NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Cummins 200 Preview -- Ford Drivers
29 July 1997
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Ford Notes & Quotes Cummins 200 By Indiana Dodge Dealers Advance Indianapolis Raceway Park Mike Bliss and Kenny Irwin have run countless races in open-wheel cars at Indianapolis Raceway Park. Both have numerous victories at the Indianapolis short track. They talk about how to be successful at the track, and compare running the lightweight midgets, sprints, and Silver Crown cars with running the NASCAR Craftsman trucks on the relatively flat track. Chuck Bown has driven several Busch races at IRP. Although he has never won, he has led many laps there, and he compares the cars and trucks. MIKE BLISS (#2 Team ASE Ford F-150) - "I went to Indianapolis in '90, I don't know, two or something like that, to run a midget car. It was the toughest midget race I've ever had to run. Back there in the midwest in the midgets, sprints, and Silver Crown they ran a lot harder than I was used to running. Running Indianapolis has made me a lot better driver than what I was before. It's a real rough track, demanding, mostly corners. The corners are long, and there's not a lot of bank there and it's hard to pass. It is critical to be set up properly. It's the hardest track I think I've been on. At Winchester and Salem, those places, you can get a pretty close set up and race on it. You've got to have a set up there at (Indianapolis) Raceway Park that's right on. Because of the midget and sprint car races it ended up being one of my favorite tracks because I've won a lot of races there and it's been good to me. And you kind of take to a track when you've won races there and it's been good to you. In the trucks we've been good, but we haven't been great. Hopefully, going into this race we can use what we learned last year and adapt it, and bring another truck, a different style truck and see what happens. Hopefully, we're going to be pretty good." WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DRIVING THE TRUCK AND AN OPEN WHEEL CAR AT IRP? - "A midget is the hardest thing to drive. A 35 lap midget race is harder to drive than a 200 lap truck race. They are so small and darty, and you have to be on top of it the whole time. They slide around. In the truck you drive it in there and you just kind of wait until the thing turns or gets loose. You just kind of wait on it. In the midget you kind of know what is going to happen. The sprint cars and Silver Crowns are a little bit lazier. They don't react as quick as the midget, but it is pretty much the same groove. In the truck you enter a little bit lower and let the thing drift up in the center to try to get the speed down a little. In the midgets and sprint cars you enter a little higher and try to round or arc it off instead of diamond it." WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE IN SPEED? - "The midgets and sprint cars are almost going the same. The midgets are getting real fast around there. I think they are in the high 20-second bracket. The trucks I believe are in the 23 (second) bracket. I think you are two and a half, three seconds faster in the midgets, but it's all corners. The corners are so critical there. The corner speed is so critical it gets you down the straightaway. If you don't get off the corners real good, you're not going to get any straightaway speed. The midgets are getting through the corners so good you can over horsepower yourself there." ARE YOU RUNNING OPEN WHEEL THERE THIS WEEK? - "Yeah, Wednesday night in the Silver Crown race." WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU RAN AN OPEN WHEEL RACE AT IRP? - "A year ago. We came in third." IS THIS YOUR FAVORITE TRACK ON THE TRUCK CIRCUIT? - "It's one of them. It's tough because it's one lane so it's tough to pass, but I think I like it because I've won there." KENNY IRWIN (#98 Raybestos Ford F-150) - DO YOU CONSIDER IRP YOUR HOME TRACK? - "I sure do. Actually I consider Salem, Winchester and IRP my home tracks and my favorite tracks. I'm excited about going home next week. We get to race three times. I'm going to get the chance to run the trucks, a Busch car and Silver Crown. I think we've got a good chance to win all three nights. It's just going to be a great weekend for me, I hope." WHAT KINDS OF CARS HAVE YOU WON IN AT IRP? - "We've won in all three divisions -- the midgets, the sprint cars and Silver Crown cars. I started running there in '91. When the season was going on we'd test out there at least once a week, and we'd race out there maybe 15 times a year in all the divisions combined. I just have a ton of laps out there. I probably have more laps there than just about anybody racing here (in trucks)." COMPARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF CARS -- THE MIDGETS, SPRINTS, SILVER CROWN, BUSCH AND TRUCKS. - "You drive the stock cars totally different than you drive the open wheel cars. All three of the open wheel cars you drive pretty much the same. You just drive in there as hard as you can and get back on the gas You don't use any brakes. It's a momentum deal. With the trucks, you drive it in there, you use the brakes, you don't get back on the gas until after the center of the corner. You just drive it totally different. IRP is probably the hardest place I've ever raced at. To get a vehicle, a truck, a Silver Crown car to set-up (to race). I mean it's a hard place to race at." WHY? - "It's just the configuration. You run right up against the wall. There's just very little room for error. You can see that by watching the sprint cars and midgets every week there, going over the walls. It's just a really hard place to run." CHUCK BOWN (#99 Exide Ford F-150) - "I've run several Busch races there (Indianapolis Raceway Park). We haven't won one, but we led a lot of laps there and ran pretty good there. I like the race track a lot. It's pretty unique, pretty round, flat 5/8th mile oval, but the groove is kind of odd. You go into the corner kind of in the middle and slide up way to the wall and stay high pretty much off the corner, so that is unique for a flat race track. But I'm really looking forward to it. It is a track I feel I know a little bit more about than the ones we have been going to here lately. I hadn't been to the last three race tracks so it'll be fun to go to a track I've run some races at." CAN YOU MAKE A COMPARISON BETWEEN THE TRUCKS AND THE BUSCH CARS? - "Well, to be honest with you, I haven't had the opportunity to run at a race track where I've run a Busch car at very often. But from what I can tell so far i don't think there is a whole lot of difference. At Texas I think aerodynamics were pretty important, but I'd never run a Busch car at Texas. It's a little bit peculiar because basically, I'm still learning about them (the trucks), but basically my set-ups are not far from a car, but a little bit. I think the trucks are just a little bit looser than a car." By Ford Motorsport Public Affairs
