From the Pit Box: Q&A with crew chief Roy McCauley

For the second consecutive year, Kurt Busch and Roy McCauley will undergo on-the-job training. Last year it was finding a comfort level between driver and crew chief, a brand-new combination for the No. 2 Dodge team. This year it's the Car of Tomorrow.

Early runs this season indicate a rapport has been developed, although Busch has just one top-10 in three starts. He led a race-high 95 laps at Daytona before getting entangled in an accident. He finished eighth at California, but a blown motor ruined his run at Las Vegas.

This week Busch is at Bristol Motor Speedway, where he has posted one-third of his career victories, including his first and thus far only victory in the No. 2. Dodge. But this year won't be like any other at Bristol, with NASCAR set to debut the much talked about COT.

McCauley had his say, too.

Q: Are you ready for the COT?

McCauley: I'm looking forward to it. I think the debut of the COT is going to be a neat event. I think NASCAR has done a good job of trying to bring it to fruition. It's not going to be without its growing pains, but overall I think everybody has done a pretty good job of getting to this point.

Q: What about the COT specifically appeals to you?

McCauley: I just like it because it's different. We might not run as good as we want to all the time, but it's a new challenge. I think it's kind of cool.

Q: Is Bristol the right track to debut the COT?

McCauley: Certainly. Bristol adds a dimension to it, because it's such a small racetrack and we have some pretty exciting racing there. As far as the race itself goes, it's still going to be Bristol. You're still going to have the same type of racing.

There might be a few changes in strategy because of tire life or what the car is doing, but I don't think you're going to see anything radically different as far as how the race finishes up.

Q: Will introducing a new style of car hinder Kurt's success at Bristol?

McCauley: Kurt's ability at Bristol is unquestioned. We have to give Kurt the car that he needs because the COT is not going to affect his ability to drive at Bristol one bit.

With Kurt, I think we could take a dump truck to Bristol and do just fine.

Q: What kind of feeling did you come away with from the recent Bristol test?

McCauley: We didn't have a super-good test there. We have to make our cars a little bit better to match [Busch's] needs. But I think everybody is in that same boat. I don't think any driver out there was happy with the car after Bristol as far as the amount of tightness the car had, and we certainly were in that category.

The way the COT is limited in some areas, I think just about every car had a really tight balance and it was a matter of managing that balance to the smallest level of tightness you can have. I feel like we missed a little bit in doing that and that's what we have to work on going back.

Q: How much time has the No. 2 team devoted to the COT?

McCauley: Countless hours, I couldn't even begin to tell you. It's like running two different series at the same time. They're completely different cars that require different parts, although the principles behind setting them up aren't a whole lot different.

Q: Where did the No. 2 team fall short in 2006?

McCauley: We weren't as consistent as we needed to be. Our intermediate program wasn't as good as it needed to be. We spent a lot of time over the winter working on our intermediate program as well as the COT program.

Q: Have you been happy with the results to this point?

McCauley: I feel like we had a good race at Daytona going before we got caught up in an accident. California we had a solid finish. Las Vegas we had a motor problem. While we probably couldn't have won Las Vegas or California, I feel like we made some steps in our intermediate program to improve.

I'm looking forward to the rest of the year and trying to be more consistent in our finishes. Rather than finishing second one week and 30th the next, I'd rather finish fifth one week and ninth the next week. My goal is to keep all of our finishes in the top 15 to level out the consistency that we need.

Q: How has your working relationship with Kurt evolved in your second year together?

McCauley: We're going back to these tracks we've run before and there's a much higher level of comfort amongst everybody involved. Last year was very frustrating at times but very valuable. Sometimes you have to suffer through a bad year to really understand the good year.

Q: How do you view your role as crew chief?

McCauley: It's so much more about the other 19 guys that are on the Miller Lite team. I kind of look at it as almost like being a coach. I try to put the best wide receiver in that position and best nose tackle in that position. I'm trying to put the best lead mechanic in position and the best engineer in that position and the best tire carrier in that position and have the right attitudes. People want to give crew chiefs credit, that's fine. It's still all about the people and the team.

Q: Will the COT level the playing field as advertised?

McCauley: I don't think the COT is going to be anything different for the smaller teams that currently exist. You're still going to need 8-9-10 cars. It may cut down some of the aerodynamic development work, or it may increase it depending on the way you look at it. I don't think it's going to help them one bit; if anything it will probably hurt them a little bit.

But I will say that a brand-new team coming in, it's a lot more straightforward. NASCAR has enabled the series to grow easier with new teams.

Q: What effect will the COT have on NASCAR?

McCauley: I think NASCAR's done a good job of putting the teams in a box where NASCAR can manage them better, which is what NASCAR needed to do.