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TEXAS TEST WAS A WINNING
ONE FOR TEAM YELLOW
Jon Wolfe admits that not
every test for Team Yellow is a good one. However, he
believes the one last week at Texas Motor Speedway could
turn out to be a winning one. “It is one of
the best tests I’ve been on in quite a while as far as
learning things,” says Wolfe, crew chief on the Yellow
Transportation Dodge driven by Johnny Benson.
“We really learned quite a bit about the new tire that we are using this
year,” adds Wolfe. “We found out that it takes a lot
different handling package than what we have been running
the last three years. And I mean a lot different.”
By the end of the two-day
session at the 1.5-mile track, Benson was wearing a huge
smile. “We feel really, really good about how we’re going
to run (in Saturday’s O’Reilly 300),” says Benson. “We
think we found out what we need to be a winning car.”
The 200-lap event will be televised live by FOX beginning
at 2 p.m. (EST).
Both Wolfe and Benson don’t
hide the fact that if the Yellow Transportation team
hadn’t tested, their chances of being a contender for the
victory would be slim. “When we unloaded, we
were not very good,” said Wolfe. “We went with the same
setup that we ran there last year, where we ran fairly
well, but (with that setup) Johnny couldn’t even make a
lap before he was screaming on the radio about how loose
the car was.
“We are certainly very glad that we tested at Texas. Now looking back at
Vegas, we wish we had gone out there to test. We’ve run
well pretty much everywhere we’ve been except Vegas where
we struggled. We should have tested out there.
“A lot of times you run and
run and run and don’t learn a whole lot from a test. This
is one of those times where we really learned a lot.”
Wolfe points out that “some of the things we have done for
the past three years to make our car work with the other
tire we have got to completely forget. The changes you
need with this new tire are not subtle ones.”
Benson agrees as he adds, “the thing we have fought for
three years was the car was too tight. You really
struggled to make the car turn (in the corners). You
don’t have that problem now. Now you have a problem
gripping the track. And when you lose grip, the car gets
loose.”
With Texas being a very fast race track, Wolfe realizes he
needs to get the Yellow Transportation Dodge “as
comfortable as possible for Johnny. The sidewalls on this
new tire seem to flex around more and that gives the
driver an uneasy feeling. And when you go into the
corner at 195 or 198 (miles per hour) at Texas, you don’t
want that kind of feeling. “And by the time we
finished the test, we had gotten the car to where it was
really comfortable for him. We feel really good with what
we learned.”
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