Chris Tidwell is a general mechanic for Kevin Harvick’s 29 Shell Pennzoil team. Tidwell talks about what it takes to get ready for the racing season and for Sunday’s Daytona 500.
Q What does the crew do during the off season?
A What people don’t know is that we are probably busier in the off-season than we are during the regular season. We take every car and do updates to them, depending on what NASCAR’s new rules are. We have spent a lot of time working on the Car of Tomorrow. We did a lot of time testing it in Iowa, Georgia and other tracks that are not NASCAR sanctioned tracks.
Shell Pennzoil is a new sponsor for the 29 Chevy Monte Carlo so everything we own had to be repainted. No more black. Everything is now yellow and red. Everything from toolboxes, to gear buckets, everything had to be re lettered, and reuniformed. We have been working til 8 or 9 every night.
Q Did you get anytime off during the off season?
A I came home for two weeks at Christmas, and that is pretty much our off time that they have set aside for us. The shops are closed. We come back on the Jan. 2 and get after it.
Q The 29 team had a good season last year. Is there a lot of pressure to do it again or is it business as usual?
A It’s business as usual and our goal is to do it again. If you can win five races a year, you have done a good thing. Everyone knows we are there and they know we are a threat.
Last year we were really good on short tracks and intermediate tracks. Our wins came at those tracks. But this year NASCAR decided to run the Car of Tomorrow on those tracks. So we have just really been working hard on the Car of Tomorrow. Everyone gets to start over on a level playing field.
Q How different is the Car of Tomorrow? Does it just look different or are there major changes under the body?
A It is completely different the way the chassis is built and set up. They are the same components but they are put on completely different. We have to re-learn everything. The chassis have to be built to NASCAR specs and then we take them up to Concord, N.C., have them inspected and they get a bar code. If the code is removed, then the chassis are no good
Q How long have you been at Daytona? What are the hours like?
A It’s like 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday we had the shoot-out, and that was 7 a.m. till 11 p.m.
Q How do you feel you did in the Budweiser Shoot Out?
A We had a good race car. It got a little tight on him in the end, but I think it showed what we can do. We keep the shoot-out car as a back-up car and hopefully we don’t have to see it again. But it’s good knowing we have good back-up car.
Q Has your job changed on the team and wae there any other changes on any of the RCR teams this year?
A I am doing the same thing — brakes and suspension. On our team it is completely the same we are just different colors. Actually, none of the teams at RCR got mixed up.
Q Doing this for a second year, what are some of your goals?
A I just want to learn as much as I possibly can so I can do this for a long time. I work with great people. Our shock engineer on the team is excellent, our brake and gear guy will show me anything. Everyone is exceptional to work with. I just want learn as much as I can so in 5 or 10 years, I can know as much as they do.