MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Feb. 10, 2012) – “Proper preparation prevents poor performance” is a line you may have heard before. At JR Motorsports it is an adage dubbed “the five P’s of life”. From the front offices down to the shop floor, the entire staff at JRM values this philosophy. So it’s no surprise that shop foreman Gordon Gibbs and his crew of mechanics have put months of preparation into the cars JR Motorsports will take to Daytona in less than two weeks. Three teams will race in the season-opening DRIVE4COPD 300 at Daytona International Speedway. Including primary cars and back-ups, that’s six cars JRM has prepared for one race.
“A lot of emphasis goes into Daytona because it’s very important,” Gibbs told JRMracing.com. “It’s important to Dale Jr., Tony Jr., everyone here at JR Motorsports. There is a strong connection to that place. We all want to win there.”
Gibbs’ crew has been working on JRM’s Daytona cars for months. In fact, initial labor began in the weeks prior to the 2011 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The work is an ongoing process and will continue right up until load time.
“When it comes to Daytona, the biggest thing is the detail,” Gibbs said. “The speedway cars, you try in so many areas to make that car that much better. It’s a time consuming piece. The downforce cars they don’t take as long. What turns into a regular four day paint job for a regular downforce car, could be a six to eight day paint job in the body shop for a speedway car.
“It comes down to the details,” Gibbs continued. “There are a lot of areas on the cars that we decal and then clear coat over. We do that so the cars look good all the time. They get blasted in the front due to drafting and we don’t want to keep changing decals out. Plus it’s also smoother, which makes it faster.”
Currently, the No. 5, 7 and 88 Chevrolets all rest idly on the setup plates on the shop floor, while a handful of mechanics carefully scrutinize adjustments down to the slightest margin, the narrowest detail. It may sound meticulous, but according to Gibbs if you can scrub a fraction of a second off your time, it will all be worthwhile.
“Basically, you’re chasing tenths of a second,” said Gibbs. “We’ll work on those cars right up until the last second we have before we load them on the haulers. You feel like you’re never done. There’s always something you could do. There are always the what-ifs. You ask yourself, ‘what if I had done this? Would this have been better’?”
Rule adjustments mandated by NASCAR to help combat the two-car tandem draft also added more work for the JRM crews. The new rules package includes an additional two inches of body work to the rear bumper, and moving the grille opening up five inches to its more traditional location toward the center of the nose. The adjustments equated to an extra day-and-a-half of work per car. With three primary and three backup cars making the trip to Daytona, that’s an added nine days from start to finish.
“The rule changes didn’t set us back too much,” Gibbs explained. “They made us go back and repaint the back bumpers after adding the extra length. The other two cars were still in primer, so that didn’t really affect us. We just had to put them back on the plate, make the changes and make the new pieces.”
Gibbs and crew are still on schedule to load the team’s three haulers and depart for Daytona Beach, Fla. on Monday, Feb. 20. Race fans can catch JRM drivers Dale Earnhardt Jr., Danica Patrick and Cole Whitt in the season opening DRIVE4COPD 300 on Feb. 25, beginning at 12 p.m. EST on ESPN.