Tech Q&A: Greg Zipadelli

June 3, 2001
11:42 AM EDT (1542 GMT)

Greg Zipadelli is crew chief of the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Home Depot Pontiac for driver Tony Stewart. He has been on a three-year roller coaster ride with Stewart, the 1999 NASCAR Winston Cup Raybestos Rookie of the Year. Together, they have won 10 races.

Zipadelli, a New England native and a graduate of the Busch North Series has used a diverse short-track background similar to Stewart's to good effect.

After struggling to adjust their set-ups and comfort level to the new, harder Goodyear tires in use this season, the pair could be on path to continue the roll that saw them win three times in their rookie season and six times in 2000. Last season, Zipadelli and Stewart swept both 400-mile races at Dover Downs International Speedway.

Q: How have you and Tony come to grips with the new Goodyear tire, and what has been the biggest adjustment you have had to make?

A: We've had to change our cars some. We started the season at Daytona and had a good car, and we had a good car at Rockingham. But at Vegas and Bristol and some other places where we thought we should have run better than we did, we couldn't get our car to turn as good as it needed to on the hard tire.

We've made some adjustments in the last four or five weeks and we've made some pretty significant gains to the point where he's comfortable. Part of it was the chassis stuff and the shock stuff and the other 50 percent was just him getting a feel and being comfortable with where the edge with that new tire was that didn't have as much grip. It was a learning curve for us, maybe due to some of our inexperience on my part and his part.

We struggled maybe a little more in the beginning than some of the other teams did but we're pretty comfortable and pretty confident in what we've learned the last couple weeks and that we can continue to carry it on.

Q: What effect does rain washing the race track clean and a lack of a lot of practice have at Dover?

A: The car does change when it gets in the rubber on the track. We've always had the tendency to get tighter and tighter and tighter as the race goes on. I don't know if it's tight as much as just lack of grip when you're running on that rubber.

The truck race and Busch race put down rubber but if it gets washed Saturday night it'll put us where the trucks were Saturday morning. The track's still gonna change as the day goes. It'll get to a certain point once it's rubbered-in and it'll pretty much stay the same way other than if the cool clouds or the sun change the race track.

Q: How critical is building adjustability into your set-up at Dover, and how changeable do you find the track conditions on the concrete surface here?

A: In all honestly I don't know that the race track changes that much. The problem is that you go so fast here that your car's either on the right front from entry to exit (of the corner) depending on how you drive; or it's on the right rear from the entry part all the way out. If your set-up is a little bit tight or a little bit loose or because you're so fast here you're that way, if you get a tire or a spring rate that's a little bit different it changes that whole tire run.

The race track changes a little bit -- but it's a little bit of that, a little bit of maybe the tires. They're like that everywhere, but here you go so fast and you're on that one or the other tire for so long it just magnifies it and makes it seem like it's a lot more. It's nothing anybody can fix -- it's just circumstances so for tires to be the same and consistent all day is a key.

Q: NASCAR instituted a rule change effective at Lowe's Motor Speedway to mandate longer springs and limit the use of spring rubbers. What effect does that have in general and specifically here at Dover?

A: At Dover it doesn't really mean anything because you have to run so much spring to hold it up because there's so much banking and you're getting down in the corner so fast it wouldn't depend on the soft stuff with bump rubbers and things. We've used them (spring rubbers) considerably in the past -- probably as much or more than any team in this garage area for the last two and a half years. So it's affected our program -- it's frustrating. Why they (NASCAR) did it, I don't know other than some people were complaining about it.

The way I look at it, if my driver was complaining about it, I'd either work harder and figure it out or I'd stop doing it. I don't think it was quite fair from my side because we had it figured out and our driver didn't complain about it -- half the time he didn't even know if we were using them or not. I guess it's their way of keeping everything even -- even-up the playing field a little more -- and making sure nobody's getting too far out in a technical thing.

Q: What type of car do you bring to Dover: A Rockingham-type car due to the banking or a "concrete car" that is acclimated to the track surface?

A: We use a concrete car. We built it brand new when we started the team in the winter of the first year and it's only been to Bristol and Dover. It's got a great track record and it's been a really good car. Our chassis set-ups and Tony's driving style I think has made the car have the record it has.

We broke a motor once and we got spun out at Bristol the beginning of the year and that's the only time it's finished out of the top-five. We were gonna finish in the top-five at Bristol. It's got a great record with nine races on it. A lot of it is due to his driving style. He's been able to adapt really well here and we've been able to get a car where he's really comfortable.

Q: From a crew chief's standpoint what is the most critical element at Dover: The driver, fuel mileage, tire management, pit strategy or cautions?

A: I think at Dover it's one of those race tracks where all of those play an extremely important part in the day. Fuel mileage, at one point will look like it's going to be a factor and if we get a late caution like we did last year it will wipe that out. More than once it's come down to fuel mileage. Taking care of your tires at the early part of a run, some tire management, and a driver using his head -- good pit stops are all big.

It's not an easy place to pass and a lot of cars run real equal. There'll be a couple cars that run really good, there'll be a bunch that run right in the middle and it's a tough place to pass because it's hard to get to the bottom. Nobody really wants to go to the outside. It's one of those race tracks where everything's got to be right all day long. You've got to be on top of your game because all those things are so critical. We're looking forward to a fun day.