by Lee Spencer

Updated: May 6, 2008, 6:29 PM EST 13 comments

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But with the changes that have occurred over the past few months are beginning to pay off, including moving NASCAR veteran Jay Frye into the GM position, hiring Kevin Hamlin to oversee the No. 83 team with Brian Vickers and taking baby steps with Scott Speed.

Vickers, who is currently 17th in the point standings but has been as high as ninth, has noticed "tremendous gains" over the past year but still feels there is room for improvement.

"We're not leading the championship so we can be better, and even if you are leading the championship, you can still always be better," Vickers said. "I'm really proud of everyone and all the hard work they've done since last year and all the gains that we've made, and it's definitely showing up. We just have to keep after it.

"Last year, we had races where we ran well and then we had races where we either missed or got in the race and broke something. At Charlotte, for instance, we ran great and then we had some mechanical issues. One of the biggest differences from this year to last year is being there at the end of the race, whether we finish in the top five, the top 10 or the top 15. We don't fall out of the races because of mistakes, and I've seen a huge improvement in that and that's just experience. That was a brand new team last year and we were all new to it — new manufacturer. This year, we've learned a lot from that and that's helped us in the points — top 20 and we're still running about the same."

Red Bull Racing is taking the initiative to use the technology of its sister teams in Formula One. Three of Red Bull's NASCAR engineers went to the F1 facility in Milton Keynes, England, northwest of London, on Tuesday to begin engineering initiative between the race teams.

"I think both teams are young and growing, but now it's time to step back and see how we can help each other," Frye said. "It's very cool. We're the only team out here that also has a Formula One organization at its disposal. It was time to figure out what can we do to take advantage of that. There has to be something that we can learn from them whether its racing systems or whatever and perhaps they can learn from us, too.

"We watch each other on TV and have become great fans of each other."

Speed was part of the European RBR family in F1. He announced last September that he would compete in ARCA with Eddie Sharp Racing. Speed qualified seventh and finished seventh in his stock car debut at Talladega in October. Last month, Speed won the ARCA race at Kansas Speedway in just his fourth start. The 25-year-old Manteca, Calif., native also scored consecutive top 10s in his last two starts from behind the wheel of Bill Davis Racing's No. 22 Toyota Tundra.

"The original plan was for Scott to run the full ARCA schedule this season and we're doing that, but based on his early performance, we're also running him in a limited truck schedule," Frye said. "When you do a development program, you don't want to rush, but you want to challenge the driver and graduate them when they're ready.

"We've had high expectations for Scott and now he's certainly exceeded that. He has proved that he's ready to graduate. We were very fortunate that Bill Davis had a slot and that Slugger (crew chief Labbe) was available this time of the year. Sometimes you get lucky — we took advantage of that. We want Slugger to be the conduit to the whole program. He's a crew chief in the trucks and an observer and advisor in the ARCA series. We think Scott has a great future with the Red Bull team."

Getting a grip

Jeff Gordon has battled the consistency of the tires this season as much as he has battled the competition. After two test sessions with Goodyear at Darlington, which was repaved last fall for the first time since 1995, Gordon's fairly confident with the package he'll race there this weekend, where both grip and speeds are expected to be up.

Jeff Gordon has had to battle with his tires this season. After two test sessions at Darlington, he's feeling confident with the Goodyear package. (Todd Warshaw / Getty Images)

"I am really excited about it," Gordon said. "I thought they did a fantastic job with the repave. The track is smooth and obviously very fast. Because it was a repave, I thought it was very important for the three teams that went there to test, go back there and make sure we were on the tire we are going to race and really get a good test on them.

"I thought we did. Still, I think it is going to be a little bit too fast this first race, but I think each race you are going to see the pace drop a little bit and the racing continue to get better and better. It should be a really good Darlington race I am looking forward to."

Following Las Vegas, NASCAR has curtailed the number of sets of tires that teams are allowed to use in a weekend forcing some crew chiefs to forego additional qualifying runs during practice in case an extra set of tires is needed during the race. This weekend, teams will have 22 sets of tires to use at Darlington, a track that has traditionally chewed the treads off.

Gordon feels the test at Lowe's Motor Speedway gave teams the necessary track time to gain additional knowledge for the tires with the new car.

"This is the first time we have ever had this car here at this track, so we're learning about the grip of the tires," Gordon said. "Obviously, this is not a scheduled test, so I think that it is just great for us to get extra information and data.

"We are just gathering all kinds of data with the car. And obviously, we are looking for speed. Sometimes that takes more time. When you only have a couple hours of practice when you get to the racetrack, you can take your time a little bit more and really try things and make changes and really know what those changes are doing or hope you can read them a little bit better."

Bragging rights

Given that the Earnhardt clan hails from just up the road in Kannapolis, N.C., it's understandable that a win at Lowe's Motor Speedway would be among Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s top accomplishments. Although Earnhardt's scored four top-five finishes at Charlotte, he has yet to win. Then again, he's never driven Hendrick Motorsports' equipment on the mile-and-a-half track either.

Earnhardt topped the speed charts on both Monday and Tuesday morning at LMS with laps of 182.352 mph and 182.593 mph, respectively.

Crew chief Tony Eury said "it would be big" to bring home the CocaCola 600 trophy.

"Hendrick Motorsports has had a lot of success at Charlotte," Eury said. "This is everyone's home court. To get a win in front of everyone's family and friends would be huge."