Chemistry, it is all about chemistry …
Over the off-season between 2005 and 2006, many of the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Teams hired new drivers and team members. The Wood Brothers hired a new driver and a new crew chief. What are the challenges when a team gets a new driver? What are the challenges when a driver goes to a new team? New #21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford Fusion driver Ken Schrader, his crew chief David Hyder and team co-owners Len and Eddie Wood answer those questions.
Ken Schrader: “The biggest thing is learning the personalities (laughing), besides names. That is how the team clicks or doesn’t. Having Hyder who is someone I already worked with a little over a year and have a lot of confidence in is a tremendous help. If they had a crew chief here already, that would have been fine too because he would know the team members. But, this situation was different with Michael McSwain’s position getting moved, so we needed somebody. If you came in with somebody I didn’t know and the boys hadn’t worked with it would be more stressful because everybody would be looking at everybody wondering if anybody knew what they were doing. At least this way they can look at me and say well, he brought him.” HOW ABOUT CHANGING MANUFACTURERS – IS THERE A BIG DIFFERENCE? “No, with the common templates there is very, very little difference. I am, however thrilled to have the Roush/Yates engines.”
David Hyder: “Once you find a new driver, my job is to find out how they want the car to lay when getting into the corner – whether they want it on the right side or the left side. You just have to really learn what they want the car to feel like. Once you learn what they want to get the maximum speed out of it, then you try to achieve that goal. Every driver has his own technique on how they want the car to feel, and having worked with (Ken) Schrader last year I’m a little ahead right now. But, now I’m with a new team and I need to communicate with them what we need to do to achieve that goal and understanding that when he explains the car is doing something what he means. This is an intense business anyway, and personality does make a difference sometimes. When you learn their personality and they learn yours you get a better understanding what is going on with each other without really having to say it. Schrader is really good to work with and not getting too excited. Sometimes he’ll get a little excited, but I know the boiler point of that and try to keep him under control as far as getting the feel of what is going on before it gets to that point.”
Len Wood: “Making sure there is chemistry with everybody. That is the reason we hired Hyder to go with Schrader. That chemistry was already there. That, and the fact that we have a new body style with the Fusion. Obviously, the Fusion is different from the brand he was used to driving – the balance of the car would be different. The balance of the car is different than the car we had last year. So we needed to get these guys tuned up in the shortest amount of time possible.”
Eddie Wood: “You just hope that the chemistry is there with the people. That is one of the things you never know until you do it. That is the reason we wanted Hyder. He and Schrader already had a history. It was the same thing in the trucks. The reason Jon is in the 20 is because he and John Monsam won two truck races together. And, the reason Stacy Compton is in the 21 with Gary Cogswell is they worked together before. You think about that, and this is probably the only business in the world where you hire people without an audition. You have to look at the sponsors you have too, and make sure the driver fits with what they are looking for. In our case it all kind of played out.”
Ken Schrader Career |
Starts
669
|
Poles
23 |
Wins
4 |
Top 5's
64 |
Top 10's
183 |
Wood Brothers Career |
Starts
1236 |
Poles
119 |
Wins
97 |
Top 5's
336 |
Top 10's
515 |
Schrader
at California
|
Starts
10
|
Poles
0 |
Wins
0 |
Top 5's
0 |
Top 10's
0 |
Wood Brothers at California
|
Starts
10 |
Poles
0 |
Wins
0 |
Top 5's
0 |
Top 10's
1 |
