Lauren Woods asked:
The ongoing NASCAR Nextel Cup series is currently being dominated by Chevy cars and experts in the motorsport thinks that NASCAR will sooner or later step in to make some rule changes to help Dodge, Ford, and Toyota who, as we all know, are the three other suppliers of vehicles for the sport.
With seven points races for the season already over, Chevrolet cars have shown their domination by winning all but one of them. Even the first non-points race in Daytona, the Budweiser Shootout, was also won by a Chevy car. In a recent interview, Dodge driver Kasey Kahne talks about what makes Chevy cars dominating in the early part of the Nextel Cup series.
“Chevy has good teams,” says Kahne. “They have some good drivers and good teams, and so does Dodge, Toyota and Ford. Chevy just seems like they’re always a little bit ahead, whether it’s aerodynamically, or their teams are doing a better job of figuring out how to make their cars right. I don’t know. I think driving a Dodge, it seems like we always struggle more in traffic even when we won six races. It would take me longer to get to the front than say Jimmie Johnson and we could be better than him when we got to the front.”
Chevy’s dominance was manifested in the first points race, the Daytona 500, where four of the top five drivers drove a Chevrolet. Kevin Harvick driving a Chevy for the Richard Childress Racing Team took the first place at the said race. At the UAW DaimlerChrysler 400, Chevy once again showed dominance when three Chevy units took the top three finishes with Jimmie Johnson taking the win for the Hendrick Motorsports Team. At the Kobalt Tools 500, two Chevrolet cars were once again at the top of the standings after the race with Jimmie Johnson scoring another win. At the fifth race of the season, the Food City 500, Chevrolet cars were at the top of the standings with Kyle Busch leading the way. At the Goody’s Cool Orange 500, Chevy cars displayed total domination when they took the top seven places after the race with Jimmie Johnson taking his third win of the season. And at the recently concluded Samsung 500, a Chevrolet won the race driven by Jeff Burton.
The only race so far that a Chevy car has not won is the Auto Club 500 where Matt Kenseth who driving a Ford vehicle managed to get a win.
Dodge though is not giving up just yet and will be introducing the Dodge Avenger at the next race of the season in Phoenix. Kahne recently expressed his thoughts about the car and how they would do in the next race. “I think it will be fine,” says Kahne. “We’ve just got to hit on the right things. We were really good at Bristol, one of the best cars, all three of the Evernham cars, and at Martinsville we all struggled. We went the wrong direction and struggled at the Richmond test. We have some other ideas for Phoenix and hopefully we start hitting on some things. It’s time we start hitting on some things.”
While Chevy is dominating the season, Kahne’s confidence on his team is not wavering. In fact, Kahne’s coolness regarding the dominance of Chevy can be likened to the relatively cold air produced by the Dodge cold air intake system. After all, he drives a Dodge. “My confidence is all right,” Kahne said. “I feel like we still have good teams, good people. We just have to make the right adjustments and build the bodies the right way. That’s the biggest thing with say last week’s car, building the bodies the right way. We are trying to figure out what that right direction is. It feels a lot like 2005 when we changed over to the Charger nose initially. We just haven’t made the right decisions with the body, and I think once we make those right decisions we should be all right.”
LEMUEL
