Waltrip buy's Cope's ride for the 600

[harvey lee]

I agree with that dog,except no one was talking about Little E,the discussion WAS about Waltrip.At the start of the year I believe I stated that Jr was going no where,that looks like I may have been wrong.Jr is atleast now in the top five,only question is will he stay there.

[JohnMickish]

Not to turn this into a Jr. thread but even I (the number one Jr. hater on the the planet) can say that I am impressed with the way Jr. has run so far this year. I seems that last year made the boy grow up into a man, and I also agree that a trained monkey could have been competitive a few years ago in a DEI plate car.

Whoever said that DEI was dominant because they where the first team to have a special plate track test team is wrong, RCR was the first.

[lawdog]

Didn't it actually start with RCR, DEI and Andy Petree Racing do some collaberative aero thing for Plate tracks??? I can't remember what that group was called, wasn't it RAD racing or something like that???

[LMITOUT]

Yes, RAD is what it was called.

[JohnMickish]

Somebody is showing his age!

[NAPAFISH]

R ichard

A ndy

D ale

Much of the credit goes to the RAD program, an aerodynamic consortium established among Richard Childress, Andy Petree, Dale Earnhardt and engineer Louis Duncan, for improving the ability to gather and distribute data to each of the teams. (RAD stands for Richard, Andy, Dale.)

Basically, RAD is three Chevrolet teams that work on research and development together and share test results. The alliance was formed three years ago because the teams wanted to accelerate the learning curve on the new model of Monte Carlo, though the car's debut was pushed back to the start of the 2000 season.

The cost of the program, shared by the teams, is $2 million per year. Each of the teams ran the program out of its shop for a season the first three years, but now the program is headed up exclusively by DEI.

None of the teams is required to use the test results--the crew chiefs and drivers make the final call on what is comfortable to them--but the data is available to everyone.

During the last three seasons at Daytona and Talladega, RAD teams posted seven wins in 12 races, including the last five, dating to Earnhardt's win at Talladega in October 2000.

"The RAD program has indeed been beneficial because we've won all the restrictor-plate races," says Dale Earnhardt Jr., who won last October at Talladega and in July at Daytona. "I just hope it continues to pay off. You spend a certain amount of money, and RAD isn't strictly a restrictor-plate program, but we've also saved a lot of money with the RAD, and that was the initial reason for doing it. We didn't expect it to be as successful as it is."

DEI teammate Michael Waltrip, winner of last year's Daytona 500, considers the RAD program "another piece of the puzzle" in building a complete team.

"It has everything to do with the success we've had," Waltrip says. "The RAD team, the RAD program, the wind-tunnel testing that we've been able to do in association with it, it's just a huge resource to be able to draw from. I'm so grateful to be able to drive that car.

Lifted from a Sporting news article

This program was not just used for plate racing. They were not getting the same factory support that Goron was getting

at the time

[lawdog]

Quote:

---

Somebody is showing his age!

---

Or just his superior knowledge!

[OUTDOORNUT]

Whatever happened to Andy Petree, he had some decent runs with his teams not to long ago.

[lawdog]

Sponsorship losses crippled his small team and I think they folded up shop. They did win some races too, could have been a good program I think.