Matt Borland and Ryan Newman need a solid effort at Richmond this weekend to put
them in the Chase for the Nextel Cup. Credit: AutostockTech Q&A: Matt BorlandBy
Dave Rodman, NASCAR.COM
September 8, 2004
05:24 PM EDT (21:24 GMT)
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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Ryan Newman and his Penske Racing South team are not in
the position they expected to be in heading into Saturday night's Chevy Rock and
Roll 400 at Richmond International Raceway.

Newman won eight races and 11 Bud Poles last season on his way to sixth in the
final Cup series standings. The 2004 season has not been as kind, or as easy to
figure for Newman, crew chief Matt Borland and their No. 12 ALLTEL Dodge team.
NO. 12 ALLTEL DODGE
• Matt Borland• Ryan Newman• 2004 Stats• World of Dodge• Gillette Young
Guns Challenge• Superstore: R. Newman gear

Heading into Richmond -- the cutoff race to determine the field of contenders
for the final 10-race Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup -- Newman is eighth in the
standings, but only 45 points ahead of 11th-place Jamie McMurray.

The top 10 drivers, and any others who are within 400 points of the leader after
Richmond, qualify for the Chase.

Borland took a break from preparing for Richmond to talk to NASCAR.COM senior
writer Dave Rodman about navigating a treacherous short track, the most critical
things that can happen Saturday night and the crucially essential emotional
makeup of a race team.

Q: What is the number one concern you and Ryan have heading into Richmond?

Matt Borland: Avoiding the wrecks (laughing) and any kind of brake failures.

Q: In other words, the unexpected?

Borland: Exactly. Avoiding the unexpected is what we have to do. We have to run
good, but the biggest thing is just going to be missing the wrecks and not
getting caught up in something.

Q: Is Richmond a place that, since you've been so good there in the past,
couldn't be a better venue for this cutoff race to fall?

Borland: Yes and no (laughing). It's definitely good because, like you say,
we've run good there a lot. But the bad part is that it's such a small track
that anything can happen, (and) it's a lot easier for that stuff to happen on a
small track.
Matt Borland Credit: Autostock
Q: Will you 100 percent go with the standard set-ups that have worked so well
for you there in the past? What is the most critical element in that set-up
package?

Borland: No, we won't necessarily run the same thing we've run in the past.
There are several reasons for that.

Number one, the sealer's not there on the asphalt like what's been there in
years past. The track's worn off quite a bit from the first race there (in the
spring) and after the Indy cars running there (in mid-summer).

We went up there and tested a few weeks ago and we're going to take a lot of
what we learned from there and apply it to what we've done in the past and go
for the best in a compromise.

Q: What is the most critical change in the set-up that might make a critical
change, such as a spring or shock change that would create a big adjustment, or
is it a case of fine-tuning and nothing makes a gross change?

Borland: Yeah, it's mainly fine-tuning. You're getting more and more locked-in
with NASCAR's rules on what you can, and can't do that everything anymore is
just trying to fine tune stuff -- a little bit here and a little bit there -- to
make it the best overall package for the night.

Q: Does a stretch of races such as the last eight, where you've gone from eighth
to 12th and back into eighth in the standings, prove once again how critical the
emotional makeup of a team is, and how strong your Penske Racing team is?

Borland: Emotions definitely play a big part in the sport. You hear about teams
getting on streaks and getting momentum and all that and it definitely is a real
thing that can happen.

Sometimes it can happen for the good and sometimes for the bad. The strong teams
pull through it and the weak ones don't.
Borland and Newman earned a top-10 at Richmond in May. Credit: Autostock
Q: What's it going to be like on the pit box Saturday night? Will you have an
extra laptop and an extra engineer up on the box computing standings? How's that
going to work out as the race goes?

Borland: I don't know about that (laughing), but we're definitely going to bring
everything that we've got and bring some extra guys in case we crash, to try to
get back out as quick as possible.

It's going to come down to a couple points, here and there, and you're probably
going to have a guy sitting in 11th that's two or three points out of the
championship, and you don't want to be that guy in 11th.

Q: Barring something truly obscene, like an accident or a blown engine in the
first 25 laps -- what might your worst-case scenario be at Richmond, given this
added element of the cutoff to the Chase? Would it be a late caution, or
something like that?

Borland: Probably losing a tire. Getting a flat tire, or running over something,
or just having a tire blow -- ending up in the fence, or ending up having to pit
and be back in 30th with 10 laps to go.

Q: This has nothing to do with Richmond, but is there anything you can put your
finger on for the mid-season stretch you've had in 2004, compared to 2003? Do
you feel like the shock rule NASCAR made at mid-season hurt you guys
particularly or is it nothing you can put your finger on?

Borland: There's nothing really we can put our finger on. It's not been one of
our better seasons, pretty much the whole year through, and the shock rule
didn't really affect too much of that.

It's just one of those things where we haven't really been performing like we
should have up to this point. It's no one thing in particular; it's just how it
goes sometimes.



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