NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
AAA 400 DRIVE FOR AUTISM
DOVER INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
SATURDAY SIX QUESTIONS
MAY 14, 2016

SIX QUESTIONS WITH DR. ERIC WARREN, DIRECTOR OF COMPETITION AT RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING
Aerodynamicist Helps Chevrolet Organization Progress in Modern Day NASCAR

TALK ABOUT YOUR BACKGROUND PRIOR TO JOINING RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING:
“Going way back I grew up in Mt. Airy, North Carolina which was Mayberry, home of Andy Griffith so those kind of people. I went to North Carolina State University studied aerospace engineering. I really focused on computational fluid dynamics (CFD). I worked with NASA they funded my way through grad school and really I had not really seen much racing until I got out of grad school. I came to visit a friend that worked at a NASCAR team in 1996 and walking out the door to go to lunch I ran into the owner of that team, which was Michael Kranefuss at the time. Long story short he basically said I need somebody like you, when you get ready to get out of school give me a call. Six month, seven months later when I finished up defending my PHD I called him out of the blue thinking it was somewhat of a courtesy call and here I am. It started with Kranefuss/Haas which six months later became Penske/Kranefuss. After six month being in the sport I got to be the lead engineer of Rusty Wallace and Penske/Kranefuss and so I was doing aerodynamics and was the lead engineer there for a couple of years. I kept doing the aero work. I left there and became technical director with Evernham Motorsports. I was there about six years. I did a little F1 for a little while and then came back to RPM (Richard Petty Motorsports) which was the old Evernham team. Then Richard (Childress) talked me into coming over to RCR in 2012.

WHEN KEVIN HARVICK LEFT RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING FOLLOWING THE CONCLUSION OF THE 2013 SEASON, IT SEEMS RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING HAS BEEN IN SORT OF A REBUILDING PROCESS. AS YOUNG AS THIS YEAR IS, IT REALLY SEEMS LIKE THE ORGANIZATION HAS HIT ON SOMETHING. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT MAYBE SOME OF THE CHANGES THAT YOU HAVE MADE SINCE 2013?
“I think coming into the team one of the things that Richard (Childress) really wanted and the sponsors really wanted was really to transition the team. The sport has really become much more technical and much more engineering based. Performance is kind of determined at the shop before you get here, much more so than it ever has been in the past. The main thing he wanted from the beginning was to make the organization act like one team. Coming in to Richard Childress Racing (RCR) the culture was quite a bit different. Each team was kind of on their own could have different cars, different parts, different things. It took a while to really get the structure right to make sure all the cars were the same, make sure all the people were invested in what we were trying to do. It was helpful with Kevin (Harvick) there the first year. They had not won a race in a while, we got there in the late part of 2012 he won Phoenix. As we built the process and went to common chassis and all those kinds of things as it went to the Chase in ’13 it really started to work. We won four races that year with Kevin and a couple in the Chase. Unfortunately a lot of that momentum when he left changed. But, at the same time we brought Austin (Dillon) up and (Ryan) Newman came on board. We really kept building the process of the team. It’s not a short-term thing to change the culture of an organization, definitely not one that is successful and has had recent wins. We had a really good year with Newman the first year we were second in the championship. Even though we didn’t win we showed a lot of performance and promise. Last year, was a little bit of a step down stat wise. It depends on… Paul (Menard) had his best year last year, but really relative to the field, we want to win. That is why we are here. Trying to focus on now how do we improve our development process as far as getting changes to the race track that we know are better. Continue to work on the personnel internally we have really kind of recruited people from other forms of motorsports and that takes time to get those guys up to speed. I really think we are starting to hit our stride this year a little bit. We know the cars have better performance. I think we are seeing some fruits of that, Austin, definitely worked on his team and some of the chemistry there. So, a lot of work, we worked on people and the process behind the scenes.”

HOW IMPORTANT DO YOU THINK ENGINEERING AND CULTIVATING THAT PART OF A RACE TEAM IS IN MODERN DAY NASCAR RACING?
“I think it’s critical. It is a little bit of a battle because so much of this sport is also people. It’s a lot of competition. I tell everybody it’s a lot like going to battle and going to war in the sense of you are in a high stress environment, so the people side of managing people and working with people is still what the engineering types like myself and others really have to work on. I think the reason you are seeing more engineers become crew chiefs and in those types of roles is because the cars are getting… you are really squeezing the last little bits of performance out of them. There is so much data being generated by the teams and by the OEM’s (original engine manufacturer) with Chevy and the projects that we do and the amount of simulation, the amount of data that is at the race track now, the networks and those things. It takes a lot to be able to quickly digest that information and I think the reason you are seeing engineers in those roles is just because by nature they can see graphs, see data, react to that information faster. I think what you are seeing in parallel is the role of the car chief in the teams are becoming more like what used to be crew chiefs in the sport. The crew chief used to build all the bodies do all the work and were very well rounded in all the areas. Now, the organizations like RCR and Hendrick and Gibbs and other people that have three and four teams the organization is really doing the pushing the car development, more so than it used to be. It’s not always that way in each team, each team is different, but you are starting to see the build-up of the capability of producing the car at the highest level it can be with crew chief influence, but not direction per say. The car is showing up at the track with the speed. Those guys can focus on managing all the data and information to get the best execution on the weekend and then coming back and giving the feedback to the race team about okay ‘hey here is what I can get through inspection, here is where we are missing it, here is what I see with other cars.’ The role of the organization and crew chief has changed.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT CULTIVATING YOUNG DRIVERS AND WHAT EXACTLY YOU ARE LOOKING FOR?
“I think the most important thing and first thing we look for is raw talent. It’s a lot easier at this level to have a driver win races and win championships if you start with a basic level of talent that you are then trying to enhance as you bring resources and experience to those guys. That is the first thing you are looking for. The great things about Austin and Ty are that they have proven themselves on the race track certainly. The great thing with Brandon Jones is that even at the first test he was fast the first laps on the race track. You see those things. John Hunter Nemechek the same thing we are trying to look at him. You want to see that kind of attitude of expecting to be fast; believing in themselves, a little bit of confidence at a young age is okay. You want to manage that and be able to build that up, but really you look at the sport it’s kind of in a transition. You are seeing this generation change. Without the testing and some of the different things it’s really hard for a younger driver to get in the sport. The safety of the cars has been great so it allows the drivers to have pretty long careers. You are seeing kind of a transition with Jimmie Johnson with his success and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Jeff Gordon just retired, you are in that next generation and really we feel like that next generation we are position really well. We have two and three of the youngest talents in the sport. I think that is going to pay off for us in the long run.”

WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON THE NEW LOWER DOWNFORCE PACKAGE AND HOW DO YOU SEE IMPROVING UPON IT:
“As an aerodynamicist background the intent that everyone would like is to make the cars less sensitive around each other so that you can pass easier. As an aerodynamic person fundamentally I know that sensitivity is because of the speed of the cars. Certainly the drivers have indicated that the downforce package this year they like. They have felt like it improved the racing a little bit. You look at the information directionally speaking it’s been a little better. There has also been the development of a tire at the same time. Goodyear has gone after working on the tire a little bit and making it rubber in a little bit and maybe having a little more grip trying to get it to fall off more. Though we all kind of understand that it is more about the content of the asphalt and how rough the track is. I think the combination of the two we have learned a little bit as a sport. We have all worked together really well, the teams, NASCAR, the ownership and the drivers. I think this year even it is going better on that working towards the future. I think it’s been a small improvement. I think the data shows that. Going forward I think the next phase is to kind of leave the tires alone and to see if the next step is the right direction. I think it will be a learning experience for everybody.”

THE LUGNUT RULE IS THE HOTTEST TOPIC OF LATE. HOW HAS YOUR ORGANIZATION HAD TO ADJUST?
“I think for us we never really hit three lugnuts. I think it got to a point where some teams were hitting three of the lefts and four on the right. We learned pretty early that even when you hit three, those three aren’t tight. A lot of times there is one on the first one particularly depending on how the wheel goes upon the cars is not quite tight. We know three if it’s not in kind of a triangular pattern then it’s not tight either. So, even hitting four if the first one is not tight and you hit three in a row versus across the wheel… each lug you kind of not hit, let’s call it, is about two tenths of a second per side. If you hit five versus four it is typically about half a second, which the way the pit stops are is a critical part of. We got where we were hitting four comfortably. We still had some issues obviously, as everybody did. So, we are hitting five. We feel like NASCAR will ultimately get the intent of the rule under control. We saw the penalty with the No. 18 this week. We feel like we are going to hang our hat on hitting five and try to eliminate the loose wheel issues. It might slow us down a little bit, but now we can focus on the rest of the pit stops. It’s a lot more than just the lugnuts. You’ve got to get on and off pit road and focus on things like that. We would like to see it understood by everyone and enforced by everyone the same that makes it even. I think it’s the right thing.”