 |
| |
|
 |
 |
|||||||||||
|
Master builders RCR's engine expert gets credit for team's successPosted: Monday February 10, 2003 8:42 PM
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Perhaps the only people not dropping their jaws over Jeff Green’s, Robby Gordon’s and Kevin Harvick’s Daytona 500 qualifying performances were the drivers themselves, and the men who baby their horsepower. Monday at Daytona International Speedway proved a statement for Richard Childress Racing, and while public glory drenched the teams, back slaps -- both physical and verbal -- went to head engine builder Danny Lawrence. "Them guys have been working around the clock trying to pull it off," said Richard Childress, and his trio did, all within decimal points of 48 seconds. Green swept pole with a top lap of 48.230 and 186.606 miles per hour. Gordon was third at 48.406 and 185.927 mph. Harvick was sixth at 48.632 and 185.063. And it all might have been better. "We felt like the 30 car was going to be pretty good," said Lawrence of Green’s team. "We thought the 31 would be top 10. We’re surprised that he ended up as good as he is, and we actually thought that the 29 and the 31 were going to be really close together. We’re real happy that they could all see each other, at least." There’s nothing like a view from the top. "It’s everybody from the body shop, to the guys that clean the motors up -- it’s the whole team thing," said Lawrence, who's well-ensconced as RCR’s head engine guy. But even now, he leans on advice from the late Dale Earnhardt, NASCAR’s acknowledged restrictor-plate master. "He said, 'You gotta start out running good,'" said Lawrence. "If you run good at the Daytona 500, no matter what happens the rest of the year, you’ll carry the momentum." Green has that now, as does Gordon and Harvick. RCR’s engine department has indeed unearthed a few secrets it won’t share -- "I think so," said Lawrence with a laugh -- but the ignominy of Green’s 17th-place finish in the points in 2002, followed by Gordon’s 20th and Harvick’s 21st, was impetus enough. Big changes over the course of a year -- the addition of Green’s team, midseason crew switches between Harvick and Gordon’s teams, moving into a new multimillion-dollar shop -- all took their toll. Mike Bean became Green’s new crew chief this year, while his old chief, Todd Berrier, moved into a research and development role. Meanwhile, Lawrence’s offseason was engine-dominated. "It seems like we were just having Thanksgiving dinner the other day, and now all of a sudden it’s time to go to Daytona," he said. "The guys in every one of the shops -- in the body shop, in the fab shop and in the engine shop -- every Saturday they were there, doing 110 percent. Because you have to do it at the shop." At the track, you’ve got to make it stick. Lawrence said January testing performances proved a positive, along with increased feedback from Beam, Kevin Hamlin (Gordon’s crew chief) and Gil Martin (Harvick’s crew chief). But that doesn’t mean he sat on his pistons. "They went back and tore down about eight or 10 brand-new engines and just kept rebuilding them," said Childress. "We’ve had the police come and tell us that the dyno’s running at 11:30 at night," said Lawrence. "But if you do come here and you qualify 35th, you sit there and you think, 'Maybe I should’ve done this or should've done that.'" Back at Daytona for Speed Weeks, Lawrence and other RCR personnel knew they had a few rockets. Everyone swears no one sat on anything in Saturday’s two Daytona 500 practices -- Green posted the third fasted time in the first session, and Harvick’s 11th was RCR’s top time in the second session. Gordon was 32nd and Green was 50th in the second practice. "When qualifying time comes around, you go through your notes and you put everything together," said Lawrence. "All of your best stuff, and you really don’t know what you’re going to have until you have those conditions. And hopefully it all comes together like it did." Green said he was shocked at an early scouting report from his own team engine tuner, Ron Liddell, and Lawrence. "They told me how much we had left, and I looked at them like they had four eyes," said Green. "And they did. They hit it right on the money on how much we had left." "Danny never gave up," said Childress. "He just kept tearing engines down and rebuilding them, tearing engines down and rebuilding them. And that’s what it took to be able to pull it off." On Monday, Green was delighted to be the recipient. "When we come to Talladega and Daytona, they always have that," he said of his engine support. "I look forward to going to Rockingham and places like that, where I can make a difference in qualifying, because they made a difference today."
Denise N. Maloof covers NASCAR for SI.com.
|
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||||
