is the same car we had at Atlanta, but we just didn't have very good pit stops that day," Miller says. "We had good pit work today, good strategy and kept him out front."

John Fernandez, Dodge's vice president of motorsports, says the teams are closer to getting the aero balance problem sorted out. Dodge took each team to the wind tunnel at least once, and though wind tunnel testing offers engineers a baseline, it is difficult to simulate a car's performance in race traffic.

"Teams are spending a lot of time in the tunnel;' Fernandez says, "but we know where we're at, and we know what the numbers are, and we know what the aerodynamic balance is."

Ray Evernham, Dodge's top factory team owner, says "the setups aren't working, and they have to find out why."

Because today's cars are so aerosensitive, it doesn't take much to disrupt even the best machines.

"When you hit your aero balance and the tires can hold it, like they can for qualifying, that's great," Evernham says, offering support for Newman's two poles. "But when the tires fall off, and that aero balance vs. mechanical grip goes swag then we turn to junk."

Tony Glover, Sterling Marlin's team manager, puts it succinctly: "The only way to fix the problem is with hard work and no B.S. The babies cry about it. Winners work with their stuff and make it better."

Making things better in a hurry is the challenge for all Dodge teams. The man with the money is feeling a little better this week, but he's still looking over their shoulders.

Make a pit stop at www.sportingnews. com/nascar/winston/schedule to see who has won what in Winston Cup so far this season.

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LEE SPENCER ANSWERS YOUR QUESTIONS

I just found out that Kurt Busch's younger brother, Kyle, is going to drive a Hendrick Motorsports car in the Busch Series. I thought that Kyle was driving for Roush Racing not Hendrick. So, is he driving for Hendrick or Roush?