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Now what? Drivers outside the Chase aren't waiting until next year to get a jump on the competition

Sporting News, The, Sept 23, 2005 by Ryan McGee

Note to racing fans: Over these final weeks of the season, there is no need to panic if your favorite Nextel Cup driver's face starts to resemble an astronaut's riding in a centrifuge.

That's what pressure will do to you. Thanks to the Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup, it is a widespread feeling from the top step of the podium to the low rent district of the paddock.

While the uberhyped top 10 teams slug it out for the title, the drivers who barely missed out will race for the $1 million bonus that goes to the 11th-place finisher. At the same time, guys such as Kyle Petty, Travis Kvapil and Robby Gordon will scrape to stay above 35th in points, below which there is no safety net of provisional starting spots next February.

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But what about the gaggle of cars stuck in racing's version of the neutral zone, drifting between 15th and 30th, out of Chase contention since midsummer, safely in next year's lineup and widely assumed to be on cruise control until the final lap?

They're already working their balaclavas off, getting ready for 2006.

"Being out of the Chase sucks, but we're going to do what we can to turn it into something positive," Dale Earnhardt Jr. says. "That means getting a jump-start for next year over the guys who are in it this year. Cars, people, all of it."

Anyone doubting Earnhardt's strategy needs to look no further than Greg Biffle. Biffle entered 2004's final 10 races 20th in points. He didn't improve much in the standings by the time he won the season's final race, but Roush Racing engineers already were immersed in data about the 2005 Ford Taurus. After the calendar flipped, Biffle cranked out 10 top 10 finishes, five of them victories, in the first 15 races. One week later he was on top of the Nextel Cup point standings for the first time in his career.

"A lot of people were like Where did they come from?" says Biffle's crew chief, Doug Richert. "We came from working our butts off at the shop, that's where."

This season's versions of Biffle and Richert have their plans in place, getting ready for 2006.

Testing. NASCAR limits Nextel Cup teams to 14 days of testing on tracks with Cup races--five two-day sessions and four one-day trips. Many of the top teams have waited to cash in those tests in case they made the Chase. "Even if you don't make the cut, those tests aren't wasted," says Todd Berrier, crew chief for Chase outsider Kevin Harvick. "You bring out something new that someone in the Chase won't even get to look at until December."

Real time R&D. Expect teams with no threat of dropping below 35th to use the final 10 races as one big practice session, especially on tracks the series revisits early in 2006. "You can test all you want, but there is no better way to see what you have than in actual race conditions," Ricky Rudd says. "So we might try a restrictor-plate engine at Talladega in October to see if we want to bring the same thing back for Daytona in February. Or shift around the pit crew.

"It's a chance to try new ideas at work in a race without all the major consequences that come earlier in the year or in the Chase."

People skills. Pit road won't be the only place for new faces down the stretch. Car owners and general managers already have started shifting personnel and wooing potential employees. If the teams preoccupied by the Chase aren't careful, they are likely to be pickpocketed by the ones that aren't.

"October through January is recruiting season, especially for pit crew members," says MB2 Motorsports GM. Jay Frye, boss of Joe Nemechek and soon-to-depart Scott Riggs. "The personnel moves that are announced in December were more than likely sealed with a handshake a lot earlier."

So all you fans of Bobby Labonte, Kasey Kahne and Dale Jarrett, don't you dare put away those T-shirts and car flags in non-Chase shame. Your favorite teams are hard at work on comebacks. Next September you could join together and serve a big, relish-covered helping of "Remember us?"

Now what? Drivers outside the Chase aren't waiting until next year to get a jump on the competition

Sporting News, The, Sept 23, 2005 by Ryan McGee

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