Coca-Cola  600  Race  Report

Race Report - Coca-Cola 600 Wednesday, May 26 - - Ted and the Remington crew drove through light rain showers on their way to the Lowe's (Charlotte) Motor Speedway from the race shop this morning. The garage area opened just before 9:00AM ET. The team will enjoy a slighly relaxed schedule this week with events spread out over 5 days. Practice is scheduled for 2:00PM if the weather cooperates. Ted will be drawing his qualifying order position at 1:00PM for first round qualifying at 7:00PM (8:05PM TBS delayed broadcast). Ted drew the 11th position for the qualifying line-up. During this afternoon's extended practice session Ted ran a quick lap of 29.380 at 183.798MPH. His overall speed was 5th quickest of the field. The team worked on the chassis set-up, scuffed some tires, and did plug checks. To perform a plug check, Ted will cut the ignition and throw the transmission into neutral while going down the back stretch, then coast onto pit road and hopefully into the garage area. Danny Tompkins, the chief engineman, will take out each spark plug and check the cathode area. A tan plug tells him that the cylinder is tuned properly. A darkened or sooty plug indicates too much fuel mixture and a white plug indicates the cylinder is too lean on fuel. Carburetor adjustments will then be made to correct any problems. By suddenly killing the engine, the spark plugs reveal real conditions at race speed and don't become contaminated while downshifting and idling. Between helping the crew, doing some quick media interviews, and chatting with pit/paddock visitors, Ted ate a sandwich from the transporter. Although temperatures are not too high, the humidity which is in the 90's, can be exhausting, especially during a long practice session when Ted enters and leaves the garage area numerous times. During qualifying, Ted ran a 29.482 lap at 183.163MPH which puts him 21st on the starting grid for Sunday's race. This is an inside starting position in the 11th row. Ted and the Remington crew are quite happy with the results but thought a later run in the qualifying order could have netted them a top 15 starting position. Now it is time to put in the race engine and work on their race set-up during Thursday and Saturday practice sessions. There will be no Friday on-track activities for the team. Thursday, May 27 - - (updated 5/28/99)   Ted and the crew are prepared for 3 rounds of practice today. Many teams may decide to use only 2 sessions to avoid over-tweaking the cars or getting into trouble on the track. Jon Wolfe and his team are focused on today's events, not concerned about all the sponsorship news floating about. Remington Arms will still lend their support to the rest of the racing season. Polaris ATVs will still come on board for a designated number of races as noted previously on this page. During today's first practice session, Ted and the crew worked on some chassis variations, running a 30.703 lap at 175.879MPH. The majority of teams ran in the mid-175 range with their race set-ups. Speeds are expected to remain fairly consistent before the end of the day because teams want to run well the entire race. This doesn't always mean the fastest, because it is such a long race. Also, unless there are a lot of cautions Sunday, cars must be able to run well by themselves. Ted elected not to make laps the second practice session. Instead, the team wanted to solely concentrate on the twilight practice session when track conditions will be more comparable to Sunday's race conditions. Results of the 3rd and final practice session for Thursday had Ted running 30.726 laps at 175.747MPH. Friday will see the team making a few adjustments to the car in preparation for Saturday's 2 practice sessions including Happy Hour. Saturday, May 29 - - The crew arrived at the track this morning when the garage opened at 7:00. After a relaxed Friday, the team began preparations for a early morning practice session at 9:00. On Friday, many teams had discussed not running today's AM practice. Final practice, called Happy Hour, will be held after the conclusion of today's Busch series race. Jon Wolfe will be directing the team in double checking every item on the car. Each significant item or task is listed on a checklist. After an item is inspected by a crew member, or a task is completed, that crew member must put his initials next to the item on the list. Some examples are: torque on bolts; safety harness; hubs lubricated; brake fluid; gear oil; engine oil; new spark plugs; spoiler angle; radio communications; and the list goes on filling up 3 pages. Ted ran a quick lap of 30.386 at 177.713MPH during morning practice. Most of the cars took to the track, so Ted's speed was 21st on the speed charts. The team made a few minor adjustments. They will now eat lunch from the transporter or grab a pizza from the infield snack bar then watch the Busch race while waiting for Happy Hour practice. Happy Hour practice is over. Ted went out later in the session, hoping that the track would cool down slightly to better emulate tomorrow's race conditions. His fast lap was 175.324 in 30.800 seconds which was 11th fastest for the session. The crew put a slightly lower gear in the rear end to avoid running the engine at a high RPM rate for 600 miles. Sunday, May 30 - - (updated 6/01/99) Ted and the crew arrived at the speedway this morning after having breakfast together in Mooresville. The garage and paddock area opened at 11:00AM ET for the crew to go through the final checklist and clean the interior and exterior of the #75 Remington Ford Taurus before rolling it onto pit road later this afternoon. A cleaner/wax is rubbed on the exterior of the car to clean it and make it 'slicker to the wind'. The crew will also begin setting up their pit stall later today. A crew member will be assigned to stay at the pit stall to keep an eye on all the equipment and tires because pit road gets very crowded with pre-race visitors to the pits. Some teams have 2 crew members doing this job. The drivers and crew chiefs meeting is set for 4:15PM followed by drivers introductions at 5:45PM with a scheduled green flag at 6:15PM. Ted took the green flag from the 21st position. On lap 19 Ted radioed in that the car was getting very loose in the corners. Ted hung on until lap 61 when the first caution flag was thrown. Cars were able to pit on lap 64. Ted got fuel and 4 tires with a decease in air pressure. The front tire carrier pulled some tape off the front grill. Racing resumes, but Ted reports the car is still too loose. By lap 71 Ted is running 27th. Crew Chief Jon Wolfe discusses pit strategy with Ted and they decide to unhook the rear track bar during the next pit stop. Ted pits under caution on lap 107. The track bar is adjusted so as not to affect the car's handling. Ted requests drinking water. Accelerating down pit road, Ted tires to shift into 2nd gear, but the shifter jams and he can't change gears on the 4-speed manual Jerico transmission. The crew scrambles a short distance down pit road to assist Ted. They jack the car up on one side as a crew member slips underneath and frees up the shifter arm. Ted is finally able to leave pit road but finds himself a lap down to the leaders. Racing resumes on lap 111, with Ted running 35th. The caution flag is immediately thrown for another on-track incident, Ted restarts on lap 117 running 34th. Another caution is thrown on lap 122 but the team descides not to pit. Racing resumes on lap 127 with Ted in 32nd. By lap 139 Ted is reporting he is tight in the center of the corners as the track starts to cool off. Ted pits under green on lap 184 for fuel and 4 tires with increased air pressure. The crew also does a wedge adjustment. Ted is handed more water. Now he is reporting the car is loose again but drives the best he can until the next caution comes out on lap 242. Ted pits for fuel and 4 tires with air pressure adjusted. He also requests more water. It is still very hot in the car and the humidity is quite high. Racing resumes on lap 248, running 28th. Ted hasn't experienced any more transmission problems on pit road or out on the track. Ted again pits under green on lap 313. He only takes on fuel and 2 tires to maintain good track position in 27th. Ted climbs to 23rd by lap 386 but the car's handling is going in the other direction again, getting too loose. Two laps later Ted radios in that the throttle is stuck wide open. Ted desparately works the brakes as he hurtles around the track. Luckily, he is clear of other cars most of the time. He can't slip the clutch for fear of overrevving the engine, so he lets the load of the car, with the help of braking keep the car under control and finish the race in 23rd. Dealing with continously changing track conditions, handling problems and transmission problems, and a stuck throttle, Ted finished the Coca-Cola/World 600 race in 23rd position, 4 laps down to the leaders. He earned 94 points, for a total of 971, moving him up to 32nd in the points race. Butch Mock climbed to 30th in owners points with 1,002.

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This is a fan page. Information from official sources is provided for educational and entertainment purposes only. ©1999   Karen C. Huseonica