Tech Q&A: Jimmy Elledge

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- If you hear drivers complain about anything regarding their cars this weekend at Chicagoland Speedway, you'll hear them complain about a tight condition.

Jimmy Elledge, crew chief for Casey Mears, tells NASCAR.COM's Lee Montgomery cars will be as loose as possible for this weekend's Tropicana 400, so loose that cars are almost undriveable. But that's the way the Chicago track is.

Elledge also discussed some other topics crew chiefs are facing in Nextel Cup racing these days.

Q: First of all, we've been hearing about a new shock rule that NASCAR is considering. Are you in favor of it?

	Credit: Autostock

Elledge: Yeah, I'm in favor of it. For one, I'm a little behind the curve on it, so I'm really in favor of it. I wasn't doing it. I think it was a pretty big advantage to some of the teams that were messing with it. Obviously, I guess I'm a fan of it. If I would have been doing it, I probably wouldn't be a fan of it.

Q: What were some of the teams doing?

Elledge: Well, they figured how to use the rear shocks to maintain inspection heights with them cold. When they heated up, they actually raised the rear of the car up a fair amount. Raising up the rear of the car makes a big difference in downforce. My hat's off to 'em for figuring it out. I'm a little bummed that I was behind the curve on it. Definitely a good idea.

Q: I don't know if the casual fan understands that shocks are a pretty big part of what you do with the chassis.

ALSO  •  Driver Page: Casey Mears  •  Crew Chief Page: Jimmy Elledge

Elledge: Yeah, they are. It's very hard to find a gain with shocks at times. It's real easy to find ways to slow yourself down with them, that's for sure. There's a fine line of good vs. bad. There's definitely a lot of room in them to wiggle around and do things. They're a very unique tuning tool.

Each driver is really different in their own ways on what works: compression or rebound, low-speed or high-speed or different pistons, different oils, all kind of stuff that they react to. There's a lot to them.

Q: For instance, how many shocks will be on the truck at Chicago?

Elledge: They're will be 50 shocks on the truck. We tested there, and, hopefully, we'll only use the four that we ended the test on. When we were at that test, we did some long runs on at least five different sets of shocks and then did a lot of tuning on the ones that we zeroed on. We did a lot of alternates for each corner and kind of worked with that. Hopefully, we end up with just the four that we finished our test on.

Q: Does that stuff want to make you pull your hair out sometimes because there are so many different combinations you can run? Or is that just part of the game these days?

	Elledge says he and his Chip Ganassi teammates talk frequently about setups, but he also focuses on what driver Casey Mears needs. Credit: Autostock

Elledge: Yeah, it is kind of frustrating at times. The thing that makes it hard for me is with the two teammates we have, you try to keep up with what they've going on, so you always have what they're doing to try. Jamie reacts to different things than Casey does, and Sterling reacts differently.

For instance, one set of shocks that we've had a lot of success on this year has been something that Jamie came up with last year. We try to make sure we know what each other is doing but at the same time keep working on the stuff that's good for Casey and keep advancing that program forward.

Q: How did the test go at Chicago? I guess you settled on something you liked.

Elledge: We felt like we had a really good test there. Goodyear's brought a new tire, so the speeds are up. We are definitely faster than where we were last year. Hopefully, we are fast enough, but I feel really good going in to it.

Q: What's the key to getting around that track? We know downforce is always a big issue at these mile-and-a-half places.

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Elledge: It's getting that car to where it doesn't get aero tight behind cars and where you can get it up off the corner good. You've got to keep the thing turning all day long.

Chicago, with the tire we've had there in the past, you just about couldn't be loose enough. I remember looking through my races notes from the year before with Casey, we'd put tires on and go back out, and he'd say, "I can not be no looser. Please don't loosen me up." And then 10 laps later in the run, he's like, "I'm tight again. I need to be freer."

Trying to get that car balanced to where it stays consistent through the whole run is a hard thing. It just gets really, really tight the longer you run.

Q: Is a second groove coming in there? That track's not that old yet, but is that going to come into play?

Elledge: I believe it is. It's been a pretty hard winter on that place, it looked like. It's got some bumps in it that it didn't have the year before, we noticed. I think it's starting to lose just enough grip, the pavement's getting a little older, I think you'll see that second groove come in. I think it's going to be a great race whenever that track gets as wide as Charlotte or Atlanta. I think it's going to start moving up.