Michael Waltrip was 27th in the second Busch Series practice at Loudon, in preparation for tomorrow's Busch Series race. He turned a 30.212-second lap at 126.069 MPH and was 0.564 seconds behind session leader Kevin Harvick.
The crew chief was the first one to come on the radio, saying he had the gang on the wrong channel and that he needed to take off his gloves.
"Got a copy, Michael?" he asked.
"Yeah," Mikey replied.
"129, Gary," someone said. "Track temperature is 129."
At 2pm, the cars took to the track.
"Okay, Mike, go ahead," the spotter said. "One coming to your outside."
Mikey got on track immediately.
"Outside." When Kyle Busch spun just in front of Mikey, the spotter warned, "Watch it. Good job there, Mike."
"I was like damn, he must be really talented, because any time I got in that position, I spun out," Mikey commented, "and then he did." He said he felt like the car was pushing and told his crew to raise the track bar on the right side by a quarter inch.
"Okay," his crew chief replied.
Mikey burped. "Okay." After a pause, he added, "That looked kind of fun until he spun out." He told his crew to try anything with the car, as he only had to drive a lap or two and didn't have to live with it.
The crew chief wanted to go up a half a round on the trackbar and move the housing.
When the practice session returned to green, Mikey was in the garage. His spotter told the crew to go down on the left front.
"Coming to you, Dennis," the crew chief said at 2:09, when Mikey returned to the track.
His spotter noted a hole after Ken Schrader's #21.
His crew chief read off a 30.71 and a 30.50.
"Is that less left front rebound, back to before?" Mikey asked.
His crew chief told him it was the same as before.
"That helped, but that didn't fix 'er," Mikey replied. "I'm still just a little too tight."
"Give me two good travels in that front, Collin," his crew chief directed. He wanted to see the spring again too. He said the travel was now back to 5, 8, and 2, and that they may need to take out right front wedge at some point.
"How's your left front?" Mikey asked.
"Fine, but wedge may help later."
"What diagnonal did you go with?"
"55-3." His crew chief reiterated wanting to make that wedge adjustment.
"Can you get any nose weight off of it?" Mikey asked.
"Yeah."
Mikey was back in the garage at 2:13, and back on track a minute later.
"Coming to you, Dennis," the crew chief said.
"Okay, Mike," the spotter said, "clear all the way out."
Mikey ran a 30.78 and 30.57. His crew chief said it looked like the nose was flying up.
"Yeah, that run was bullshit," Mikey replied. He wanted a shock rather than a spring adjustment to add to the compression.
The team wanted shock travels. His crew chief wanted one more stack, and if that was in the right direction, he wanted Mikey to tell him so. He also called to shut the left rear but to build another shock with more lead.
"That's so cool," Mikey commented.
The crew chief said they were not so far off as in the morning session. At 2:24, he said, "Coming to you, Dennis."
"10-4," the spotter replied. "One more coming by you, Mike, and then you're clear."
The #99 crew chief read off a 30.51, and the spotter cleared Mikey past Kenny Wallace's #22.
The crew chief read off a 30.45. "That's your fastest."
Mikey asked if the right rear shock was built yet. When he was told it was, he said he wanted a different right rear shock, and to move back the right rear housing another eighth. He said, if they can't, he wanted to do something else they hadn't tried yet. At 2:27, he went to the garage.
"We could try that, if you can get an eyeball on that," he said. He said, if it were cold on the outside and hot on the inside, they could stand up the tire.
His crew chief said he didn't think they really had an option on that. "If we could put the 22 and 99 together, we would have a pretty fast race car."
"I can drive the shit out of it," Mikey replied. He said he didn't think they'd let them combine cars, so let's just work on this one.
His crew chief told him to turn off the blowers.
"I think I have on everything I could have on in here," Mikey replied.
The crew chief said the last lap was fastest, and that was his 40th.
"Okay, that was a pretty good time."
The #99 crew chief wanted to go over the house and raise the track bar.
Mikey wanted to run a qualifying run, "just for the heck of it". He returned to the track at 2:32pm. When he came back to the garage, Mikey told the crew he wanted to try a run with less rear rebound. "If it has more than a little, try one with less."
The crew chief asked a team member to take clicks out of the left rear. When Mikey went back to the track, he read off a 30.79, 30.73, and 30.76. When Mikey ran another 30.73, the crew chief said, "Let's work on it, Mike." Mikey ran a 30.77 before coming in.
Mikey said he didn't know why it went from a 47 to a 77, but the car drove better. It was better on the long haul. "I don't know what just happened."
The crew chief wanted to go with a more driveable car, and decided to go for fueld when getting a reading on the way out. The crew chief wanted to put more edge in the car for qualifying too. Mikey was back in the garage at 2:37pm.
Mikey asked for the crew to go as far down on the trackbar as they could. He said he was loose last week, and he didn't want to make the same mistake again. He commented that crew member Collin's arms must be getting tired.
"Drop the track bar?" the crew chief asked. "I know you don't like us fucking with that."
Mikey said he liked the front tires gripping the earth, but didn't want to drop the front. He said they could put rebound in the left front if they wanted to.
"Do that right side window for me too, the big window," the crew chief requested.
Mikey wanted to leave the one on the right side.
The crew chief told his driver to stop by the pumps on the way out.
"Yessir," Mikey replied. "Are they on the other side of the garage?"
The crew chief said they were.
"You've got fifteen minutes left," the spotter noted.
Mikey was back out at 2:47pm.
"I need a little bit better direction than that, Lee," Mikey said. "I don't know what the hell you want me to do."
The spotter said Mikey was clear, then told him a car was coming, then told him he was clear again.
"Coming to you, Dennis," the crew chief said. "Give us a nice hole here for a qualifying run."
"10 coming off 4 here," the spotter said. "Get ready to go.
"Go.
"One more, go ahead."
The crew chief read of a 30.15 and a 30.27.
Mikey reported that the car felt good. "I mean, I couldn't have handled it any differently and been happier."
The crew chief complained to the spotter that, next time he needs a big hole, to give it. Mikey said it wasn't his fault; the engine wouldn't go. The crew chief apologised.
"Do you want this plug check?" Mikey asked.
"Yeah," the crew chief said, and told the crew to meet Mikey there. "Somebody needs to go tell Jimmy he's safe.
"Okay, y'all give me some travel, take a breath here."
Somebody asked if they were done.
"Yeah, we're done," the crew chief replied at 2:55pm.
