Crew Chief Club at Phoenix

Crew Chief Club at the Dura Lube 500K

Event: Dura Lube 500K When: Sun., Nov. 7 at 2 p.m. EST on TNN

Where: Phoenix International Raceway (1-mile oval)

Together, Jimmy Makar, Larry McReynolds, Todd Parrott and Robin Pemberton have led their drivers to 74 wins, 404 top-five finishes, 637 top-10 finishes and 76 poles prior to this Sunday's Dura Lube 500.

Pemberton and Rusty Wallace are the defending champions of the Dura Lube 500. They finished the race in 2 hours, 22 minutes and 30 seconds at an average speed of 108.211 mph.

Parrott and Dale Jarrett hold the race record at Phoenix. They completed the 1997 event in 2 hours, 48 minutes and 55 seconds at an average speed of 110.824 mph.

In addition to these two wins, McReynolds has two wins at Phoenix under his belt. Both wins were with Davey Allison in 1992 and 1991.

Makar isn't left out of the Crew Chief Club statistics at Phoenix. He has earned two poles at the track with Bobby Labonte in 1996 and Rusty Wallace in 1990.

In last year's Dura Lube 500, the Crew Chief Club finished in the following order:

Pemberton/Wallace   Start:  6th         Finish:  1st        Statu:   Running
McReynolds/Skinner  Start:  8th         Finish:  16th       Status:  Running
Makar/Labonte       Start:  37th        Finish:  23rd       Status:  Running
Parrott/Jarrett     Start:  20th        Finish:  32nd       Status:  Running

Crew Chief Club souvenirs are available on the Chevrolet and Ford merchandise trailers. Fans can also log-on to the Crew Chief Club at their official website, www.crewchiefclub.com to keep up with the latest news.

IS PHOENIX SIMILAR ENOUGH TO OTHER RACE TRACKS THAT YOU COULD USE THE NOTES FROM THEM?

Jimmy Makar - Interstate Batteries Pontiac of Bobby Labonte - "Most of the flat tracks we go to are very similar. Now that we have something that works well, we can use the same setup at most of these race tracks with a little modification. Loudon (N.H.), Phoenix, Indy and even places like Homestead (Fla.) and Richmond (Va.) to a certain extent, all ended up having the same tendency and you need the same kind of handling characteristics. You need to make the car really turn well in the middle of the corner so you don't bog it down and kill the mid-corner speed. That way, you have a good exit speed to get you down the straightaways. All of those race tracks have that same need and that's what we work on."

Larry McReynolds - Lowe's Home Improvement Chevrolet of Mike Skinner - "Phoenix is a little bit similar to Loudon but it also has its own characteristics. It goes through transitions. In turn two it almost seems that the corner runs out before it should end, and that wall creeps up on you. A lot of times they'll go up there and scrape that wall. Just like Loudon and a lot of the other short tracks, a concern is getting the car to turn in the middle, but at Phoenix it will also want to get loose up off the corner. Now that doesn't necessarily happen at Loudon, but Loudon is probably the closest place to how Phoenix is."

Todd Parrott - Ford Quality Care Service/Ford Credit Ford of Dale Jarrett - "Phoenix is a lot like Indy and Pocono. We'll probably take a look at our notes from there."

Robin Pemberton - Miller Lite Ford of Rusty Wallace - "Phoenix is like a few of the race tracks or a combination of places that we run like Loudon and possibly Richmond. Rusty likes Phoenix. When you enjoy running at a certain race track, you have a tendency to excel there and it's basically a Rusty Wallace track. Going there once a year has its ups and its downs, but we won here last year and finished second the year before."