Following his 26th-place finish in Sunday’s AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway, Austin Dillon took to Periscope to express his frustration with what he perceives to be a competitive disadvantage between Chevrolet and Ford. Dillon drives the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.
On Monday’s edition of NASCAR America, Dale Jarrett and Parker Kligerman discussed the manufacturer rivalry – and suggested that the problem may not be easy one to fix.
“I don’t think (Chevrolet teams) are at that point yet with pushing the panic button,” Jarrett said. “We’re not that far – 11 races in – but we saw Toyota come on last year. By Charlotte through the All-Star Race, they kind of found their footing.”
It may not be as simple as getting enough races under the Chevrolet teams’ belts to understand the handling of their individual cars, however.
“I don’t believe the Chevrolet teams are equipped to do this as much because we have different organizations with RCR, with Hendrick Motorsports, with Chip Ganassi Racing,” Jarrett said. “I just don’t see them working as well together as what the Toyota group did to make all this happen.”
Kligerman believes that the mindset among the top Chevrolet organizations might well stand in the way of immediate success.
“They have a lot of teams that are kind of spread out – but also legacy teams,” he said. “When I look at Hendrick Motorsports and Richard Childress Racing, who have been with Chevy for as long as I remember, these are two teams who are normally used to going out there and trying to beat each other. And now you are going ask them to change their entire model, their way of thinking to help another enemy.”
For more, watch the above video.
