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Associated Press 22y

Chevy claims tests show disadvantage

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Richard Childress walked into NASCAR's
hauler with just one question on his mind. "Are we getting any
help?" he asked.

When the sanctioning body told him the Chevrolets would not be
receiving any aerodynamic assistance, the car owner turned and
walked out.

The issue of alleged aerodynamic discrepancies has heated up,
creating bitter feelings and a war of words in NASCAR.

"It's totally ridiculous," said Childress, who owns the
Chevrolets driven by Kevin Harvick, Robby Gordon and Jeff Green.

"We don't have a fighting chance out there, and they know it.
They have the data and the results to prove it, and they won't do a
thing to help us. It's a joke."

Over in the Dodge camp, the leaders are singing a much different
tune.

"I'm so sick of the whining," said Ray Evernham, owner of the
Intrepids driven by Bill Elliott, Jeremy Mayfield and Casey Atwood.
"If they think the Dodges have such an advantage, then take it
away from us and give us Jeff Gordon."

It's unlikely General Motors will agree to that switch - after
all, Gordon has won four Winston Cup titles in their Monte Carlo.
But with Chevrolet yet to break into the win column this season and
its drivers complaining they aren't competitive on the track, the
manufacturer is working hard to get some help for both the Chevys
and the Pontiacs.

Their argument was boosted last week when NASCAR took all four
makes to the wind tunnel. Results are not made public, but GM
claims the data showed the Chevrolets lag behind the Intrepids in
downforce by 10 percent and the manufacturer was outraged when the
sanctioning body did nothing to correct the problem.

Downforce gives cars the ability to stick to the track and gain
stability at speed.

"I was definitely surprised we didn't get anything after the
wind tunnel tests," Jeff Gordon said. "But I'm anticipating that
will change because I don't see how things can go on this way and
NASCAR expect us to believe it's a level playing field."

General Motors does have a case to back up its argument.

Its teams have only one win -- and that came from Pontiac's Tony
Stewart -- in the first five races, compared with three Dodge wins
and one Ford victory. They've also got just four drivers in the top
15 in the points standings.

And its cars appear to struggle in traffic, proven in the last
few weeks when Stewart dominated all day at Las Vegas but struggled
to a fifth place finish after coming out in traffic after the final
pit stop.

Jeff Gordon had a similar fate last week at Darlington, running
alone up front most of the race, only to have his car become
mediocre once he got into traffic.

"It was so obvious what was going on out there," he said after
his ninth-place finish at Darlington. "Up front, in clean air, we
were good. Put us in a pack and we turned to junk."

GM can't figure out why its pleas are falling on deaf ears. Its
teams point to the season-opening race at Daytona, when the Fords
complained from the day the cars arrived and eventually got two
separate reductions in its rear spoiler height.

Dodge also lobbied for help and got a reduction before the race.

"We certainly remember how quickly NASCAR moved prior to the
Daytona 500 to help Dodge and Ford," said GM group manager Doug
Duchard. "With the data from (the wind tunnel) test and the
precedent set in Daytona, we expected consistent and equitable
treatment."

Now it's up to NASCAR to decide which arguments have the most
validity and how to address them. For now, president Mike Helton
said the sanctioning body plans to do nothing.

"We're not going to react just because someone is raising holy
Cain. We'll react because we feel like we need to," Helton said.

NASCAR wants to sort through all of the complaints, he said.

"It gets turned up pretty high depending on what moment we're
in. That takes a lot of time. That's a big distraction, trying to
cut through all of that," Helton said.

Adding to the GM frustrations is an inspection process that
teams claim is a little more rigid under new Winston Cup director
John Darby, who has added ends to the templates that go over the
car and forbid too much leniency on the car's width.

"He made some changes," Helton said. "That doesn't mean last
year's inspection process was deficient. It's a different way of
doing it, and it's a more exact way."

But the teams claim Darby's method has compounded the problem.

"His inspection process has taken a much closer look at the
noses of our cars," said Robbie Loomis, Jeff Gordon's crew chief.
"There used to be a gray area and maybe you could sneak some
things through there. Not anymore and it's making the problem
worse."

One solution would be for NASCAR to go to a common template,
where every car would be the same. Currently, the Dodges and the
Fords are very similar to each other, and the Chevrolets and
Pontiacs each have their own mold.

But the new Pontiac scheduled to debut next season is rumored to
have a strong resemblance to the Intrepid and Taurus. If true, it
would leave the Monte Carlo alone and likely continuing to
struggle.

Helton isn't sure that NASCAR will ever reach the stage of one
model for all its cars.

"There is a benefit for Chevrolet, Pontiac, Dodge and Ford to
have brand identity in these garage areas," he said. "That's the
backbone of the competition and the business."

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