Three-time champion crew chief Ray Evernham gets to the true story behind the legendary "T-Rex" No. 24 Chevrolet, which ran just one race and dominated en route to Victory Lane.
@blueridgeboy you are almost correct ray didnt teach chad Chad went to and left hms to crew chief in 2001 and then came back when gordon called and Gordon owes the whole 48 team and the reason the 48 team worked good was gordon 01 and 02 cars that won races just with a different paint scheme that's why they started with a championship car when they started with 2 hungry guys that need to prove themselves
If they'd never went to the Chase Format, Jeff actually won 7 and possibly 8 Championships. NASCAR actually went to the Chase because Jeff was so dominant that NASCAR was losing viewers which equals money. Bill France actually had a closed door meeting with Evernham and told him they were no longer allowed to lead a race by more than 4 seconds because they were "stinking up the races and making them boring". When Jeff would get out to a 4 second lead, Ray would tell him to back it off. You can actually see the interview at "Undeniable with Joe Buck...The Jeff Gordon Interviews".
Go watch the Interviews, right here on RU-vid. They are very enlightening. If you pay attention you will find out just how Staged and controlled NASCAR really is. And I've been a Gordon fan for MANY years. I met him when he was a kid racing Quarter Midgets at Auburndale Speedway when I was running a Sportsman Car. I knew then he would be something special.
That car was so great because what he didn't mention is the lowered the floor of the car and with the crazy setup in the car it utilitized ground effects in the corners which basically creates a vacuum under the car sucking it to the ground creating huge downforce
the floor itself wasn't lowered? it was just the change to softer front springs and harder rear springs that "set" the car in the corners better, in return lowering the car when it went into the turns. That's what I've heard in every other video anyways.
Manual Clutch and now it’s single file racing with hardly any tough battles, leaders pulling away from the main pack. Its boring now. I haven’t watched a race sense 2008. I’ll stick to my local tracks where racing is still fun to watch
That’s why NASCAR ain’t doing too good. They do this every time something new comes out that whips everyone’s ass. They did it with the superbird and the charger Daytona, and they keep doing it to this day. It’s sad because NASCAR could’ve gone it a really cool direction if they allowed cars like these to do their thing.
@@Nikolai_The_Crazed I stopped watching when they introduced the play offs and new points system where they race for a dozen or so laps then stop then race another dozen or so laps then stop and repeats till the end of the race.
The guy thinks outside the box, and instead of getting rewarded, he gets punished... and why? Because none of the other teams could keep up. Instead of promoting ingenuity, they discourage it to keep the playing field level. At least he got to keep the one win out of it.
Naz Idoura nascar sucks because they they drive in circles. You can only watch so much if that before you get bored. People are interested in IMSA and Indy car because the road courses. Very technical tracks
I don't think this was to stifle ingenuity, it was keeping them in check when the driver, crew chief, and now fabricators were driving the entire series, when just one or two of those was all they needed to win. Bill France seemed like the final person to lead NASCAR with a true vision for making races appealing to fans, and I think this was his intuition to step in and stop HMS from just lapping the competition and driving away fans. Hendrick had the ingenuity to push R&D from the early 90's, when maybe the only other team to start doing that was Alan Kulwicki's, because the owner-driver had an engineering background. I think this car was unfairly punished, but definitely in NASCAR's best interest to rewrite their rules. Key word in the exchange Ray recalled was "tomorrow", I think Ray downplayed it but they must have had a lot of subtle legal tweaks that were a greater sum than their parts. I think the big factor for France was how this came at a time when 24 was already bludgeoning its competition. Don't forget that the year after this they ran the most statistically dominant season in modern history.
The secret was Rex Stump. He went to Hendrick Racing after he worked for GM doing development work for GM on the C4 Corvette. It wasn't anything radical but it was having an understanding of how the entire car would leverage force. But one of the most important things Stump understood was how to gather and interpret data.
I was a 5 year old kid sitting on the old concrete backstretch bleachers with dad at the Winston that night. Still have the youth sized T-Rex t shirt, was and forever will be a Gordon fan..
There were others throughout the history of the sport. Look what they did to the Chrysler Hemi's AND the winged cars themselves. ( The Plymouth "Super Bird" and the "Dodge Daytona". ) Totally out-lawed them. ( and I'm not even a Mopar guy........but the truth is the truth )......They say that even to this day, those tall wings did more to keep the cars planted and stay in control at high speed than any other design. With the winged cars, they could set the cars up "loose" on purpose ( a loose car WILL run faster, but it's on the verge of spinning out )......and as soon as the rear of the car would just about "come around" ( start to slide out of control ), that wing ( that wing was also totally adjustable by the way ) would catch the air and literally PUSH the rear of the car back where it was suppose to be. They say it was practically impossible to spin out of control with that tall wing alone. ( with decent tires, suspension and skilled driver of course ).........
@@howabouthetruth2157 And don't forgot that *DAMN OVERPOWERED* Ford Thunderbird of Bill Elliot. He was too fast, to the point of lapping EVERYBODY 2 LAPS AT TALLADEGA *UNDER GREEN* . Reason?, his crew chief and mechanic chief just made "a few tweaks" to increase the power of the car to nearly-950 HP, just an absurd amount of power for a cup car (back in that days, cup cars we're about 800 hp), back in those days, and even for today standards.
@@HirokaAkita You think "it was all about Elliot's engine"? You're so far off, it ain't even funny. Bill Elliot's team hit on something that had only been used by Harry Gant's team some time before, back when Gant had his incredible dominant streak. No other teams knew about it. Elliot's team showed the inspectors what exactly they were doing to the car, to make it so much faster, or should I say: handle so much better on the super speedways, and the inspectors deemed it legal. But Elliot's team and nascar officials were under no obligation to share their secret........it would be up to all the other teams to figure it out for themselves. Toward the end of Elliot's dominant season, they finally shared their little secret with some of the other Ford teams, and they too, began running so much faster than everyone else. But during the off-season, someone on one of the other Ford teams leaked the secret, and by the beginning of the very next season, EVERY car had "the secret".......and you'll notice it put an end to Elliot's dominance. So what was this mysterious secret that the Elliot and other Fords had, that had only been used for a short while by Harry Gant some years before? Answer: A CAMBERED REAR END.
NASCAR needs to allow teams to do stuff like this, if there is a gray spot in the rules let the teams find it, this could allow some genius engineering in a smaller team to fight with the big boys
They changed the rules in 97' because this car was deemed illegal. Jeff proceeded in 98' to win 13 races that season with legal racecars. Pretty sure it was more the driver than the car.
I was actually working at another manufactures racing development team. And there were spy photos taken at an offsite sandblasting firm, of the bare chassis. The chassis itself appeared to be very stiff torsionally in the center section. And had a new respect for Rex stop after seeing those photos
Stumbled on the perfect set up. It was almost there at first but then the minor changes to the set up became a major change. The car responds to the input on a light scale. Tight front slightly loose rear, with drive coming off.
It amazes me when a team learns something new setup or chassis wise that the drivers go out and make it obvious theres a big advantage. I would've done just enough to stay out front.
NASCAR had been killing the better running engines & cars for decades. They totally out-lawed the Chrysler Hemi engines long before this incident. The reason NASCAR is all but dead now, is because they allowed the biggest greedy sponsors to literally take control over the way the whole sport was ran. They literally shit on all the long-time hardcore fans in order to try & attract every candy ass liberal who NEVER watched or even liked racing to begin with. Stupid, complicated rules that NOBODY understands, getting rid of HISTORICAL tracks such as Martinsville that offered exciting door handle to door handle racing, and replaced them with cookie cutter 1.5 mile tracks in areas not even known for stock car racing fan history, where the new tracks are boring as hell because nobody can run side by side on them. They even brought their liberal politics and shoved it down the throats of the fans and the teams. They tried to turn the perfect, most popular motor sport in history, into "the NFL on wheels". 500 mile races now broken down into "segments" or "heats" ( or whatever the hell they call it ). Grossly over-priced tickets to the races.......they even stripped the races from TV viewers by trying to force viewers into spending more money on "premium cable channels" that NOBODY wants to pay for. I can go on and on about the crazy, despicable shit they've done to destroy our beloved motor sport.
@@KurthardtJr and this is why you fail at life because that's the whole point. when you start making stupid ass rules like this you start degrading the sport you degrade the sport it starts to die that's exactly what happened and this is indicative of that! When you discourage Innovation within the rules you're clearly not understanding what the whole purpose of the sport is!
They weren't really unstoppable. They were the benefactors of nascars dumbass points system. They would have 4 championships under the original points system and Gordon would have 7.
Ray said "They're are many drivers that could take a 5th place car and finish 5th but Jeff Gordon could take a 5th place car and finish 1st".......what more do you need to say?
They decided to ban it, just because: NASCAR Cup cars can't go over 210 mph without troubles, or over 195 mph in 1.5 - 2.0 mile tracks, they are just TOO HEAVY for that
I miss the old days .. watching with my grandpa.. Atlanta .. there in person when they added those spoilers on there .. shot right through into the air .. the rules versus etc right? I’m glad they’ve brought dirt and others back to help the sport live. These new drivers push it too. It’s becoming nascar again
This sort of similar to a decade or two earlier. Max engine size was limited to 358(?). Someone, I 'think' it was Rusty Wallace Penske that once used a slightly smaller CID engine. Turned out much faster. So then a rule was implemented max size and min size...both the same. At the time what Ray did may have been deemed a cost/safety issue? NASCAR didn't want a few cars lapping the field every 25 laps...don't know.
If the car wasn’t legal NASCAR would’ve taken the win so people can go on with the BS! It’s not who’s driving the cars now and then. It’s who’s setting the cars up! If Ray and Gordon would’ve stayed together there wouldn’t be a record left! Gordon is a very great driver. He didn’t need the fastest car to win! But when he had the fastest car it wasn’t even close. These two where broken up for a reason....(NASCAR) To only let Chad and Johnson drive the sport into the dirt.
RC RACER 88 so how many races did Earnhardt won since 1994 once Gordon got started? Nascar changed a lot rules so Jeff wouldn't dominate as much, including the point system and playoff races
There's probably aspects of that car that hms still uses and keeps secret.....not so much now, but I bet Jimmie doesn't win 5 in a row without that car's development
@@sdcfbhjnbfxgd2114 eh doubtful. That car was outdated as fuck by the time jimmie was winning championships. They are always pushing the edge of the rules/"cheating" though. Everyone in the sport at the top is.
I thought I remembered hearing that among other things, the chassis was super stiff in places it hadn’t been before, such as the engine compartment. So much so that the engine was much harder to work on due to the frame tubing being in the way.
The first time I saw the Dupont car behind him, I'd never seen a nascar look so planted and mean looking before that. and it meant business when it rolled out and went qualifying for the first time
That was NOTHING NEW back when that happened. NASCAR had been doing that crap to teams, engines, and cars for years. Look what they did to the Chrysler Hemi AND the winged cars. ( the Plymouth Super Bird and the Dodge Daytona ) TOTALLY out-lawed them........and this was STILL back when the cars could actually be bought from dealer lots by the public. By the time of Jeff Gordon's era.......those cars were NOTHING like what is found on a dealer's lot. You could literally walk into a dealer's lot and buy a brand new "Dodge Daytona" or "Plymouth Superbird" with the tall wing AND a Hemi engine........right off the show room floor. Of course they lacked the sheer horse power and racing suspension & roll cage........but still. I thought the winged cars look like shit, but today, they are worth close to a million dollars in good condition........the STREET CAR versions. They didn't make a whole bunch of them. And smart people bought them up, both new and used, back when a used one didn't cost much more than any other used car. Can you imagine being almost a millionaire due to buying a single USED car and taking good care of it over the years?
@@howabouthetruth2157 If you think the stock Daytona and Superbird shared anything in common with the race car other than maybe some body panels you are seriously mistaken. By the mid to late 60s nearly all stock cars were tube chassis cars with stock appearing body panels around them. They share more in common with modern stock cars than their street car counterparts at that time. Yes they looked stock but they were far from it.
@@LilSki3 I NEVER said "the whole car was factory stock" pertaining to the Dodge Daytona & Plymouth Superbird. And when I said "roll cage and......." I did forget to mention a tubular racing chassis. But the BODIES on those cars that WERE used in nascar racing WERE bodies ordered straight from Chrysler. Sure, they were tweaked here & there to fit the racing chassis, but the majority of these winged cars WERE factory stock bodies. Go look it up for yourself, and don't go implying I don't know what I'm talking about. And yes, they WERE the same body that you could buy from a dealer as a street car, aside from some tweaking to fit the modified chassis. After all, it was CHRYSLER.....NOT the racing teams........that did the aero testing to produce the winged cars to begin with. The Mopar teams of nascar played NO role in producing those winged bodies. The Mopar teams racing merely began their own testing which was a very short amount of time before the season began that year because Chrysler released them at the last minute, so to speak. That's why they were MUCH closer to what you could buy from a dealer's showroom floor. Look it up man. ALL teams in nascar were still getting STOCK BODIES from the auto manufacturers all the way up until 1980. The entire field from 1967 to 1980 were known as "the generation 2 cars" with STOCK BODIES on modified chassis. I do know what I'm talking about.
From what I've been told over the years (and it could be complete BS btw) they really focused on the underside of the car. The flatter you could make the overall surface of the underside of the car, the better for aero. I've been told the radiator pan work, rear end and oil pan were all mounted/fabricated to be more efficient through the air than had ever been tried. I'm sure there's more tricks in that car but those are the ones that I've heard through 3rd,4th and 5th hand accounts...
@@FdtTmOJHKPXQFMMkhIE Well the good crew chiefs knew how to use the 'slight of hand' very well. some would purposely rig up something illegal for officials to find more obviously, so they get that "Aha!" moment of finding the decoy, but overlook the real secrets the team wanted in the car... Chad Knaus famously got busted one yr at a plate race with illegal C-pillars on the car and they had t rip the back half of the roof off and re-do it. He got caught. But he learned to try that stuff from Ray. lol.
@@FdtTmOJHKPXQFMMkhIE But springs and sway bars is how you lower and raise the ride height of the car on the track. The underside creates more ground effect.
What I'll never understand is that if NASCAR truly just wants teams to stop modifying their cars then just make the rule say: "your car has to match this example car bolt for bolt."
Not a mere mention of the entire floor pan of the car being an inch higher than what was standardized at the time...thus giving the body added downforce... I’m not saying what they had come up with was illegal or violated the NASCAR rule book, but it was different than everyone else’s car...
We need specifics. I sense it was aero and ground effects, but what was the norm and what was the difference? This deserves an in depth study for the geeks and freaks.
From the tidbits I read, they raised the floor pan of the car, which basically created a ground effect stock car. It created a tunnel of air that kept the car sucked down to the track, meaning any little adjustment Jeff made, the car went right there and stayed there.
@@zlinedavid I think the setup had a lot more to do with it instead of (or in conjunction with) any relocation of the sheet metal of the floor pan. Softer front springs and hard rear springs would cause a bit of an oversteer ("loose") balance normally, but the way they did it caused the front of the car to squat more at speed (with the force of the airflow at high speed) than the rear, and the angled "rake" of the floor pan acted in a similar manner to a mild diffuser, creating more downforce under the car.
@@jsquared1013 It’s probably a combination of all of the above. Softer front springs would create a wedge effect, which would only be enhanced by the air tunnels forming under the car.
The difference I see between Jeff Gordon and Jimmy Johnson, is that Jeff was so dominant that the rules had to be changed specifically to make him less dominant.
It’s my feeling, it’s more than just a set up. It takes an entire system i.e. the entire chassis system. To create something like that. You don’t just stumble upon the perfect set of bars springs and shocks. When you want to beat the best 42 teams
GEEKS NEED MORE DETAILS! WHAT THE WHY? PHYSICS... HUH? Please! If there's a description regarding what went into making it so fast published, please share. Thanks.
@@RT22-pb2pp And that answers all your questions? Cuz I'm just getting started. I know there's allusions and hints, but this fable is worthy of an in-depth diatribe. As I said elsewhere, this story is worthy of a book and a movie. Like Darrell's magic bumper and the perfectly timed exploding engine, this dirty little ditty has gained legendary status. p.s. Somebody tell Ron Howard to do a feature length film on Curtis Turner and the early days of NASCAR. After leading a larger than life on-the-edge existence, CT flying into the mountain is a perfect ending to a great bio-pic. Everything before that is up for discussion (Except the liquor landing. That alone will drive all the trailers and previews...) Sorry to get off track, but seriously, a Curtis Turner focused Early Nascar movie is a no-brainer...(did I mention the Teamsters and the Union bid? Google It!)...
Seems to be a common denominator in paved Motorsports. It has to be insurance driven. If I were guessing tire speed and lateral movement has something to do with it. If these cars approach a threshold the tire manufacturer has set, a few phone calls are made and the rule makers and bean counters get together and start costing teams money.
Why don't they just let the mechanics and car designers go wild? It'd just keep pushing innovation, every sport changes whether for bad or good. It's usually hard to figure that out until some time passes.
Because then one team would dominate and that would make for bad TV. Bad TV means lower ratings and lower ratings mean less advertising money, which is what ultimately matters to NASCAR.
He's saying that this car was built to fully take advantage of the rules as they were at the time, so the were eking out every available advantage that they could get. Also at that time in NASCAR there weren't a lot of engineers working on the car to get the cars perfect, so any engineering advantage you could get was massive
"If it wasn't Jeff Gordon driving that car it might still be legal." Lol, maybe history would have been better if Mark Martin were driving, and then fan backlash might have saved it.
Here's my idea for a cool race car: take the legendary 1994 Mercedes ilmor pushrod winning indycar engine and swap it into the legendary t-rex nascar race car. That would be legendary fer sure
Imagine if f1 did that every time Lewis Hamilton got a grand slam. This seriously sounds like some angry admin on a Minecraft server banning somebody because they don't play the way they want them to.
What I don't understand is that if the car was written to the rulebook, and presumably the rulebook didn't change after Bill, Jr. looked at the car, why would Rick roll over for NASCAR? If the car had been illegal, Hendrick would never have asked for a special favor to run it, so why does he grant NASCAR a special favor to pull a very expensive, legal racecar?
Because he had 2 choices - pull it or not race in NASCAR again. There was always one major rule in Big Bill's era - don't stink up the show. It was one thing to lap the field because of reliability, long run speed, or strategy. But don't go out and run a second faster than the field. Since that's what they did Big Bill would have had no issue with telling Hendrick to take a hike.
Remember when Chad was told not to put another set of rear shocks on the car after the race at Sears Point? Nothing illegal at all with them but don't use another set like them again.
Why would you retire this car? I would have agreed with Mr France to smooth things over, then just reskin or paint the car different. Or park the car and build Rex #2 from your build up blueprints and set up notes. I feel certain those notes and blue prints were not shredded and burned in the trash barrel. I would make the inspectors try to discover it.
