DW Q&A: Roush COT catches HMS, JGR
Darrell Waltrip: Always good to be on the Wind Tunnel.
Dave Despain: Let's talk Chase. Who has and who has not impressed you so far, and who do you like for the title?
Darrell Waltrip: Dave, I was surprised that (Clint) Bowyer won that first race at New Hampshire. That was a bit of a surprise to me because he went into the Chase, as everybody knows, without a win. I put my money on Carl (Edwards). I made a prediction that Carl would win both the Busch Series championship this year and the Cup Series championship. And I strongly believe that. I've been surprised at the great turnaround of the Roush cars (with) the Car of Tomorrow, compared to the way they started the year off in that car. They've made incredible gains and improvements. I don't think Tony (Stewart) and Denny (Hamlin) and Jeff (Gordon) and Jimmie (Johnson) have gotten any worse. I believe that just shows the hard work that Roush and those guys have done to catch up and maybe even go ahead of those cats.
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Program of the week
Saturday, 5/10 on FOX 7 p.m. ET: Dodge Challenger 500 This week on SPEED Saturday, 5/10 3:30 p.m. ET: Tradin' Paint 4 p.m. ET: NASCAR Performance 4:30 p.m. ET: NASCAR in a hurry 5 p.m. ET: NASCAR Raceday Sunday, 5/11 8 p.m. ET: NASCAR Victory Lane | ||
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Dave Despain: A good Car of Tomorrow of course is critical because of the five COT races (in the Chase). You pretty consistently reserved judgment on some COT issues, safety for example. You've been critical in other areas. It's slower than the old car. Meanwhile, your brother consistently praises the Car on Inside Nextel Cup. It's now run 13 races. How about an update on your evaluation of how it's doing?
Darrell Waltrip: I'd like to reserve that until Talladega in a couple of weeks. I'm not as big a critic of the car as I was. It obviously is a tough car, but it's built like a tank and it's slow. The reason they can spin the things out and get them all sideways and not spin out like we used to is because they're not going that fast through the corner anymore. Plus, that big old wing on the back with those side plates, you've got a lot of side force. The thing I do like about the car though Dave is that you can bump. You can run into the guy in front of you and not wreck him. You just hit the guy and it shoots him forward now instead of getting under him and jacking him up and spinning him out like the old car did. I do like that.
Chris in Detroit, Mich.: Regarding the whole 88 and the number. Is it possible that Dale Earnhardt Jr. would not make a race based on no owners points with that number next year?
Darrell Waltrip: He has owners points. They'll take the points from the 25 and those points will be Dale Jr.'s points when he goes to Hendrick Motorsports, so he has points going in. That's not an issue. Same team, same owner. Everything is the same. They're just going to go to a different number because they want to.
Mark in Nashville, Tenn.: When you switched over from Junior (Johnson) to Rick (Hendrick), we all thought that was going to be the dream team. What's going to be different about this one?
Dave Despain: Implying that that dream team didn't work out quite as well as expected.
Darrell Waltrip: You may not have noticed, but that was 20 years ago. Now, I know I don't look like I'm that much older now. But nonetheless, that was 20 years ago, and Rick has come so far with his operation. He has grown. They've got the personnel. They've got the facility. A lot of the things that we were doing back in 1987 when I jumped off into the Tide car was the first time Rick had been in that position. That was a big deal. It was me leaving Junior Johnson and going to drive for Rick Hendrick. Me leaving the Budweiser car and going and driving the Tide car. It was a lot of pressure on all of us at that time, and Rick didn't have the experience doing that. Quite honestly, none of us knew really what to expect. They know what to expect this time. They've got the experience. They've got the knowledge, and they've got the history. They'll get her done.
Dave Despain: How will Junior do? The goal is to win races and championships. Will he achieve that?
Darrell Waltrip: I believe he will Dave. I talked to him about it Wednesday. I said I think he'll win six races and he'll be a Chase contender. He'll be a championship contender. He can't help but be a championship contender. The Hendrick cars and the Hendrick personnel and the kind of equipment that they put on the racetrack and the kind of people that he will surround Junior with, he will have a great race car. I promise you.
Dave Despain: I've got one more Junior question. This is strange to me. Junior with two sponsors. I'll throw out three possibilities. 1) NASCAR is so expensive, even its most popular driver can't demand enough money to pay for a car all season. 2) Both Mountain Dew and National Guard are paying full boat so this is the richest car deal ever done. 3) Having signed the National Guard before he did the Junior deal, Hendrick just had too many sponsors. You tell me the real story. How did this happen?
Darrell Waltrip: I think your third choice is the best. Rick has a real loyalty to the National Guard. I met those guys down there on Wednesday, and this is a great program for them. It's one of the best things they do, so he wanted to keep that intact. The Mountain Dew/Amp thing, that was the deal that they went after. Rick didn't want to kick the National Guard out. He wanted to let them be a part of it because it's just going to be better for everybody. Rick Hendrick is a manager. He manages deals. He manages people. He managed to put this whole thing together, and that's what's cool about it. To have those two cars and two sponsors is pretty neat.
Dave Despain: New subject now. We'll move on from Junior. You've been in on the Toyota deal from the get-go. How different will their level of performance be next year given the arrangement with Joe Gibbs Racing?
Darrell Waltrip: Oh, Dave, I think it's a home run for Toyota. When you look at the Gibbs operation from top to bottom — drivers, crew chiefs, owner and the support people back at the shop (Mark Cronquist and the engine room. They have an awesome engine program.) — I think the thing that Toyota needed was somebody with that kind of experience and that kind of knowledge in Cup racing. Granted, they've been successful everywhere they've ever been, but anybody will tell you Roger Penske, Chip Ganassi, you name it, they're playing in the toughest league you can play in right now. And you'd better have some good people to help you.
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Dave Despain: There might be room for debate given what's happening with their Formula One team, but we'll move on from that. Who's next? What will be the next team to switch to Toyota? You want to give us another prediction?
Darrell Waltrip: I think it will depend obviously on how the Gibbs team does. If they can take what Toyota gives them ... if they can take their two and Toyota's two and come up with five — which I think they'll be able to — you'll see some other teams that maybe don't have the best manufacturers' agreements or best manufacturers' deals start to look at the Toyota program and possibly want to get involved with Toyota. I think that's what this deal is going to do. It's going to either make them or break them.
Dave Despain: Another look into the future. The Busch Series. Do you think it's likely that we're actually going to see Mustangs, Camaros, Challengers and some still to be named Toyota model perhaps with recognizable bodies racing in 2009? That rumor seems to have some legs. What do you think about it?
Darrell Waltrip: Dave, I wouldn't do that. And I have every reason to say that. I have history on my side. Every time they've tried to make the Busch Series different from the Cup Series, it hurt the Busch Series. Right now, I know people say, "You can't hurt it anymore." I disagree. We had V6 engines to make the Busch car different from the Cup car. They're 105-inch wheel base. The Cup cars are 110. They tried to make them different in the past, and it just doesn't work out. Think about the economics. We're going to have I don't know how many hundreds of Cup cars. You could flood the field every week with ex-Cup cars, and that's when the Busch Series has been its best is when the Cup owners have some place to sell the equipment that they want to get rid of and they'll sell it at a fire sale some time. They almost give it away some time. I think that would be the thing to do in the Busch Series.
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