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ESPN Analysts Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree on Kyle Busch and Auto Manufacturers

Wednesday July 23, 2008

 

ESPN Analysts Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree on Kyle Busch and Auto Manufacturers

Quotes from ESPN analysts Dale Jarrett, the 1999 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion, and two-time champion crew chief and former team owner Andy Petree on the season being enjoyed by NASCAR driver Kyle Busch and the potential cutbacks by auto manufacturers in NASCAR. ESPN will have live, high definition coverage of the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, July 27, at 1 p.m. ET.

Dale Jarrett on Kyle Busch

He’s just a phenomenal talent and I think that he’s found himself in the perfect position. A lot of people wondered what would happen to a young man’s confidence when he’s released from a high-profile team, but he was picked up shortly after that release to go to Joe Gibbs Racing. What was going to be his mentality? Could he handle that at such a young age? I think he’s shown everyone that he has a very strong mind and he definitely has the physical ability to do whatever it takes to win these races. Right now he is the story in NASCAR Sprint Cup racing, and he can be in the Nationwide Series and the Trucks when he runs there. He’s a great talent and a young man who’s really good for our sport at this time.

Has he matured?

You’ve seen the maturity on and off the racetrack. Now that might be hard for some people to believe the way he goes about some of the antics off the racetrack when he gets out of his car and things, but I think what we’re seeing is a young man who’s just very comfortable with who he is and what’s happening now. I don’t know if this would have happened a couple of years ago. I don’t know that he would have been able to handle all of the success he’s having a couple of years ago.

Even though he still looks like he’s totally out of control most of the time, he obviously is in control. The majority of time he knows his limits. Will he still scrape the wall occasionally? Yes, but that’s why we watch every single lap to see if he’s going to make it going wide open like he does.

He has the ability, and I saw this when I raced against him, to drive a car yawed-out a little bit more than what others do. And I’ve been able to verify that through a contact that I have at Joe Gibbs Racing that yes, indeed, he does do that more than even the other drivers there at Joe Gibbs Racing. He’s able to drive that car with a freer motion than what the other drivers do, and I think that’s a big key as to why he’s winning with this type of car that everyone fights. The m.o. of this car has been loose in, tight in the center and loose off, and he’s able to get his car through the center because he’s able to drive it in the corner a little bit looser and that’s just a feel that he has that right now no one else does, and it serves him well.

Andy Petree on potential cutbacks by auto manufacturers

There’s no substitute for money. This sport runs on money and that’s really what it comes down to. These teams have become so sophisticated in the past 15 years that they can provide their own technology as long as they have enough money to fund it. And back in the day before that, the car companies would provide a lot of the technology that you couldn’t afford to buy. The technology was probably more important 10-15 years ago; today the money is the most important thing. We used to take our cars up to GM when I was with Chevrolet and Oldsmobile teams, we would use their facilities like the shaker rigs, the VHF (vehicle handling facility) and wind tunnels. Now those things are available here, all you have to do is pay at the gate and go on in and use them. The wind tunnels are here in stock car country, and so are the 7-post rigs. Most of the top teams have those in-house. But it takes money to run them. The team owners, I would be a little nervous about the position that the car companies are in to be able to provide the resources to develop that technology. That being said though, I believe this is probably the best place for the car companies to spend their marketing dollars, and hopefully this will be one of the last places they make their cuts.

What can they provide other than money?

The biggest thing that they provide is the engine technology. Teams can’t really design and cast their own engines, and blocks, and heads and that sort of thing. NASCAR has a channel for all of that. It comes through the manufacturers so that will be a piece of that technology that they will provide no matter how much money they were giving the teams. Teams couldn’t quite replace that. That part of it is probably always going to be there.

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This report was provided by an outside PR source and posted by Ren Jonsin.

 

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