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    Steve Letarte on Sirius XM this morning Archived Message

    Posted by magic8ball on 1/23/2012, 9:35 am

    Steve Letarte called into the Morning Drive with Mike Bagley and Pete Pistone on Sirius XM today. Pete asked Steve if he had his Patriots cap on and he said no cap but a big smile. Steve said it was a fun day of football with 2 great games. It was a little more exciting than we wanted in the first game but he said it worked out in the Patriots way.

    Mike asked if he is a fan of different rules for different times of the season. With the NFL, you have one set of overtime rules for the regular season and one for the playoffs. Steve said he likes the playoff rules the way they have it. He would hate to see a team go the entire season and their season could end because they didn・t win the coin flip. It is the same rules for everyone in the same game. The rules need to be designed for the fans as they travel and spend more money on playoff games. Mike said it would be like having one set of rules in the first 26 races and then another set for the final 10. Steve said we have that with the point system. What we have going on must be good for the race winner at Homestead to win the championship with a tie in points. It makes pretty good TV.

    Pete said he hears from fans that say drivers in the Chase should have their own point system. He asked Steve if he would care if they ones that made the Chase would have a different point system. Steve said he could go either way. He said it doesn・t change the outcome. Maybe a DNF doesn・t hurt as much. You have to decide if you want a champion that is more consistent in the final 10 or won the most races in the final 10. Tony probably would not have won the championship if he had another DNF. Steve said he is pretty flexible. He will race with whatever rules they have as long as they get to go race.

    Mike asked what the pulse of the race team is. Steve said they are just busy. They got some rules clarification from Nascar last week on the grill opening. It allowed them to finish up the bumpers and bumper bars in the cars. They have some down force tests on the docket for the 48, 88, and 24. Off season is just busy. Just trying to make sure they are as prepared as they can be for Speedweeks and the down force races that follow that. Takes a lot of guys pulling in the same direction. The off season grew with Daytona being pushed back but they are trying to put more stuff into it.

    Mike asked if it is good that the 500 has been pushed back. Steve said it is how you want to prepare. When they unload in Daytona, they are as prepared as much as they can. He doesn・t think an extra week will help or hurt their preparation for the 500. They will be going to a few different tracks for some down force testing. They made some changes to the 88 setup wise at the end of last year and showed some promise. Kenny and Kasey have brought some ideas and they want to prove some of them out.

    Pete asked if it is beneficial for race teams to spend time in Daytona where Nascar kept changing things. Steve said as a race team it is their responsibility to assist Nascar in pointing the sport in a direction that is good for the fans and the sport. It is not fair for the teams to wash their hands and expect Nascar to do everything on their own. As a crew chief, they knew going there would be some changes and they had a good test plan ready. He thinks it was a great opportunity to run the different packages. They learned a lot even with the different packages. The goal is to have an exciting 500.

    Pete asked if it would be the same for intermediate and short tracks. Steve said they had a few tests last year. There was an open EFI test at Charlotte. Not many teams too part but at HMS they had all 4 cars at the EFI test. There was an EFI test at Dega and Martinsville. Steve said they have done speedway, intermediate and short track EFI tests. It gave you the opportunity to run and what you thought needed to change. He thinks the most important thing is to race. He doesn・t think we even know all the questions yet. For Daytona, they know what they are trying to fix. By the All Star race, he would like to evaluate the racing and see if the fans are happy. At that point, if they need to test he is sure Nascar will allow that.

    Pete said Doug Yates will be on Sirius XM this morning for EFI 101 and asked Steve if there is one or two things that he didn・t expect to be impacted by EFI . Steve said there are a ton of little things that we forget about. He thinks the motor shop has been in front of the ball with EFI and they think they are ready. How about pit stops, how about restarts, how vapor lock when the fuel gets hot and a hundred different questions. They will learn as they go. There have been some things that surprised them. Just the fuel cell and fuel pump changes. A lot goes with the fuel injection. He does think there will be some problems with some teams. That is just change. When you do something for 20 years, you will have some of that stuff happen. It is no different than any other rule change.

    Mike said on interesting thing about EFI is that there is no backup system and asked Steve if he is uncomfortable with that. Steve said that is a good question for Doug. He can go through all the backup systems. There is only one ECU unlike 2 MSB boxes. There are 2 throttle position sensors, back up map sensors, back up land sensors in the tail pipes There are a lot of checks and balances in the system that if you fail one sensor, your day is not over. If you have a catastrophic failure in the ECU, you probably will have some issues but they have not seen anything like that yet. Steve said his Chevy Tahoe starts up when he turns the key and ideally they want a system like that. With the technology, they can interchange info between them and the manufacturer. It helps both sides.

    Pete joked he will have to get used to seeing Steve with a lap top under his arm. Steve said it sounds silly but you will see 43 more laptops than you saw before. Every motor tuner will have one to plug in and download the info. Steve said take your car to the dealership to get worked on and they don・t open the hood any more. They plug it into a computer and it tells them what is wrong. Nascar is now getting on board and Steve said thinks it will make for great racing.

    Mike thanked him for the time and Steve said he will be watching the Rolex race this coming weekend. Jeff Gordon took part a few years ago and he went with him. He said it is an amazing event so he hopes everyone will tune in. They will be down at Speedweeks soon enough. Pete reminded Steve that they will see him on Wed at the HMS media tour. Steve said to come on up and he will show them the place.


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