Trevor Bayne, the Wood Brothers and their No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion are headed to Talladega Superspeedway for Sunday’s Camping World RV Sales 500.
Over the years, the Woods have been one of the most successful teams at Talladega. Team founder Glen Wood and fellow NASCAR Hall of Famer Walter “Bud” Moore lead all Ford team owners with five Talladega victories each.
Throughout its history, the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team has been known for its fast Fords at Talladega and sister track, Daytona International Speedway. It’s true in recent years too, as evidenced by a win in the 2011 Daytona 500 and a pole and four other starts of eighth or better in the past 10 years at Talladega.
This year’s effort is no different than others in years past. Crew chief Donnie Wingo and his Motorcraft/Quick Lane crew took the best superspeedway car in their fleet and reworked, massaged and fine-tuned it until they were confident it was ready for some fast laps at Talladega. A recent wind tunnel assessment backed up all of Wingo’s tweaks and tunes, and he said the results were encouraging.“
Everything looked really good there,” he said.
The real test comes on Sunday at the race track, and Wingo is ready to do his part there as well. The veteran crew chief, who went to Victory Lane at Talladega in 2009 with Jamie McMurray driving a Roush Fenway Racing Ford he prepared, said winning at Talladega is all about getting in an advantageous position for those final, frantic laps.
“You have to hope you’re in the right place at the right time and not the wrong place at the wrong time,” he said, adding that the crew chief’s challenge is to try to give his driver the best track position possible after the final pit stop. “You want to try to do as little as you can to the car on the last stop, and make sure it’s full of fuel.”
“After that, it’s kind of a crapshoot.”
Qualifying for the Camping World RV Sales 500 is set for 12:10 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday, with the race set to get the green flag on Sunday at 2 p.m. with TV coverage on ESPN.
