Jeff Burton, Scott Miller and Richard Childress celebrate winning the Bud Pole for the Daytona 500. Credit: Autostock

Shop Talk: Scott Miller

Richard Childress Racing crew chief Scott Miller has been an integral part of RCR's revitalization in 2006, working with Cup veteran Jeff Burton.

As the Nextel Cup Series heads to Phoenix International Raceway for Saturday evening's Subway Fresh 500, Miller is confident he has one of the sport's best flat-track drivers in Burton, a former Phoenix winner in both Cup and the Busch Series.

Scott Miller showed off his arm strength at Texas. Credit: Contributed Photo

Miller, who also showed some diamond virtuosity when he threw out the first pitch for a recent Texas Rangers game, talked about his season with the No. 31 Chevrolet, chassis setup keys for Phoenix and racing at night.

Q: Scott, it's early in the season, but your race team has shown a lot of promise, so how would you assess the season to this point?

Miller: We've been pretty happy that we had a good winter, building some new cars and that we came out of the box strong.

Unfortunately, right now we're not sitting in a spot in the points where I think we deserve to be, based off of the performances that we've had.

We've got caught up in a couple wrecks that weren't of our doing and we had some tire problems at Atlanta. All of those were potential top-five to top-10 performances that we didn't get.

But performance-wise, so far, as far as the speed goes we've been very happy with the start and being up and hopefully we can keep that ball rolling.

Q: In terms of enthusiasm and overall morale, the way you're running has got to have your team pretty pumped up, doesn't it?

	Jeff Burton ran into bad luck at Bristol. Credit: Autostock
	Inside the Numbers Jeff Burton in 2006 Site Start Finish Rank Daytona 1 32 32 Fontana 6 5 14 Las Vegas 8 7 10 Atlanta 3 25 11 Bristol 18 34 18 Martinsville 20 33 21 Texas 21 6 16 JEFF BURTON •   2006 Driver Page

Miller: Yeah, everybody is looking forward to racing every weekend. Sometimes in seasons, if you're struggling some, you might get to the point where you actually dread going to the racetrack a little bit, from week to week.

But right now, everybody on this (No. 31 Cingular (Chevrolet) team can't wait to get to the next one.

Q: Neither you nor Jeff are new to RCR, but working with him as his crew chief this season, have you learned anything about Jeff Burton that you didn't know, previously?

Miller: I got to know Jeff pretty well last year, because in my other role at RCR I kind of got to go around and work with all three of the teams, somewhat.

So I kind of got to know Jeff pretty well last year -- but I got to know him as the guy at the racetrack.

This year, I'm getting to know him a lot more personally and as a friend. The relationship has been really, really good and it's been enjoyable to me so far.

Q: Qualifying is one thing you guys have really seemed to have improved on, so how have you done that?

Miller: I think that's a two-fold situation, and actually more than that. I believe that over the winter we've helped ourselves in a lot of departments with the racecars.

The engine department is better and the bodies on the cars are better. There are a lot of things that I think we've improved throughout our company over the winter.

Plus, I think, Jeff and I have fortunately gotten on the same page about what we need to do. We talked some over the winter about the qualifying deal and we set some goals.

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Knock on wood, so far we've been able to exceed the goals that we set, and hopefully we can continue that.

Q: There are fewer impound races this year, so is that a plus to you and your team and do you enjoy the "traditional" schedule races more?

Miller: I think I do. We got used to the impound races last year. I think everybody up throughout the garage kind of got used to them.

So when they took them away, I think everybody was kind of wondering why they did that, because we had gotten used to doing the impound deal.

But when we went back to the format that we had been used to, previous to that, I think -- at least to us -- that we like it better and that also has probably helped some in the qualifying deal, because you can come with a specific qualifying setup instead of trying to qualify with the race setup.

And that's made it a little bit easier, I think, for Jeff and us to get the cars closer for him.

Q: Jeff's run real well at flat tracks like Phoenix and New Hampshire, and he's won at both places; so from your standpoint, what's the biggest setup concern you've got for tracks like that?

	Jeff Burton Credit: Autostock
	Inside the Numbers Jeff Burton at Phoenix Starts 13 Wins 2 Top-5s 5 Top-10s 6 Poles 0 DNFs 0 Avg. Start 22.5 Avg. Finish 11.8 Burton at Phoenix with RCR Year Start Finish 2004 20 11 2005 20 3   25 15

Miller: It's kind of the age-old thing, no matter where we go. It's a fine line between having your car turn well enough through the middle of the corner and up off the corner and to still have enough rear grip to where they can really get aggressive with the throttle.

And that isn't any different at Phoenix or Loudon (New Hampshire) than it is at Texas. We all are striving for that in our racecars almost at any racetrack that we go to.

Q: What's the most critical tool you have, to adjusting that balance that you're talking about, at Phoenix?

Miller: I think it's a combination of everything: shocks, springs and your aero package. But I think getting your front cambers optimized is really a big thing there for that sort of track, which is a flatter racetrack, because you've got to get everything that you can out of the tires because you don't have any banking there to help you.

So I would say maximizing the front cambers and doing all that, and getting the steering geometry right, and the springs and the whole rest of the combination; but it's all important and it's all an overall package.

There is more than one combination that will work and each driver is a little bit different, so that's the way it is.

Q: One thing that's different this year is that Jeff is competing a lot in the Busch Series. How much of a benefit have you and he found that program to be?

Miller: I believe it has benefited us and hopefully it will continue to. I've not necessarily run that 21 car in the Busch Series because Shane Wilson does a great job with that.

But when Jeff drives it I generally go early and spend time over there during the practices and all the rest of that with Jeff, talking to him about it.

I've learned some things definitely that we've been able to bring back over to the Cup garage.

Q: Strategically, what do you want to see at Phoenix to optimize your chances to win a race there?

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Miller: Again, I don't know that Phoenix is any different than any other track. The way you win races any more is that you've got to have a really, really fast racecar and good pit stall to where your pit crew can put you in position to win.

Your pit crew can do really good stops for you, but if you get boxed in trying to get out of the pits, you're going to lose positions no matter how good your pit crew is -- so a good pit stall is always key to winning a race.

If you get good pit stops with a fast racecar and you've got a determined driver you'll be all right. I think we've got some of those elements in place so hopefully we can go there and qualify good and get us a good pit stall and maybe we can get one of these things.

Q: How much of a difference have you found at Phoenix racing during the day, and racing at night, as the Subway Fresh 500 will be?

Miller: I believe that we didn't see a really big balance shift as the sun goes down there, but the speeds do pick up and the overall grip does pick up (at night).

It might get a little bit tighter late in the evening.

Q: In general, do you and the team enjoy racing at night more -- and how do you like it at Phoenix, specifically?

Miller: Racing at night, anywhere, gives you a really nice atmosphere. We enjoy the Richmond night races and the Bristol night races and of course the Phoenix night race.

Any place that we race at night, it just seems like -- and I don't know what it is -- but it seems like the perception is that the intensity level kind of gets a little bit higher under the lights.

And I don't know why that is, but it's also nice at some of the places where it's extremely hot out during the day, it makes it extremely nice to race at night.

It helps everybody to stay fresh and it really helps the drivers out a lot, and all that. So I think in general we all do like night racing.