Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 2, 1995 TAG: 9504040043
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER
DATELINE: BRISTOL, TENN. LENGTH: Medium
On the line was a Ford engineer who said he had been watching ESPN's ``NASCAR Today'' show on Saturday morning that included a story about Hendrick Motorsports making its own race cars from the ground up.
The engineer saw about 10 seconds of film footage of a bare Hendrick chassis sitting on a surface plate at the Hendrick race shop in Concord, N.C., and was startled to see a chassis in variance of Winston Cup standards. The heavy steel beams - the very bones of the race car - were angled differently where the chassis tapers at the front end.
``Yes, we know,'' the crew chief (who asked that his name not be used) told the engineer. ``We think our chassis is just as good.''
As it turned out, the peek at the Hendrick chassis wasn't even a fresh look. It was file footage from last year provided to ESPN by Sunbelt Video, ESPN's Dave DeSpain said.
Ford folks have resorted to this sort of desperate search in an attempt to close the gap on the dominating Chevrolets in the Winston Cup series.
This weekend, as the teams prepared for today's Food City 500 at Bristol International Raceway, there wasn't a Ford team in the infield that didn't believe the Chevrolet Monte Carlo, with modifications approved by NASCAR, was a superior race car.
They believe the Chevys are better because of better aerodynamics. And most of the folks in the Ford camp are expecting that the results of NASCAR's comparative wind-tunnel tests last week, if they ever are released or leaked, will confirm a Chevy advantage in downforce.
But some in the Ford camp, including that television-watching engineer, are looking beyond aerodynamics.
For one thing, the Fords are not the only ones getting beat.
So is Dale Earnhardt. And he's driving a Chevy.
Of course, Earnhardt still is finishing second just about every week and will dominate the Winston Cup points race if he keeps it up. But he's being outrun every week, usually by one of the Rick Hendrick-owned cars or by Sterling Marlin.
``They're beating Earnhardt like a drum,'' Richard Petty said. ``They just don't outrun him in the straights, he don't pass 'em in the corners, either.''
Petty believes that the success of the Hendrick team may indeed rest in its chassis. Petty says he's seen many teams get hot because of such modifications.
Ricky Rudd, who used to drive a Hendrick car, provided a frank and insightful explanation about how Hendrick drivers Jeff Gordon, Terry Labonte and Ken Schrader may be reaping aerodynamic benefits.
``The number one rule when you start building a chassis is `rigid,''' he said. ``If you drive in the corner and the chassis flexs, how can you be precise on your springs and other adjustments?''
The Hendrick chassis, which has carried Gordon to two victories and Labonte to one in 1995, is ultra rigid.
``They've got braces everywhere on those cars,'' Rudd said. ``But any time you add extra steel, you add weight.'' The Hendrick teams have worked to remove weight, he said. ``By adding strength and stiffness, but also taking away weight, they've now got a rigid chassis with no extra weight.''
In years past, ``no one really paid much attention because the Hendrick car was not a giant-killer at the track,'' Rudd said.
``It took Ray Evernham [who joined Hendrick as Gordon's crew chief in late 1992] to get the shock absorbers to run with their rigid chassis. Before Ray came along, they always kind of floundered around a little bit. The day he came along, that was when the Hendrick thing turned around.''
``We do have a better chassis, we think, than the other teams have got,'' said Hendrick general manager Jimmy Johnson. ``It's not stamped out, as some of the other chassis builders do. And the quality is not there. Each one of ours is identical. We've got 25 people working [on chassis] and that's all they do.
``But the [No.]18 car [driven by Bobby Labonte] doesn't have one of our chassis and he's been competitive,'' Johnson said. ``And the [No.]4 car [driven by Sterling Marlin] has been running good.''
And that simply proves it's not just the chassis, either.
by CNB