The one thing Scott Speed and Wally Rogers have learned in their selected starts with Leavine Family Racing (LFR) is that a major component of speed is communication.
It’s not enough for Speed to tell his crew chief, Wally Rogers, what the car needs. Sometimes it’s more important to understand the way he says it.
The two forged a greater level of communication during last Saturday’s Sprint Showdown at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Now they hope to use that knowledge to their benefit during Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600.
“I am excited about this weekend at the Coca-Cola 600 after our performance in the Sprint Showdown,” Rogers said. “I feel like we learned a lot of valuable information this past weekend. The biggest thing we learned is how we can work more with Scott and understanding how loose is loose and how tight is tight.
“We have started to establish a baseline for not only Charlotte but for the next upcoming race weekends on our schedule as well.”
Speed started 15th and finished 14th in the Showdown. The 40-lap race was used as a practice session in race conditions for this Sunday’s race – the longest on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule.
“We had a different set of priorities last weekend,” Speed said. “But we had a good run and learned a lot during the Showdown. We are all pumped for the Coca-Cola 600 this weekend. I think we should be pretty competitive.”
Speed will drive the No. 95 Jordan Truck Sales (JTS) Ford Fusion in Sunday’s race, one of 14 selected races for the second-year team.
“When you don’t go to every race you don’t have a lot of time to create a lot of notes,” Speed said. “Wally and I have come a long way in the way we communicate with each other, and we’ve done it in a very short time. When I say it’s ‘loose,’ he has a better idea just how loose by the way I said it. Communication is essential in going fast.”
LFR95 PR
