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Post by twiss43 on Aug 31, 2016 12:12:44 GMT -5
Richard Petty Motorsports make changes to competition department: Richard Petty Motorsports announced competition changes to improve their on-track performance. Effectively immediately, Philippe Lopez and Scott McDougall will temporarily oversee all competition duties and roles previously held by Sammy Johns both at the track and at the race shop. The change comes as part of an immediate, aggressive strategy by RPM leadership to improve speed, performance and future growth of RPM. The goal is to improve on-track results from 2016 and to capitalize on the progress made in previous seasons.
"The past several years, we have made significant investments in our organization with the goal of winning races and to compete at a high level on a weekly basis," said Brian Moffitt, Chief Executive Officer, Richard Petty Motorsports. "We now have direction over our own chassis and bodies and work closely with Ford Performance on technology and engineering. With these investments, unfortunately, we have not seen the on-track results that we expected this season. As we look ahead to 2017, we are taking steps forward to improve our on-track product to better serve our partners and fans. This means analyzing every part of our organization and making adjustments where needed. Sammy Johns has been a big part of our organization; he helped us succeed in many different ways and helped us become a winning race team. We wish him nothing but the best going forward."
Lopez and McDougall will begin their duties at the track in Darlington this weekend.(Richard Petty Motorsports)(8-31-2016)
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Post by emtsmith on Aug 31, 2016 13:45:55 GMT -5
They need to make bigger changes than that in my opinion. Seems like the same people who ran Petty Enterprises in to the ground are doing the same again. If things don't change soon then RPM as we know it could be the next PE.
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Post by jlp4345 on Aug 31, 2016 14:22:39 GMT -5
I agree, definitely need more changes than just this but hopefully this is just the start. For me I'm kind of glad to see Sammy Johns go, never have liked him much. I don't know him personally or anything but he's always been a foul mouth over the in-car radio over the years and just comes off like a know it all jerk. Phillipe Lopez is great, he's old school, hopefully he can do good in this role. He did really good a couple of years ago as crew chief on the 43 in Xfinity when Annett was driving. From what I've heard, Sammy was pretty much the one in charge of all this new chassis in-house program, so maybe Phillipe and Scott can get it going in the right direction. Their probably had to be some head butting on ideas going on somewhere for them to make this change, especially with Sammy being with RPM for as long as he has been, so hopefully this will begin to make a difference on track.
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Post by pb1945 on Aug 31, 2016 16:49:25 GMT -5
I wish I knew enough to make a REAL INTELLIGENT REPLY instead of okay maybe this will help. The whole answer is SPEED to me it's just that simple. To me how much longer do you wait to REALLY get competitive. When you are this far off the lead lap or lead pack of cars week after week it's not just not some simple deal like oh somehow we had the toe out off for this race, or we missed the spring rate on this track somehow.
When you can't keep the leader in sight week after week or stay on the lead lap race after race no matter what track ...... you have a serious problem.
If you know you have the horsepower, the aero, the suspension, etc there are a hundred different facets we don't know about a team however with the experience that RPM has this org should be doing MUCH better than they are and have been for several years.
I'm glad to hear someone or someone's are moving on, nowe if WE start heading to the front you might just have found part of the answer. Easy to say of course, but the time they have given for a fix is over, speed and getting to the front is what keeps you in this sport, a big name helps and Petty is honestly the only name I know that would have gotten anyone this far at this level of competition for this length of time. I haven't the slightest doubt about that.
Looking forward to what's next.
Dan 
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Post by djblue43 on Aug 31, 2016 23:11:08 GMT -5
Phillipe Lopez is great, he's old school, hopefully he can do good in this role. He did really good a couple of years ago as crew chief on the 43 in Xfinity when Annett was driving. . THAT'S where I knew the name Phillipe Lopez from. I knew I'd heard it in conjunction with RPM somehow but couldn't come up with it. Sometimes old school is the way to go. Get back to the basics and forget all the high tech junk until you got a handle on what's really happening. Darlington is way too close to expect the changes to affect anything but Richmond has been good to us and by New Hampshire we might see some help. Fingers crossed!! |
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Post by pb1945 on Sept 1, 2016 10:31:40 GMT -5
I'm not so sure he can't make an IMPACT immediately. Organizationally there may be some changes that will take time. But in my opinion it's the cars that are Slooooooow. If it is engine, suspension, setup, etc him being old school he should find that right away. We aren't talking about a car that is just a couple tenths off the pace. We are talking about a car that is being constantly lapped 2 or three times each race and that's with a couple cautions saving their butt.
This is bad folks someone or someone's should have left a long time ago. The pit crew seems to need a little help. Compared to a few years ago they are much better, but they aren't getting him out in front of anyone. To really get competitive they have got to gain a few spots in races where they really do have a chance to finish high.
We'll see where this goes BUT THERE IS SOMETHING BAD WRONG WITH THIS CAR I don't think it's a combo, there is something that is a BIG player, for sure there may be a combination of changes that may help, maybe I'm just stupid but there is a big player.
Dan
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Post by twiss43 on Sept 1, 2016 12:17:33 GMT -5
This should be looked at as if you are fixing a car. Fix one thing at a time. throwing all kinds of new parts at it won't indicate where the problem is/was. One thing at a time and it should get figured out.
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Post by pb1945 on Sept 1, 2016 16:55:41 GMT -5
Twiss I agree 100%, Take the known and work from there. Throwing a hand full of mud and hoping something will stick isn't going to make much difference. But if you know you have the HP, you have been running the right gears, body sitting on the car with all you can get away with, aero package fine tuned, re-examining suspension and setup, etc, etc, etc, sooner or later you are going to find something that helps. You know you aren't running right now so a improvement means you have something to work with.
I have gone through the same thing setting up bass boats. Change one thing at a time so you do know when there is an improvement. It may be small but you won't know it if you mess with several changes at once.
Dan
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Post by ricklou on Sept 2, 2016 4:29:14 GMT -5
Last year the 43 was decent to good,
. Everything has changed, new cars and a new aero package.
What does Dale Inman do for this team ? Polish the cars ?
Is Richard holding the drivers back ?
Cut em loose bro ! Wreck the damn thing buy push the gas pedal to the floor. What is there to lose ? Your sponsor .....
I do not see any major driver changes for next season ...Khane ....Biffle ....
This team and Aric need to kick them selves in the ass and go or blow.
I think Richard is also responsible.It is time to stop living the pipe dream and let others do it.
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Post by djblue43 on Sept 14, 2016 9:16:17 GMT -5
Another major change. I thought Trent did a good job last week at Richmond and was aggressive enough in getting us back as far as we got. I'm not sure that Trent wasn't held back by other factors that have already been discussed, but now's the time to make a change like this if one's to be made. Drew also has a proven track record and if nothing else will put a new set of eyes on the track situation for us. Here's hoping for some noticeable improvement before the end of the season.
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Post by jlp4345 on Sept 14, 2016 14:22:34 GMT -5
I don't know. I don't know if this was a good move or not but I guess it's something. I watch these races religiously as well as watch the 3D view of the car on my computer more so than the actual race coverage and listen to the in-car radio intently and I can honestly say there were a lot of times that I didn't agree with Trent's race strategies at times. Of course it's easy to crew chief from the couch, (what do I know) but in my opinion Trent knows the car really well, just doesn't call the race strategy wise, as good as he could or should at this level. Track position these last few years is everything. Nascar has made change after change on aero to try to create passing but in IMO it's only created mediocre side by side racing, which to me isn't passing. It's just side by side racing, and that doesn't equal anybody going anywhere. If your 25th racing for 24th, you spend an entire fuel run trying to reach the top 20 and being lucky if you actually are able to do it. This is where I believe Trent lacked a lot, and hope Drew can do better at. They not only have to make the proper adjustments on the car to make it better, but they almost have to be some sort of strategic race analyst as well to try and out think the others in order to gain track position. It's a must this day and time, and it's one that the 43 team doesn't do a very good job at. And IMO it's not all Trent by no means. I've actually seen at times where Trent has tried a few times to leave Aric out to get some track position or take two, all the time telling Aric it's not gonna handle right here but that they need track position, and Aric in these situations has got to start getting up on the wheel and doing a better job of holding on for a few and catch that next caution so that these situations pay off. Others do, and they make it work, he's got to really work on that too in my opinion. Anyway, like has already been said, this is another change, at least they're trying some things, and hopefully this will show results.
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Post by pb1945 on Sept 15, 2016 22:46:33 GMT -5
If you keep putting the same car on the track you are going to get the same results. If there was just some little tweek that would have been discovered long ago.
The car being BAD is consistent no matter short track, medium track, long track, road course et all the car just plain sucks.
It doesn't qualify well ( understatement ) it doesn't run well in any race. They are unable to get the car to function better during the race just a pitiful deal for a team with the name of Petty on the car with over sixty years experience in stock car racing has finally boiled down to this.
Something has got to happen GOOD.
Dan
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Post by ricklou on Sept 16, 2016 11:56:33 GMT -5
Less downforce this with different tires this year is a big part of what we are seeing this year.
Instead of pointing the car knowing that it will stick now it takes more steering wheel to get it done and I do not think Aric has the experience to set up the car. High down force covers up a lot and what we see this year is not just RPM's struggles.
The Hendrick cars are struggling as well. Certainly the chassis people are key as JGR teams have very good cars as do the Penske machines.
Kevin Harvicks team is an example of thee combination that works as they are running HMS gear. That will change next year as Haas will move to FORD. I would expect SHR will build their own cars and we will see if there is a drop off in performance but Harvick and his crew chief are very good and it will show.
Regardless RPM is off the mark and it will more than a new crew chief to run top 10 consistently.
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