"I think a lot of it is that you work so hard toward the end of the year where you, like we did last year, just try to win the championship, and we weren't working as hard on this year as we could have been," says Zipadelli. "And I don't mean that in a bad way, to say we didn't work, but maybe we weren't focused on it. Like right now (in mid-August), I've already got cars and chassis and stuff for next year. That's how far ahead I am this year, where last year I didn't start that stuff until the end of the year because I couldn't. We just didn't have the time or energy to do it."
The key to repeating a title, says Gordon, is to always be thinking ahead to next year. That was part of what made crew chief Ray Evernham and the Hendrick Motorsports organization so successful during Gordon's championship runs in 1995, 1997 and 1998.
"Ray is a very intense, very focused guy, and I can remember going through the '97 season when we were battling for the championship and he was already thinking about the following year," recalls Gordon. "I think through the experience of '95 and '96 (when the team failed to repeat), it kind of put us in a position to really know how to do it differently if you're ever in that position again. I think that is where Ray was really good and he kept that team focus on the future at all times. It was like, 'Yeah, we're going to go out there and win this championship in '97 but we're not going to lose sight of what we've got to do the next year to win it again.'"
Stewart led more miles than any driver in the first 22 races of 2003.
Adapting To Change
Zipadelli says the notion that a championship team falls behind because of a reluctance to change and adapt in a rapidly changing sport--essentially standing pat and negating its chances of a repeat title--has been disproven by the Home Depot team. Circumstances dictated that staying the course was not an option for the team in 2003.
The Gibbs organization made a switch from Pontiac to Chevrolet this season, bringing with it the need to build new cars--18 says Zipadelli--and placing more emphasis than normal on testing. The team had to develop new packages to adjust to the brand change. The result--outside of the engine failures and other misfortune--has been a team capable of running up front. Despite the early setbacks, Stewart won this season's first Pocono race. He also led 11 of the first 22 races, and his 511 laps led were fourth most on the tour after the Watkins Glen race, while he was the leader in miles led, with 915.
"We've been running well," Stewart said soon after the Pocono win. "We've had better cars than we've ever had, better engines, the best bodies we've ever had on our cars. It's just a matter of everything falling into place, finally.
"When you go out and lead the laps that we led at Charlotte, (and) run as hard as we did at Dover, The Winston, California--you look at all those places--and we were doing our job. But we didn't have the luck on our side. We knew in our hearts that it was just a matter of time before it finally turned back around in our favor."
That, no doubt, was spoken by a man very much in touch with his emotions and with his place in life.
Gordon makes a point that may prove prophetic, considering Stewart's willingness to change.
"You've got to change with the times if you want to stay successful," says Gordon. "That's one of the things I admired so much about Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty and guys like Terry Labonte, people who won championships over several years in this sport. These guys were able to adapt to the times and the changing conditions of the cars and the tracks."