NASCAR Winston Cup ITW DeVilbiss 400 Preview: #98, John Andretti
14 August 1997
#98 John Andretti, RCA Ford Thunderbird
NASCAR Winston Cup Series
ITW DeVilbiss 400 Advance
Michigan Speedway
NEW DOOR OPENS FOR CALE YARBOROUGH MOTORSPORTS - CYM TEAM MOVES INTO NEW SHOP
BROOKLYN, MI - When RCA Racing truck driver Vance Howell loaded up the hauler
and made the right hand turn onto pit road and out of Watkins Glen, he was
embarking on his first post-race trip to the RCA Racing team's new home.
For years, the team has operated out of a cozy, three-building set-up near
Charlotte Douglas Airport.
But this week, the team began working out of it's brand new building on
Stough Road in Concord, NC, a few months later than expected, but better late
than never.
The new modern facility offers space for meetings, a foyer and viewing area
for visitors and room outside to practice pit stops, something that has
become key for the RCA team with injuries and personnel changes throughout
the season.
"It is going to take some time to get everything set-up the way it needs to
be, but I think it is going to help everyone be more productive," team owner
Cale Yarborough said. "This has been a long time coming. The two shops are
like night and day."
The cars themselves are at the new shop, but the lengthiest part of the move
will be transferring the motor department over. That could take another four
weeks.
"I was beginning to wonder if we would ever be here," driver John Andretti
said. "This new shop will help so much. The team had already started hanging
the bodies on the cars, something we used to farm out, but being able to do
that in the new shop will be so much easier."
A phone call to the new shop yields a breathless hello from team members as
they unpack and prepare for Michigan all at the same time.
The track that gave Andretti what was then his best Winston Cup career finish
in 1995, has not been kind to Andretti and the RCA Racing Ford this season.
The RCA team took a brand new car to the 2.0-mile paved oval in June. That
car turned out to be a dog. It took several attempts during the first morning
of practice for Andretti to even complete a lap because the car was so
unpredictable in the corners.
"At times I thought it had developed a mind of its own," Andretti said. "It
skittered a lot in the corners and you could just never tell what it was
going to do."
Andretti had to take a provisional to make the field and although it was far
from perfect, he had worked his way up to 25th from 40th when the left
caliper broke and the team was behind the wall for 26 laps making repairs.
"It was just one of those weekends where we were fighting with the car from
the minute we unloaded," Andretti said. "I have run well here and I like this
track, but this again is one of the types of tracks we don't do any testing
on and sometimes it shows. I think we did learn a lot last time. We really
went from one extreme to the other. We had a bad car, we fixed it so it was
OK, and then went to the other end of bad and back again."
1997 SEASON RESULTS
POINTS
DATE LOCATION START FINISH MONEY STATUS POSITION
2-16 Daytona Beach, FL 32 25 63,325 Running 25
2-23 Rockingham, NC 25 34 19,015 Running 32
3-2 Richmond, VA 22 31 20,615 Running 33
3-9 Atlanta, GA 33 15 31,805 Running 28
3-23 Darlington, SC 33 25 21,165 Running 30
4-6 Fort Worth, TX 30 12 80,300 Running 27
4-13 Bristol, TN 26 24 23,490 Running 27
4-20 Martinsville, VA 27 28 19,615 Running 25
5-4 Sonoma, CA 17 30 31,710 Running 26
5-10 Talladega, AL 1 4 57,920 Running 22
5-17 Charlotte, NC ** 12 9 7,500 Running ** Non-Points
5-25 Charlotte, NC 26 30 28,450 Running 24
6-1 Dover, DE 23 29 25,490 Running 26
6-8 Pocono, PA 9 40 17,265 Engine 26
6-15 Brooklyn, MI 40 37 21,890 Running 27
6-22 Fontana, CA 35 21 34,975 Running 27
7-5 Daytona Beach, FL 3 1 109,525 Running 24
7-13 Loudon, NH 8 14 33,425 Accident 22
7-20 Pocono, PA 13 24 21,415 Running 22
8-2 Indianapolis, IN 35 17 80,095 Running 22
8-10 Watkins Glen, NY 30 20 24,885 Running 22
JOHN ANDRETTI MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY CAREER RESULTS
YEAR EVENT START FINISH LAPS MONEY STATUS
1997 Miller 400 40 37 174/200 21,890 Running
1996 Miller 400 23 24 198/200 21,580 Running
1996 Goodwrench 400 15 31 176/200 20,940 Accident
1995 Miller 400 21 4 200/200 31,375 Running
1995 Goodwrench 400 4 37 73/200 10,040 Engine
1994 Miller 400 33 36 94/200 12,026 Overheating
1994 Goodwrench 400 2 17 198/200 13,690 Running
By RCA Racing Public Relations