It was only a matter of time before a team unlocked the secrets of NASCAR’s Car Of Tomorrow (COT). Dodge and Mopar fans can be thankful it wasn’t brands C, F or that upstart, brand T.
After the great Mopar Massacre at the Daytona 500, the Chargers seemed to be MIA. In fact, they were already working on their intermediate cars. It took until late spring to get ‘em all tuned in and when they hit the track, it was for the Sprint ALL STAR weekend and the Coca-Cola World 600 the next week – both at Lowes Motor Speedway.
Kasey Kahne, driving the Budweiser #9 for Gillette Evernham Motorsports (GEM) pulled off a hot dog, come from behind victory in the All STAR race that would be an indicator for things to come. The next week, capitalizing on Tony Stewart’s flat tire, Kahne won the 600. The GEM train didn’t stop there, grabbing another three out of four wins. Notable was the Pocono win, where they once again came from the back to win convincingly.
When a team is that dominating, it’s clear they have found a secret or two with the new car. When asked about the recent wins, Kahne said, "If you look back at the start of the season, we've been much better than where we were last year, throughout the entire season. We were better in the off season. We had a car that was capable of winning at California. Vegas, we ran eighth. We've been close at times; then we've had things go on at other times. We've hit on some things at the Charlotte test that have really paid off and helped us on these race tracks. We're still learning more about these cars. For what we have, the amount of time we've had to work with a completely different race car from what we raced a year ago, I think the cars are handling and racing really well. It just takes a little bit of time and we're slowing getting there. It's something we knew going into the season, that we would be getting better as the season goes on."
The more he talked with the media after the wins, the more the clues came out about the new car. He explained the differences in the old and new cars like this, "These cars are definitely different, the set ups, the way you drive them. Everything is different and the more you drive them, the more I like them, the more our team likes them.”
The week before, was the impressive Pocono win and Kahne said, "Last week, you can look back at Pocono and could pass at any time. That's just the way it was last week. We could pass any car on the racetrack because my car was so good and because we hit on some things. It just takes time to get those kinds of racecars." Kahne then made a bold statement about just how strong the new cars are, "My car in Pocono was probably the best car I've ever had. I have never had a car that consistent. This all starts back at the shop with the engineers and the engine shop. It is crazy how much better these cars have been in the last month."
Savvy reporters still pursued the new car angle asking about owner, Ray Evernham and Director of Competition, Mark McArdle. Who did what to get this car going? "You've got to look at what Mark McArdle's done,” said Kahne. “He has put a structure together at Gillett Evernham Motorsports to get better. As far as Ray, I've seen him around. I've talked to him a lot. He's been really excited and talked highly of what everybody is doing. He's still doing his own thing. He's got things he's doing during the week. He's at the shop a couple days of week and he does his own thing a couple days a week. As far as the cars running better that's the guys back in the shop - that's the engineers, Mark McArdle, Kenny Francis, that's who's doing it."
But wasn’t it a matter of Ray’s ideas and Mark’s execution? "I don't build them, so I don't know everything that goes along with it,” insists Kahne, “I just drive them. You'd have to ask those guys exactly what's going on there. I know Ray's a big part of Gillett Evernham, but he's also doing his own things just like he said he was going to do at the start of the year…He's doing his own deal. Ray's a very smart racer. I think what Mark would have been talking about is how the chassis are built. As far as the setup, that's the engineers and Kenny Francis."