oh no rcr

[willracefan]

after fontana i do not like what i see. well, i could care less about those three but they were terrible and kevin was good enough for a top ten car before he hit the wall and lost the engine. i just hope that this isnt a forshadowing of things to come. rcr may need to make their own engines again and get away from egr, why would rc want to share engines with ganassi? it seemed montoya had the best finish of the ectr cars but i hope that this isnt where things are headed. harvick is not bowyer or burton he is an elite with mediocre equipment.

any chance hendrick will help rcr out since he's helped shr out. i mean hendrick seems elite/popular driver biased.

[slorydn1]

after fontana i do not like what i see. well, i could care less about those three but they were terrible and kevin was good enough for a top ten car before he hit the wall and lost the engine. i just hope that this isnt a forshadowing of things to come. rcr may need to make their own engines again and get away from egr, why would rc want to share engines with ganassi? it seemed montoya had the best finish of the ectr cars but i hope that this isnt where things are headed. harvick is not bowyer or burton he is an elite with mediocre equipment.

any chance hendrick will help rcr out since he's helped shr out. i mean hendrick seems elite/popular driver biased.

Looking back at my notes, Kevin complained about the same thing thru most of the race:Tight in the center, loose off. He first mentioned it at lap 6, just as the 1st caution came out. It seemed, while it was still daylight, no matter what they adjusted, it made the car worse. This was pretty much the same thing he complained about at Daytona, and, looking thru last years notes, at Texas, Lowes, Homestead, California (I didn't start doing it until just before he chase, and of course, not on the weekends I was working).

Yet, when the sun went down, and the lights came up, Kevin was flying (same as in the 500, and he had a solid car all the way through the Shootout as well).

But what really bothered me, even more than the engine failure (which turned out to be an oil filter blowing off [?!?!?!?!?!] was the adjustments made to the car during the pitstop on Lap 170. When the Caution came out on lap 169, Kevin stated that the car was very good now, just needed a litttle more forward bite up off the corner, especialy turn 2. Todd has them take a whole pound out of the left rear. INSTANT JUNK!!!!

The race restarted on lap 177, and he was P8. On lap 180 Kevin came up on the radio and screamed "WHAT DID YOU DO TO THIS CAR, IT IS WAY,WAY,WAY,WAY TOO TIGHT NOW!!!!!! There was no answer forthcoming, yet....

By lap 183, Kevin was already 6.9 seconds back, and 1.2 seconds off the pace. On Lap 185 he came up and stated that you would not believe how bad this car is right, now, and asked again what they did to it. Thats when Todd told him that they took a pound out of the left rear, and Kevin went ballistic. After several laps of expletives that would have made Dale jr blush Kevin said something to the effect that a pound adjustment is something you do when the car is junk, that the car was basicly good before that. I don;t remember what lap for sure that was, I was apparently to pissed off to notate that, myself. AT lap 200 Kevin was 17.9 seconds back, 0.5 seconds off the 17's lap times, and of course he blew up at lap 208...

There seems to be a definite lack of communication between Kevin and Todd, and I just don't get it. They have been together in Cup since 2002, and Todd was Kevin's crew chief for his 2001 NNS Championship, and I belive in 1999 and 2000 as well in the NNS.

If Jimmie Johnson says we are just a little off, would Chad Knaus make such a huge adjustment?

Looking back at last years notes, I can see time and time again a late race adjustment that just didn't jive with what Kevin was saying about the car. I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with Todd Berrier, I'm just saying that maybe they just aren't communicating like they should be anymore.

Maybe its time RC does another crew chief swap like he did in 2002.

As for the engine failure, not a big deal..Stuff Happens.
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO has the record for most consecutive races without a DNF? And WHOOOOOOOO'S teamate now holds the best active streak?!?!? They a'int Hendrick drivers. Kevin only has 14 career DNF's in 288 Cup Starts since 2001, and I can only remember a handful of those being engine related (2004 was a bad year for that!), I'm sure it was just a freak occurence.

It's the lack of communication that scares me

[slorydn1]

I just looked it up...of the 14 DNF's, 9 were engine related (including 3 of the 4 races in October, 2004), 4 were crashes, and 1 was a transmission.

RCR will be just fine...

[BobbyC]

Clint Bowyer now has the No DNF streak at 75 races. Finish every race to the 600 and he sets the record.

[willracefan]

yeah slo 2004 was a disappointing year. i do remember those engine failures at kc, charlotte, and atlanta. dont wanna see that again. i sure hope things are better this afternoon. and let me just reiterate why i dont care much about harvick's teammates: did you see the nws race?

[slorydn1]

yeah slo 2004 was a disappointing year. i do remember those engine failures at kc, charlotte, and atlanta. dont wanna see that again. i sure hope things are better this afternoon. and let me just reiterate why i dont care much about harvick's teammates: did you see the nws race?


Oh yeah, I saw it.....C'est la vie, u were right there.
Unforunately my DVR decieded it didn't want to work for me today. I got home from work 20 minutes ago, was able to avoid finding out what happened all day today (under penalty of a well placed .40 caliber bullet in the rear of the first person to even MENTION the race!) turn on the tv, pull up my menu and NO RACE....I am so pissed right now. Looking at the on NASCAR.COM I see I didn't miss anything. Happy finished 12th, after having an awesome car in practice. I wonder what mis adjustment was made today :dozey:

[harvick#1]

slo, he got trapped a lap down when gordon blew a tire late in the race, he was a top 10 car for most of the race, but not as good as Burton or Bowyer yesterday

[willracefan]

harvick actually was just as good as burton or bowyer they got lucky on pit strategy and had bobby labonte and david reutiman as blockers for them(well, not intentionally just held back johnson and edwards until the leaders were too much ahead). however, that lap down could have been avoided had they waited. also, i believe they should have taken at least two tires on that one stop they took fuel only. it led to a tire going down and harvick was well in the top five before that happened. he was fast at the end, and could have gotten a top five had they waited past the caution to pit. also, the fact that they were penalized on pit road i felt could have been the result of frustrations of hating the traffic and being a lap down. even if they were trapped a lap down they could have gotten it back if not that penalty and finished in the top ten. not looking forward to atl one bit.

but here's one thing notice the fc 500 bristol winner hasnt won yet that season prior to that race at least in recent years. kenseth and ky.busch wont win there because they are set up on the 1.5's this early. edwards i hope(i know) wins atl so he wont win there. and i know we can outrace gordon, junior, biffle, and johnson there. hamlin and stewart have been the only ones better than us or just as good the last two years there. the teammates have been with us, but really only can take advantage of a mistake on our part. and there is kurt busch, but lets not get into that.

if harvick does not win bristol, crap is gonna hit the fan. and rcr may have some shakeups.

[wbcobrar]

willracefan :o pie =Edwards ?, shrub = Kenseth ?, unibrow = Jeffie Gordon ?, pretty= J. Johnson ?, overrated poster boy = Joonyar ? I must be close , and find this hallarious . Dont worry about Harvick , he will make the chase ,and will have 2 or 3 wins ,and buckets of top 5's. It's early in the very long season.

[slorydn1]

willracefan :o pie =Edwards ?, shrub = Kenseth ?, unibrow = Jeffie Gordon ?, pretty= J. Johnson ?, overrated poster boy = Joonyar ? I must be close , and find this hallarious . Dont worry about Harvick , he will make the chase ,and will have 2 or 3 wins ,and buckets of top 5's. It's early in the very long season.


nah, Jimmie Johnson is Unibrow, That I know for a fact.
Kyle Busch is shrub (aka, little Busch, because of his older brother Kurt)....Those are the ones I am sure of.

I thought Edwards was "Mr ED", could be wrong on that one. I could see JR as the overated poster boy, possibly, and Jeff could be "pretty" as in "pretty boy, go drink your milk!" (an old Dale Sr-ism) i'm not sure kenseth falls into any of these catagories.

[willracefan]

right on, slo! you guessed em. :D

[wbcobrar]

See you gyes Harvick kicked tail today.

[willracefan]

yes he did but toad had another pit misschedule. in fact, two of em!

[slorydn1]

yes he did but toad had another pit misschedule. in fact, two of em!

Nothing wrong with the pit schedule today. He could have gone 8 more laps on fuel, but would have been losing 4 seconds a lap to the guys he was racing with (positions 8 thru 14)...Billy told Todd that those other guys were pitting and Todd said come on now, pit this time by. Harvick left the pits and that moron from the 47 team runs out into the grass. Had the caution not come out Harvick would have made up anywhere from 8 to 12 seconds on the leader (if the 2 stayed out 2-3 more laps). So, no misschedule there. I hope Nascar kneecaps that idiot, give him some time off. He cost half the field like 2 laps

[RaceFanStan]

The crewman who chased the tire, Jimmy Watts, has been suspended 4 races for his dumb move. http://www.motorsportforum.com/forums/images/icons/rolleyes.gif

http://www.nascar.com/2009/news/headlines/cup/03/10/mambrose.crewman.suspended/index.html

[Sparky1329]

The crewman who chased the tire, Jimmy Watts, has been suspended 4 races for his dumb move. http://www.motorsportforum.com/forums/images/icons/rolleyes.gif

http://www.nascar.com/2009/news/headlines/cup/03/10/mambrose.crewman.suspended/index.html

So then NASCAR trumped Jimmy Watts' dumb move with their own. Dumbazzes. Chasing a tire into the infield wasn't the smartest thing to do but 4 weeks? Talk about overkill for what was in all probability an instinctual reaction.

[harvick#1]

So then NASCAR trumped Jimmy Watts' dumb move with their own. Dumbazzes. Chasing a tire into the infield wasn't the smartest thing to do but 4 weeks? Talk about overkill for what was in all probability an instinctual reaction.

yet, Nascar fails to punish drivers who intentionally try and injure others

[willracefan]

harvick better spin kyle out today.

[RaceFanStan]

The problem with that is that Harvick has to catch Kyle Busch BEFORE he can spin him out. http://www.motorsportforum.com/forums/images/icons/tongue-anim.gif

[slorydn1]

The problem with that is that Harvick has to catch Kyle Busch BEFORE he can spin him out. http://www.motorsportforum.com/forums/images/icons/tongue-anim.gif


Harvick didn't have to...looks like Kyle took care of that all by himself! :D :p :

[willracefan]

well harvick DID catch him, gave him a rear quarter panel bump and moved him out of the lead, kyle after that was a big baby, just hear him in his in-truck radio and all and how he was running away after the race. harvick played him today and i loved it! :D

[willracefan]

actually harvick schooled him today. :D

[willracefan]

its official! harvick wont be a serious contender until 2010! maybe we can get a charity win if lucky at chicago or infineon.

[willracefan]

i just want to thank teresa for her crappy engines being attached to rcr's hip and likely keeping us from seeking engine help elsewhere. :angryfire :

[harvick#1]

yeah, its really getting disappointing now, you may see one RCR driver in the top 10 anymore,

for another reason, Todd just keeps making the car tier as the race progresses. I thought he finally had the car going when he got his lap back, he was moving through the field, then pitted again and all went to crap.

RCR needs a big personel change, I'd like Shane CC for Harvick, they were a league in their own in the NWS series

[willracefan]

i'm not sure if i could blame todd now, according to people who have pit command kevin is the one who has been calling the shots with the cc when it comes to tires and such. if todd cant be an enforcer, then kevin needs someone who can. however, the engines are still gonna be an issue and we cant get hp help elsewhere while we are in that deal with egr without leaving someone without a place to put their engines.

[slorydn1]

i'm not sure if i could blame todd now, according to people who have pit command kevin is the one who has been calling the shots with the cc when it comes to tires and such. if todd cant be an enforcer, then kevin needs someone who can. however, the engines are still gonna be an issue and we cant get hp help elsewhere while we are in that deal with egr without leaving someone without a place to put their engines.

Nope...its Todd calling the shots. And, the motor wasn't the issue, it was the set up. I've been listening to Kevin regularly since 2003, and he used to be very vocal about the engines being underpowered. He hasn't said a peep about engines since late in the 2005 season, and a mid season chassis dyno test lest year showed that ECR motors are among the top HP producers, even beating Hendrick in that particular test, so its not the engines....

The car was so bad during practice on Friday that Kevin couldn't barely drive the thing, and that carried over into the race on Sat Nite.

The set up was so bad, that Harvick keyed up the radio on lap 9 and said "This is a hunk of ^&*@, pushing the nose, sliding the rear....."
And at lap 20, he said the same thing the FOX crew noted all weekend "Now you know our cars are junk when we suck at our best track...."
Then for about 4 laps (27-30) it got really ugly when Kevin and RC himself started arguing on the radio. RC basicly told him to shut up and drive,that all 4 cars were having problems and that they would discuss it on Monday...Kevin shot back basicly saying he was tired of talking and wanted something done....he went on to say
"I'll tell what I would do Monday, I'd go back and fire (then there was static and the rest was unintelligable on Pit command). All I know is, no one spoke for like 10 laps after that, not even the spotter.

Todd makes all of the calls on adjustments every week.
ABouth halfway through a run, if Kevin hasn't been bitching too much, Todd will ask what the car is doing...
Kevin will tell him stuff like Its loose off, pushes in the ctr, loose in (etc) and thats about it. Todd rattles off a list of things he'd like to do (wedge in/out, air pressure, track bar etc). Todd likes to adjust the track bar, and Kevin hates it when they mess with that, I only remember him saying yes only a couple of times when Todd has mentioned messing with that, usually its a big fat no. Everything else Todd wants to do, Kevin usually has the "Just dont do anything to hurt the car" attitude, he really doesn't seem to care what the adjustment is
About the only thing Kevin really puts input in is when they are discussing whether to take 2, 4, or no tires.
Todd wanted to gamble to get track position on the next caution on lap 165 after they got their lap back (they got the LD during the caution on lap 150) after Kevin said the car was somehwat better, but that he still needed rear grip, and Kevin nixed that, he wanted 4 tires because he was worried the car would start plowing again. What kills me is the only adjustment they made on this stop was 0.2 lbs of air in right front and 0.4 lbs out of right rear and the car went back to being total junk again, went right back to being a dump truck...

I'll tell you what something has got to change soon.....

[Sparky1329]

The POS car has to change, slo. If NASCAR was smart they'd invite input from the bleeping crew chiefs who have to deal with the POS. This Daytona Sopranos "my way or the highway" chit needs to stop before more and more fans start finding better things to do on raceday than watch a poor excuse for racing.

[willracefan]

i dont see the cot leaving anytime soon, sadly it appears according to some if harvick can't figure out his car, he can't be competitive. that's what the cot has done, it plays a mental part now.

[willracefan]

well looks as if i nailed this thread when i started it. rcr is struggling.

and burton and bowyer are in the chase for their timely pit strategies and maybe a little better cars while harvick is last with the worst equipment, and i should feel upset rightfully so.

i just dont have faith in rcr turning it around and being that every year title contender and if they have been for three years, it hasnt all gone to harvick, bowyer had his time and burton as well. but its just not fair he deserves to win races and isnt getting them. is it the tale of harvick or rcr when harvick always seems to follow up a promising year with a disappointing one? were he to have this situation at a different team, like, say, shr?

whats even worse is hearing people on his board say khi should join shr or that rcr will come out of this and be like hendrick in the long run, sorry it wont be that way to me, i dont see it. and i also get sick of hearing brad keselowski being a hotter free agent than harvick were he to leave and that shr would hire him over harvick because hms is full. that is a joke.

of course, the media will pour on him again next year because of it being a contract year of will he or wont he and if rcr wants him to stay they will throw the boat at him just like 06, even have people work in the offseason, and then harvick could get fooled into signing on again.

and will jimmie johnson let anyone who doesnt race with him every year for wins suddenly have a blue moon year and win the title over him? i dont think so, harvick can do it, but i think every year consistensy and winning three races a year is what needs to happen before doing it. which is why i dont feel rcr is the answer.