Melling Racing/Dodge quotes from Compton

Jan. 17, 2001 Stacy Compton - ...

Jan. 17, 2001 Stacy Compton - #92 Kodiak Dodge
Near the end of Dodge's two-day test in preparations for the famed Daytona 500, Stacy Compton's No. 92 Kodiak/Melling Racing Dodge Intrepid is on top of the speed charts with a 49.773 second/ 180.821 mph lap around the 2.5-mile speedway. His comments:

YOU'RE THE FASTEST DODGE AT THIS POINT. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?
"I'm proud of this team for coming down here and giving me a Dodge that's been on top of the charts for two days. We've been first or second ever since we got here, and that says a lot about the work that Melling Racing has put in since last year. Overall, I think we still have some work to do. We're gonna keep working to see if we can find some more time, because we've still got some speed to gain somewhere."

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN WORKING ON TODAY?
"Pretty much springs and shocks and trying to get the aerodynamic package figured out on these things. Trying to figure out if they need the nose up or the nose down or what the car likes for attitude. We're all around it, we just can't seem to put our finger exactly on what it needs."

WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU ARE COMPARITIVELY?
"With other Dodges I think we're competitive. Ever since we got here we've been first or second on the time sheet, so I think we've got a good car as far as the Dodges are concerned, but I think with other makes we're about three-tenths off of where we need to be. (Matt) Kenseth ran a 49.30, and the quickest anybody's run here has been a (49).70, and that's basically four-tenths off. A lot of the Chevrolets were running (49).50s, which is a couple tenths quicker than us, so we definitely have a little work to do. We haven't quite gotten to where we need to, but hopefully we will be before the day's over with.

WHAT IS YOUR PLAN BETWEEN NOW AND YOUR RETURN TO DAYTONA?
"Go to Talladega. I'm glad we've got Talladega (Superspeedway) reserved to go to try some different things next week. We're looking at the numbers we saw on the cars and we didn't feel like we were gonna need to go, but when we got here we realized that we do need to. We've definitely got to pick up some more speed, so we're gonna go to Talladega next week and try a lot more things. We'll try some things on the body, some aero things, that will hopefully pick these things up a little bit."

YOU ARE SCHEDULED TO TEST A NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES DODGE RAM IN PREPARATION FOR THE TRUCK RACE AT DAYTONA. TELL US ABOUT THAT EFFORT.
"It will be listed as owned by Mark Melling and Jim Harris, who owns one of our associate sponsor companies, Harris Trucking. It will be a Melling Racing truck. It sort of just all came together about two weeks ago, and we really haven't had time to work on it like we wanted to. That's the reason we're saying that if we come down here and are decent, we'll come back and race, but if we're not we'll take it back, work on it a little more and take it to another track that has a companion Cup/Truck race."

Note: If Compton competes in both the NASCAR Winston Cup Series and Craftsman Truck Series races in February, he will be the first to run a Dodge in two of the three premier NASCAR circuits.

DOES THIS TEST HELP YOU WITH THE TRUCK, OR VICE VERSA?
"I don't think so. Maybe so in the draft, but a couple of laps by yourself, no. The biggest reason we'd like to try to race it is to get the crew worked out, get the kinks worked out a few days before, in the pit stops, in the race-day mode. I can get some more drafting experience as well. But as far as the two tests, trying to learn a little bit, I don't think it will help a lot."