Teamwork, perseverance keep Army team on track

[dreadpirateroberts]

Teamwork, perseverance keep Army team on track

By Lt. Col. William Thurmond
April 8, 2006

FORT WORTH, TX. (Army News Service, April 8, 2006) – Despite a first lap crash in practice that sent the crew scrambling to get its back-up car ready, the Army NASCAR team is still in the hunt for a win in Texas.

Their hard work paid off in a top-20 qualifying run for Joe Nemechek’s 01 Army Chevrolet, who was still not satisfied following his lap.

"I didn't think it was a very good lap at all," said Nemechek. "It's very difficult on a high-speed racetrack like this if your car is not driving comfortably. You're trying to run a 189 mile per hour lap out there and if your car is not driving right you can't make it go. It didn't have the right feel getting in the corner."

Nemechek will start Sunday’s race in 17th place, right next to his MB2 teammate and fellow NASCAR veteran Sterling Martin.

Kasey Kahne will start in the pole position for Sunday’s Samsung / Radio Shack 500 alongside rookie J.J. Yeley.

“Not bad at all considering everything we went through," said Nemechek.

His crew chief, Ryan Pemberton, agreed.

“It was a tough day (Friday),” said Pemberton in the team’s hauler after happy hour practice Saturday.” “The team worked really hard and bounced back. We worked hard and put together a good back-up car. It was right there.”

Of course, Joe had to be a little cautious on his qualifying lap just due to the fact that we’re 18 hours away from home and don’t have another racecar readily available.”

Saturday practice sessions found the team struggling with handling issues. Fighting too-tight conditions on the Texas Motor Speedway’s 24 degree banked turns. Nemechek’s crew worked to improve the car all morning to mixed results. They ran no better than 32d-fastest in both sessions.

Still, despite the bad luck, the Army team is determined to keep on rolling.

“That’s when this team shines,” said Ryan. “The communication, the hard work and the group effort – this is when our cross training really comes in handy, when we have problems.”