Paul Wolfe is eager to get back to racing and continue the early success he’s had in his first year as crew chief for Joey Logano.
Wolfe, who spent the previous nine seasons as Brad Keselowski’s crew chief, helped lead Logano to two wins in the four races that were held prior to the COVID-19 crisis.
“When you have that momentum going you never want to stop,” Wolfe said on ‘MRN Outloud‘. “You want to ride it as long as you can, but unfortunately with what’s going on in the world today we’ve got to be smart about it and just kind of wait until it’s the right time to get back to the track.”
Logano’s two wins came at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and at the last race held back on March 8 at Phoenix Raceway.
“It seems like it’s been forever ago now,” Wolfe said. “It’s funny because you know, our off-season is always so short in this sport and you don’t have a lot of downtime and this time it’s been well over a month now. It’s crazy not being able to spend the time at the shop, you know with your guys and with all the people in the different departments and planning and all that. It’s a weird time, interesting time and just trying to adjust to it all and understand what it’s going to look like when we do get back to the racing here soon.”
The Phoenix race marked the first race of the season with the reduced-downforce package – versus what was used in 2019 – for oval tracks 1.058-miles or less in addition to the three road courses.
“We were a car that came from the back a couple times and we’re able to pass and make moves and I think that’s not something we have seen at Phoenix in a long time,” Wolfe said. “So, yeah, the new aero package or the new old aero package seems to be a great step in the right direction from our team, from Team Penske side and Ford. Really this was the first time we’ve got to run the Mustang in this configuration.
“We were excited and encouraged by the performance of the Mustang with this low downforce package and look forward to moving on to some more of the other short tracks and continuing to refine that a little bit, but definitely encouraged by it. And I think that was a great step in the right direction.”
Over the past month there has been no one in the shop due to the stay-at-home order in North Carolina. Communication has been key over the past weeks as Wolfe has had many calls and video conference meetings with everyone at Team Penske.
“So there’s a lot of ‘what if’ scenarios going on right now,” Wolfe said. “I don’t think anyone really knows exactly when the first race will be and how all that’s going to look. So just a lot of planning for different scenarios.”
Wolfe’s message to his team is to be prepared to adapt and be ready to step out of their comfort zone.
“Things are going to be different for a while for everyone,” Wolfe said. “Just understanding how this is going to look. I don’t know that we’re going to have full rosters at the track early on. I mean, we’re trying to respect all the social distancing orders that are in place and to do that for all of us to get back to the track it’s going to be different, it’s going to feel different. Just being ready, like I said, to adapt and change from what the norm is. I think if we can all do that we’re going to have the most success. So I think once again being open-minded.”
