Motorsports

Wheldon, team need common language

By BRANT JAMES
Published August 1, 2006

Motorsports is in many ways an exact science, especially in open-wheel racing. Fuel runs and tire pressures are calibrated and catalogued to the nth degree. Computers track and help hone setups. Engine performance is constantly scrutinized by an array of sensors and presented to driver and crew by a bank of winking lights and video monitors.

But no amount of electronics can replace the basic synergy between driver and chief engineer - open wheel's equivalent of a crew chief - and the communication necessary to relay which changes are needed during a race.

Defending Indy Racing League champion Dan Wheldon is still learning that interplay with engineer Andy Brown after coming to Team Ganassi from Andretti Green Racing this season.

"I was at Andretti Green Racing for three years and when I said 'mildly,' they knew what my definition of 'mildly' was," said Wheldon, who finished third Sunday at Michigan to pull within 17 points of leader and race winner Helio Castroneves. "That takes time for me to be able to relay to my engineer what 'mildly' is, for my words for him to translate the changes on the car, and vice versa. If he tells me something, it takes me time to know how much change that is going to make a difference to the car in handling.

"We just haven't worked together that long. It's definitely been a getting-to-know-one-another phase, and I think we keep getting better every race, but it's part and parcel with changing teams."

NEW GUY: Robert Yates Racing's sea- son of unrest became even more restless Monday.

The team announced that veteran crew chief Butch Hylton would replace Slugger Labbe on Dale Jarrett's No. 88 Ford team on an "interim" basis beginning this weekend in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

That follows the release of Tommy Baldwin, who had worked with driver Elliott Sadler on Yates' No. 38 Ford this season.

Hylton was crew chief for RYR developmental driver Stephen Leicht at Pocono Raceway two weeks ago, when the 19-year-old made his Nextel Cup debut. Leicht will try to qualify for the Brickyard 400 this weekend, on-the-job training for a likely full-time campaign next year in either the No. 88 or 38. Jarrett announced this spring he is leaving the team for Michael Waltrip Racing. Sadler opted out of his contract to join an undisclosed team next season.

UP TO SPEED: Bobby Ginn, new majority owner of MB2 Motorsports, said he hopes to double his team's fleet to four racing programs as soon as sponsorship and prudence will allow.

"Our goal is to get a third and fourth car added as soon as we possibly can," the founder of Ginn Resorts said Tuesday during a news conference. "We can be a sponsor on one if we have to, and we can probably team up with somebody if we have to, but I want to make sure the sponsor doesn't think I'm getting some competitive advantage. I'll give them the pick of the litter if that's what it takes to get the team up."

Ginn, who lives in Palm Coast, joins Beth Ann and Tony Morgenthau of Coral Gables as the only Florida residents to own full-time Nextel Cup teams.

SEEYA: Though Bobby Rahal insists he wishes Danica Patrick well as she leaves his IRL team for AGR next season, he hinted to the Boston Globe in Sunday's editions that he thinks she might be making a mistake.

"I've seen it before, the grass is always greener (elsewhere)," Rahal told the Globe. "As I told her, every driver who ever left us was looking to come back one year later, so I hope it doesn't happen to her, but we shall see."

Rahal said the major achievements of Patrick's winless IRL career - qualifying and finishing fourth and leading a lap at the 2005 Indianapolis 500, all bests for a female - was due to Rahal Letterman.

"Obviously, the fact she led the race at Indy - which was mostly because of our strategy - that made it a very exciting moment for the sport," he said. "And she's been living off that since then."

GONE: Clay Andrews Racing, which launched unknown David Gilliland to a likely Nextel Cup ride with a stunning Busch Series win June 17 at Kentucky in an unsponsored, unaffiliated car, announced Monday it was closing.

"We put our heart, soul and resources into David Gilliland," Clay Andrews said. "Personally and financially we do not feel it is best to move forward at this time."

[Last modified August 1, 2006, 02:49:41]