Blk3GM's NASCAR Winston Cup News - DEI, RAD Begin Work on 2000 Monte Carlo

Blk3GM's Winston Cup News

Dei, Rad Begin Work on 2000 Monte Carlo
June 15, 1999 Pennzoil Press Release

Only days after NASCAR approved the Winston Cup version of the 2000 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, the #1 Pennzoil Monte Carlo team at Dale Earnhardt Inc along with two other RAD teams are working on a test car. RAD - the aerodynamics alliance of Richard Childress Racing, Andy Petree Racing and DEI - plan to model the cars it builds based on the information gathered by the test car.

Louis Duncan, RAD's Aero Engineer:

"The templates have now been released and all three RAD organizations have a complete set which means we can start building cars once we have the sheet metal. The next step aerodynamics-wise is for the teams to start building cars then wind tunnel and track testing those cars. The wind tunnel will probably be an initial step followed closely by track testing. I think we can have a car in the wind tunnel within a matter of weeks. It's a race team call, but I think we could have a car on the track probably sometime in the next few months once NASCAR gives us a test date.

"So far the aerodynamic work done on the car has been done by General Motors who presented the car and received approval from NASCAR. NASCAR approved it and GM cut templates for the car. The teams really haven't had that much contact with that car. So, we are getting ready to get a good look at it.

"There isn't really a hard number we are looking for when we take it to the wind tunnel like a certain amount of downforce or drag. What we are trying to do is be the best possible Monte Carlo and hope that the Monte Carlo is the best car on the race track."

Steve Hmiel, DEI Technical Director:

"We are in the process of taking the NASCAR templates and building a test car for RAD. That car is being built with the RAD teams here at DEI. We have pooled all of our ideas on this test car that we hope it will be in the wind tunnel in the middle of July. The test car will help us to find body locations for speedways, body locations for downforce, road racing, fender shapes and allow us to define all the gray areas that aren't restricted by NASCAR templates.

"Once we understand what the car is and how much downforce it makes we will go ahead and start building Pennzoil and Budweiser test cars from the RAD car. NASCAR will tell us when we can test it. I suspect that will be sometime in October. I hope we can build 15 Winston Cup cars, and 5 Busch Cars by the first of January. That means about one every ten days beginning in August. That is a lot of work. But I think we are in a pretty good situation because we have a lot of lead-time. The templates are already here; everything is defined, and once we get to the wind tunnel to define how we want the car shaped we will be ready to build. "I don't think the race fans are going to notice much of a difference. It's still Ford versus Chevrolet. For the teams it's huge. It's an opportunity to do real well or it's an opportunity to mess up."

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Blk3GM's Dale Earnhardt Site was born on July 26, 1998 and is owned and maintained by Gary Harris. This site is a tribute to "NASCAR's Greatest Driver" and his up and coming son. We are not affiliated with any official Team, Sponsors, Media Group or NASCAR. This site is solely for entertainment purposes. Information and statistic's on this site have been collected from various NASCAR related sites on the internet, from Winston Cup Scene, Newspapers, Television and our personal experience at Winston Cup and Busch Grand National races. All statistics are believed to be accurate at the time they are updated but cannot be guaranteed.