The Winston Friday Notes

The Winston Friday notebook By Marty Smith

CONCORD, N.C., (May 21, 1999) Notes from Friday's action at Lowe's Motor Speedway, site of Saturday night's running of The Winston.

Over the past week, multiple crew chief and members have changed uniforms at a dizzying pace. Here's a brief update on who's gone where: Paul Andrews departed the No. 12 Mobil 1 Ford team Monday as the team's chrew chief and was hired two days later as the crew chief for the No. 1 Pennzoil Chevrolet team, which Phillipe Lopez had quit days earlier.

"I saw him in the unemployment line," joked Steve Park, driver of the No. 1 Chevrolet. "I grabbed him by the arm and told him we needed to go talk to (Dale) Earnhardt. We had him hired in two minutes."

Lopez scurried over to the No. 66 Ford and driver Darrell Waltrip.

Peter Sospenzo replaced Andrews at the No. 12, while Skip Eyler has replaced James Ince at Roush Racing. Eyler departed from the No. 91 Little Joe's Auto Chevrolet, and has been replaced by Nick Short. Michael McSwain went from the No. 98 Ford team to the No. 10 Ricky Rudd-owned Ford, replacing Bill Ingle.

Jerry Pitts became the crew chief at the No. 98 team, leaving the No. 94 McDonald's Ford team which named which named Wayne Orme, from within the team, as Pitts' replacement.

Newt Moore, former crew chief at Jasper Motorsports, was replaced at the No. 77 Ford by Bob Gulbranson. Team SABCO manager Tony Glover replaced Corrie Stott as crew chief of the No. 40 Chevrolet on an interim basis.

"It's one big cycle," said Brett Bodine, owner-driver of the No. 11 Paychex Ford. "Last year about this time, it was all the driver changes. Now, it's crew chiefs. Next yeat it'll be something else."

Some of the premiere crew chiefs in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series are stumped by the unique rule in place during The Winston that there is no set regulation in terms of pit road speed. In other words, cars can scream down pit road at well over 100 miles per hour.

"You can't practice these pit stops," said No. 2 Miller Lite Ford crew chief Robin Pemberton. "There's not many places you can practice 180 mile per hour pit stops. You just go on from (you've done from) year-to-year. We feel like we have always had a top-two or three car in qualifying. This was really good for the guys."

Source: NASCAR Online