Vickers and McGrew are both searching for their first points-paying Nextel Cup Series wins. Credit: Autostock

Shop Talk with ... McGrew

Vickers' crew chief says team is closing in on first Cup win

Lance McGrew won a Busch Series championship with Brian Vickers in 2003, and after a one-year separation the pair is doing their best to make an impact in the Nextel Cup Series.

Proving how effective they can be, the team has run off three top-10s in the past five races. Vickers is also leading laps. In two of the past 11 races, Vickers has led the most laps.

McGrew took a break from race preparation at Watkins Glen to talk with NASCAR.COM senior writer Dave Rodman about how close his Hendrick Motorsports team is to winning, what it would take to capture Sunday's GFS Marketplace 400 at Michigan and working with one of the sport's top newcomers.

	Credit: Autostock
	Inside the Numbers Brian Vickers in Nextel Cup action at Michigan Race Start Finish June '04 2 9 Aug. '04 22 22 June '05 7 41 Avg. 10.3 24.0

Q: Lance, you and Brian have achieved some success together, including your Busch championship and some good runs in Cup, but what kind of celebration is there going to be when you win one of these Nextel Cup races?

McGrew: I think it's pretty much going to be out of control, because it's much more than Brian winning his first race in Nextel Cup or me winning my first Cup race as a crew chief.

Everyone at Hendrick Motorsports understands what this 25 team means to the company, what it meant to Pop ("Papa Joe" Hendrick, Rick Hendrick's late father and the team's designated owner) and what it meant to Ricky (Hendrick).

We've definitely been working hard to try to solidify the race team and show up week in and week out with competitive racecars because we know what that meant to them and what it would mean to the team to get the 5 (Kyle Busch) and the 25 back to where they're supposed to be as far as being competitive week in and week out.

That's what we strive to do. Sometimes I feel like we're light years ahead of where we're supposed to be and sometimes I feel like we're light years behind where we're supposed to be; it just kind of depends on the week.

But it's been amazing to watch it all come together and we're going to keep digging.

Q: Before Watkins Glen you guys were on a roll, with four consecutive top-eight qualifying runs and racing competitively, so can the win come anytime, do you feel?

McGrew: I really think so. I've never been one to subscribe to the theory that one day you just win. You don't go from being a 20th-place car to a win -- it just doesn't happen that way.

You go from being a 20th-place car to being a 15th-place car to a 10th-place car to a fifth-place car -- and until you show those kind of consistent finishes in the top five and the top 10, I don't think you'll win.

You may back into one with fuel mileage or something, but more likely than not, if you can't consistently run in the top 10 you're not going to win in Nextel Cup, and I feel like we're getting there.

We're third, fourth, fifth, sixth just about every week.

Even on the Pocono race (14th) and the Loudon race (11th) that we had, we ran there all day and we just slipped at the very end and finished 12th or 14th or whatever it was and I don't think that indicated how good we were all day.

Q: You won the Busch race at Michigan with Kyle Busch last August, so even though we're talking Kyle to Brian and Busch to Nextel Cup, could that winning moment come this weekend with Brian in Cup?

McGrew: Oh yeah -- absolutely. I feel like we had a real strong car at the first Michigan race and I feel like through the circumstances that everybody was having with the tires -- Brian tried to get to pit road with a flat and spun around and hit the end of pit wall and that was the end of our day.

But as far as strength on the racetrack, I really felt like, by far we were the best Hendrick car that day. We were in the top five -- actually I think we were third when we wrecked.

So I definitely feel like Brian's got the skills to do it and the team's strong enough to bring the right car to the racetrack.

Q: Overall, do you think that you and Brian have adjusted well to the new aerodynamic, tire and gear rule package and do you think that in the second half of the season -- in fact except for a couple races you could almost consider anomalies -- you guys are on a hot streak going all the way back to Dover at the beginning of June?

McGrew: I think we've got a little bit better grip on the new package than most on a week-to-week basis. In fact, I think we've been better since even before that, like the middle of May beginning with the Nextel (All-Star Challenge).

I think the last race where I felt like we weren't competitive and where we needed to be was Richmond, and we're going to go test there to try to remedy that situation.

So I feel like week in and week out we get a little bit better handle on what we need to bring to the racetrack, and that all the guys on the team -- which, it's quite an experienced team, but they're not used to working together.

As far as the road guys, there's one guy who travels early who traveled early last year; so there were a lot of pieces to the puzzle that we had to put together in the offseason and everything, for kind of having a blindfold on and throw the dirt and this is how it's gonna work out -- I think it's been really good.

I don't foresee having to make any changes and it would be nice to start that way. We're kind of gearing up to start for next season and the way it looks we'll be way more prepared in January at Daytona than we were last January -- and I'm really looking forward to that.

Q: Is there anything, due to the new set-up package, that has changed drastically from what you previously ran at Michigan and similar tracks?

McGrew: No, it hasn't. I mean, everything progresses, and even in between 2003 and 2004 my Michigan set-up changed quite a bit, and I felt like I had a pretty good car in 2003.

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So there are changes you always have to make along the way. The trend is, the way the sport is going right now is that you can never get enough rear spring in the car.

You kind of have to take the attitude that you can't just go back and say I've got a bread-and-butter setup and I'm going to put it in there and not have to adjust on it.

You just throw your best guess at it based on how you were the last time and the trend in the way things are today and you adjust on it from there.

Q: With Brian the driver at Michigan, is there anything you've got to keep on him about, there in particular or anywhere else?

McGrew: You don't really have to beat on Brian about anything. All he really wants to hear is the lap times because he's going to hunt around until he finds a place where the car is good at, anyway.

So we like racing at Michigan because the track is so wide and you can run from the bottom to the top. So as a crew chief, I feel like the driver can make up a lot from where I might be off a little bit on the chassis.

So he'll do an awesome job. We're bringing the car there that has been one of his favorite cars and it's not even the car we had there the first time, so we're looking forward to that, too.

Q: Strategically, if you had your choice, what would you want the end of the race to come down to (in order) to give you the best shot to win at Michigan?

McGrew: It's hard to say, because we've had tracks where we felt like we were really, really good on short runs and we've had tracks where we were good on long runs.

I don't want to back into it. A lot of people say "A win is a win," and it is, statistically when you look back in the books on who's performed and how they did. You look in years past and you don't remember all the particulars about the race or how somebody won.

But I don't want to back into one on fuel mileage or back into one by two-tiring or getting track position or something like that.

Yeah, it's still a win, but I just want to go there and be the fastest car all day, to wear 'em out on pit road -- wear 'em out on the racetrack and win the race to where everybody can say, "Well they just flat out won the race today -- that was no gimme."

I want my first win to be like that.