Rockingham Crew Chief Club

Crew Chief Club at the Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn 400

Event: Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn 400 When: Sun., Oct. 24 at 12:30 p.m. EDT on TNN Where: North Carolina Speedway (1.017-mile oval)

* Together, Jimmy Makar, Larry McReynolds, Todd Parrott and Robin Pemberton have led their drivers to 74 wins, 401 top-five finishes, 634 top-10 finishes and 76 poles prior to this Sunday's Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn 400.

* Crew Chief Club members hold both the qualifying and race event records in Rockingham's autumn race. Parrott and Dale Jarrett's pole winning run of 23.291 seconds at an average speed of 157.194 mph on Oct. 18, 1996 still stands. The event record that will forever stand is Pemberton and Kyle Petty's ACDelco 500 win on Oct. 25, 1992. Petty finished the 500-mile race in 3 hours, 49 minutes and 37 seconds. Now that the race is 100 miles shorter, no one will break Petty and Pemberton's mark.

* The Crew Chief Club has notched two wins at "The Rock's" fall event. In addition to Petty and Pemberton's win in 1992, McReynolds chiefed the late Davey Allison to victory in the 1991 ACDelco 500.

* Parrott isn't the only Crew Chief Club member to have earned the Bud Pole Award at Rockingham's fall race. Makar and Bobby Labonte placed their Grand Prix first on the grid in 1997, and Pemberton scored a pole with Petty in 1992.

* In last year's ACDelco 400, the Crew Chief Club finished in the following order:

Parrott/Jarrett Start: 4th Finish: 2nd Status: Running Pemberton/Wallace Start: 3rd Finish: 3rd Status: Running Makar/Labonte Start: 19th Finish: 15th Status: Running McReynolds/Skinner Start: 28th Finish: 21st Status: Running

* Crew Chief Club souvenirs are available on the Chevrolet and Ford merchandise trailers. Fans can also log-on to the Crew Chief Club at their official website, www.crewchiefclub.com, to keep up with all the latest news.

WHAT WILL YOUR RACE AND PIT STRATEGY BE AT ROCKINGHAM?

Jimmy Makar - Interstate Batteries Pontiac of Bobby Labonte - "Rockingham typically eats up tires pretty quick. It's a tire management type race track. Track position will be critical. Trying to maintain position up toward the front of the pack and taking care of your tires and staying out of trouble is key. It's also important to get a good qualifying spot so you don't get hung up in a pack of cars."

Larry McReynolds - Lowe's Home Improvement Chevrolet of Mike Skinner - "We'll work as hard as we can and make long runs on Saturday and just try to get ourselves dialed-in to the race track. I think it's a place where I've lost a handle on as far as the setup goes and Mike is still searching for the right way to get around Rockingham. Rockingham is pretty worn out, but it's still a nice track to run on. We enjoy going there, but it's hard on tires. Tire management - you've got to orientate yourself even though at the beginning of a green run you maybe can run faster, but you need to throttle back a little bit and pace yourself. That way you can maintain your speed during the entire run rather than using up your tires on your car at the beginning of a run. You can run up there like a hare, but you're going to be a tortoise by the end of that run."

Todd Parrott - Ford Quality Care Service/Ford Credit Ford of Dale Jarrett - "Obviously, it's not a fuel mileage place because you're going to run out of tires before you run out of gas. It's a lot like Darlington. We've got to have a pretty good handling race car because the track is getting old. So, the best handling cars are going to run up front. We run really well there and we're looking forward to going there."

Robin Pemberton - Miller Lite Ford of Rusty Wallace - "You want to get the car set up as soft as you possibly can in order to save the tires for the long haul. Pit strategy - you just roll the dice and do the best you can when the time comes. There's no gambling going on, but it's real important to take fresh tires every chance you can."

GOING INTO THE LAST FEW RACES OF THE SEASON, WHAT ARE YOU CONCENTRATING ON TO FINISH ON A POSITIVE NOTE?

Jimmy Makar: "Winning races. That's all we're trying to do, get to the race track, be competitive and win a few more before the season is over. We need to get our qualifying back on track and finish strongly, like in the top-three or win a few more."

Larry McReynolds: "We'd love to get this (No.) 31 Lowe's team a win and a pole, but if we don't do that we're still proud of what we've accomplished this season. We just hope to finish these last few races on a good point so that we can finish in the top-10 in the point standings. That was our goal from the get-go."

Todd Parrott: "We're hoping to lock up this championship on a winning note. We've been working awfully hard all year to get to this point and we're looking forward to these last few races and reaching the ultimate goal."

Robin Pemberton: "We'd love to get another win, maybe a couple of poles. We're working hard to accomplish that so we finish in the top-10 in points."