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Thoughts From
James Ince, Crew Chief, No. 10 Valvoline Pontiac Grand Prix:
DID THE RULE CHANGE HAVE AN IMPACT AT MICHIGAN, IN TERMS
OF MAKING YOU MORE COMPETITIVE?
"I think it was definitely an impact. It was a step in the
right direction. The only thing we're disappointed about is
that we wish NASCAR would have pulled the other guys back,
instead of pushing ours out. It's just a situation here for
us where we're going here race-to-race - and NASCAR is doing
a good job of evaluating that - but, that affects our
setups, our springs and our shocks and everything we do.
"Darlington is a place where downforce is an issue, but it's
not nearly the issue there that it is at Michigan and
Charlotte and these bigger places. Handling is more
important at Darlington. The 'aero-push' won't be as big an
issue at Darlington because it is a tougher-type racetrack.
"We're tickled to death to have it. It's something that
brings us closer to what the other cars are, and there is no
way we're going to complain about that. We appreciate that
NASCAR has looked at that and is trying to get the cars
closer together. But, it's a tough deal when you're going
week-to-week right now. We're cutting up cars every week.
It's not helping us to plan for the rest of the year and
that part of it is pretty frustrating."
HAVE YOU WIND-TUNNELED THIS NEW CONFIGURATION?
"We're actually going to be in the wind-tunnel today and
tomorrow, seeing what we've got there. The hardest part is,
we know it's better -- we need to understand how much the
balance of the race car is - but, as we're preparing for
these races we're trying to get through the rest of the year
with a certain amount of race cars and trying to be building
cars for next year at the same time. Any time it's a
week-to-week situation you're in there in the fab shop on
the week that you're going, cutting your race car up as
opposed to being able to have them painted, sitting in your
shop. It's made our workload a little bit harder. It's one
of the things that is worth making our workload harder for,
but it is frustrating to be in the middle of a 20-race
stretch and then make things a little more difficult."
KNOWING YOU DIDN'T HAVE THE KICK-OUT IN MARCH AT
DARLINGTON, DOES THIS OBSOLETE OR JUST ALTER YOUR SETUPS
FROM THAT RACE?
"It definitely alters it. Darlington and Rockingham, from
the setup standpoint, are the two hardest racetracks because
they are the farthest apart. We go there early in the spring
and now we're going back. They are places you don't want to
forget about. They're important racetracks. But, it's been
so long since we've been on that style of racetrack that
it's already extremely difficult without adding in a new
rules change.
"But again, it's a positive change. It's something that we
want, so we'll just deal with it. But, it will definitely
impact the setup some."
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