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P R E S S R E L E A S E
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TOYOTA NASCAR Nextel Cup
Series Notes & QuotesCar
of Tomorrow Testing
Richmond
International Raceway
April
3, 2007 – Day 1 – Session 1
ANDY GRAVES, Senior
Manager for TRD (Toyota Racing
Development) U.S.A. in NASCAR Nextel Cup
Series competition: How are the Toyota
teams performing in the test so far at
Richmond? “I think several of our teams
are doing pretty well and are in the
top-20, while there are some others
scattered throughout the chart. It’s
just another stepping stone in the
process of trying to understand the COT
at another venue. This is a new track
for us with this car and we are looking
to make small gains each and every day.”
Are you seeing any large-scale
differences between COT here versus
Bristol and Martinsville? “It’s pretty
much the same battles that all the teams
are fighting -- trying to make sure the
attitude of the car is right and getting
the mechanical balance right on the aero
side. Every test that we attend and
every day that we spend with these cars
is a step forward. Our teams are doing a
good job of learning and making small
gains each and every day to move
forward. We’ll just keep attacking it
and working on it; hopefully by the time
the test is over, we’ll have made a good
step and go home to think about how we
can improve. We want to come back for
the race and hopefully be more
competitive than we were at
Martinsville.”
JEREMY MAYFIELD, No. 36
360 OTC Toyota Camry, Bill Davis Racing:
How has your car been in testing today?
“The car has been all right in practice.
We haven’t really found anything that’s
helped us a lot, but we haven’t really
found a lot that will hurt us either.
We’re running through a lot of stuff,
just trying to find something. We’ve
been throwing a lot of things at this
car, trying to find things that will get
us going in the right direction. But the
test has gone all right for us at this
point.” Is this a car you have
previously raced? “This is the same car
that we ran at Martinsville and we’re
just trying to get it figured out. There
are a lot of things that we’re going
over, some things that we already know,
but we just want to make sure that we
know what works and what doesn’t work.
We’re still struggling a little bit, but
time will tell. I think we’re definitely
gaining on it.”
RICK VIERS, Crew Chief,
No. 84 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Team Red
Bull: How is today’s test session going
for your team? “Today’s test is going
pretty well; we’re off to a bit of a
slow start. Obviously we’ve made a lot
of changes today and we haven’t seen
exactly what we would have liked to. But
that’s what we’re here for, to test and
to learn. AJ (Allmendinger) is making
laps and that’s what’s important right
now. This is our third COT car, both the
Bristol and Martinsville cars are being
repaired so we’re trying them all out
right now.”
What are your thoughts on
AJ’s (Allmendinger) experience that he’s
gained the past two weeks? “AJ (Allmendinger)
is doing a great job and has done a
great job at these short tracks in
gaining experience and running laps. We
couldn’t be any happier with what he’s
doing. We are just trying to get better
as far as a team. We are a brand new
team and we are making gains, but it’s
not something where we are hitting on it
all the time. But they are not excuses,
they are reasons. We had some motor
problems at California and Atlanta, we
should have made it in Las Vegas, and we
got wrecked in Daytona. But then we made
the last two races. We try to look at
everything from week to week and see the
positive in it. And right now we just
need to get better at Richmond and
everything will be fine.”
KEVIN HAMLIN, Crew Chief,
No. 22 Caterpillar Toyota Camry, Bill
Davis Racing: How has today’s test
session gone for your team? “We’re not
too bad really; we haven’t worked on a
lot except for the travel on this car.
The travel is so sensitive on these cars
with the splitter on the front. We’ve
been working really hard on that, in
fact that’s all we’ve really worked on
so far has been the front of the car. We
haven’t worked on anything else at all,
we’re on 70- lap old tires and still
running pretty good times.”
Were you able to bring
lessons with COT from Bristol or
Martinsville here to Richmond?
“Martinsville is a whole different
animal and we didn’t do a real good job
there. We didn’t do a great job at the
test in Bristol, but when we went back
to race we were pretty good for most of
the day. For the most part we’ve learned
from every outing with these cars and
each time out we find more little things
that we can work on to get better. We
have to focus on certain areas, like
right now we’re on the front of the car
and we’re trying to gain as much
information and data as possible. This
way when we head back to the shop, the
engineers can sort through all that and
tell us what we need to do.”
JOHNNY BENSON, No. 46
Jack Wyler Toyota Camry, Wyler Racing:
How has today’s test session gone for
you? “I’m pretty excited about being
here, that’s for sure. Tony Furr and the
guys are doing a great job. We’ve come a
long way from where we unloaded to now.
They’ve made adjustments that have just
made this thing really nice to drive.
I’ve been happy so far with how the test
is going, that’s for sure.”
With this being your
first experience with the COT, what are
your thoughts? “It’s not as bad as what
you hear. They’re actually a lot of fun
to drive. When you look at it, there are
some irritating spots where you wish it
would turn better in these areas. But
until you run these things at different
places, you just have to keep working to
get things figured out. It’s only been
two races now, although I’m sure a lot
of these teams have been testing with
them a fair amount. We don’t feel like
we’re way off at all. But the COT is not
bad, are there areas where they could
improve? Absolutely. But as they run
them and get them figured out, it’ll get
better and better. But I’ve been real
happy with the test for sure.”
DAVID REUTIMANN, driver
of the No. 00 Domino’s Toyota Camry,
Michael Waltrip Racing: How has today’s
test session gone for you? “At one point
in the afternoon we felt like we were
decent and we just kept throwing things
at it. Then we got to the point where
the car just wasn’t really happy
anymore. Sometimes you have to stop and
step back. A lot of times these tests
are more about what not to do instead of
what you can do. I think we were pretty
decent at one point today and we’re
going to go in a totally different
direction in tonight’s session. We have
this five-page list of things we want to
try and if we don’t start trying things
pretty soon, we’ll never make it through
the list. We’re going to keep working
through it and see what we can find that
will help us a little more.”
What types of differences
to you see here with COT versus what you
experienced at Bristol and Martinsville?
“They do feel like they are a lot harder
to make rotate through the center
compared to Bristol and Martinsville. I
tested here with the Busch cars last
weekend and that was a totally different
deal. The temperatures were a lot
cooler, but I definitely feel like the
Busch cars go through the centers of the
corners a lot better. Again, this place
is pretty temperature sensitive so I’m
sure that also has a lot to do with it.
A lot of guys I’ve watched are going
through the corners pretty far off the
bottom and I think they want to be down
on the bottom, but they just can’t get
there. I’m sure some guys are running
around the bottom and those are the guys
on the top of the speed chart.”
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