Chevrolet Trucks Blog

Among the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series circuit, Bristol Motor Speedway is considered to be the most exhilarating truck race wars. In preparation for the event prope, 30 competing teams had the time to road test the track.

The Bristol Motor Speedway race track has undergone a lot of changes here and there to improve concrete surface and add progressive banking. For these modifications, it was only necessary for racers to try out the new and improved track. Truck racer banking on a Chevrolet Truck Brendan Gaughan and the South Point Racing team were among the first to skid the wheels on the track. The eight-hour road test will enable the race participants to get the feel of the new tracks and will have enough time to do the necessary preparations and adjustments for the race proper set on August 22.

“We had a good truck, and we definitely got some laps in. We know what the new track feels like, and we have a good idea of what we need to do to get better,” said Gaughan.

Veteran racer Gaughan was able to achieve 318 laps on the .533 mile, which was considered to be the highest record for the drivers at the test, Tennessee short track. On the fast lane, racer Travis Kvapil registered a 16.040 seconds for the quickest lap time. On the other hand, Gaughan, who clocked in at 16.142 second per lap, was able to register the sixth fastest time of the day.

“One of the things we’ve been talking about is how far this South Point Chevrolet team has come in terms of preparation, and we unloaded good,” said Gaughan . “We were one of the first 10 trucks on the race track, and Bryan Berry (crew chief) and Mike Roos (shock specialist) had stuff they wanted to try, and we tried it. We never became the best truck today. I have to say that I don’t think we’re the happiest bunch here at the end of the day. We do not think we have a Chevrolet yet that can win this race, but we ended up sixth on the board.”

A good number of modifications were made on the Chevrolet Truck so that it can work well in any situation.

“We only changed the front and the back and all four shocks of the Chevrolet Truck,” said Berry. “Bristol is not the same monster that it used to be. If I knew whole answer, we’d be the fastest truck here.”

The Chevrolet Truck has undergone changes and upgrades especially in its suspension system. A huge vehicle like this, after all, needs a lot of powerful road control.

“The track is definitely smoother. The big transitions that we used to have to worry about as far as the shock package we would run, we don’t have to worry about now. We’re down on front spring, too. All that figures into the overall package here.”

Although the team still has about two to three weeks left before the truck race wars, South Point is not holding its horse to make the truck even better. More modification will sure be done as road tests continue. With all the preparation, the team hopes to get the top spots for the Bristol Motor Speedway.

“We ended today with changes we wanted to make, but I think we can make it better than what it is now. We ran 300 laps but we would sure like to run a 100 more,” said Gaughan. “There will probably be some more rubber on the track when we come back in August, and the race track should be a little faster. We’re going to go back, study what we learned, and see if we can get some more speed and put out South Point Chevrolet on top of the board.”

Along with the reliable Chevrolet Truck, race wars rookie Tim Sauter went home with his second Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for this season.

Carrying the lucky number seven, neophyte Sauter finished 18 of the 38 participants in the Power Stroke Diesel 200 Craftsman Truck Series race held at O’Reilly Raceway Park.

“We had a good truck the first half of the race, and we were really good. We changed tires, and the second set of tires just didn’t feel as good. But we thought we could hold our own,” said Sauter. “The second to last caution really hurt us, so we lost a lot of spots there. But all in all, it’s in one piece and we’ve still got a good truck to carry on.”

On a long run, Chevrolet truck proved to be a powerful mean machine especially on off-road driving.

“I think lap 30 to lap 50 we were the fastest truck on the track. We come from 24th to 8th, which was pretty good. We’ll just keep building on it,” said Sauter.

Cars and trucks are different in a lot of ways. The physical built of Chevrolet trucks or cars for example may dictate the kind of load these could carry, amongst others. For that, car dealers across the United States are opposing the federal legislation of the nationwide fuel economy standards.

Instead of just giving the same fuel standard for both cars and trucks, dealers nationwide have proposed an alternative called the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards. This would mean that there would be different standards for different classes of vehicles like cars, trucks, and sport utility vehicles.

Earlier this month, a car dealer from Wisconsin had already made an active stand against the nationwide fuel economy standards, Pietroske dealership and National Automobile Dealers Association owner Bob Pietroske.

“There is a fine line between mandating more fuel economy and meeting consumer needs,” said Bob Pietroske, owner of Pietroske GM on Calumet Avenue. His dealership sells GM, Cadillac, Buick, Pontiac, Chevrolet, Chevrolet Truck and Chevrolet Medium Duty vehicles.

Moreover, dealers selling both domestic and foreign vehicles have already joined in fighting off federal legislation that would mandate by 2018 a minimum 35 miles per gallon combined car and truck standard.

“We believe in (establishing) Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards and encouraging fuel economy,” said Pietroske.

If the combined standard would push through, automakers will have to sacrifice the quality of vehicles by significantly downsizing the built. With the alternative legislation, however, automobile manufacturers across the U.S. will be given enough time to put great minds together in order to develop the technology needed for the new standards. This is one of the factors that has to be considered because fuel economy increases would also affect vehicle diversity, safety concerns, and affordability.

The General Motors Corp. has plans of trimming down the production of its largest pickup trucks by over 17 percent at a Michigan plant.  This decision has been highly influenced by the high gasoline prices and a crimped demand for trucks along with a decline in the housing market.

According to GM spokesman Tom Wickham, this coming September, the factory of Pontiac in Michigan will start to reduce hourly output of the one-ton and three-quarter-ton Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra to 45 pickups from 54.5. Although this is the case, GM hasn’t decided on how many jobs will be affected by this move. As of the moment, the plant has about 2,600 workers.

Wickham said that there are apparently no reductions planned at the GM’s Fort Wayne Truck Assembly Plant although it also produces full-sized pickups.

To act upon the changes in demand, GM is cutting the production following a 6.9 percent first-half drop in its U.S. sales of light trucks.  This will include declines of 2 percent for the Silverado and 2.3 percent for the Sierra.  As for the larger version of pickups from the half-ton model, the company has chosen not to disclose the results yet.

Gasoline prices in the U.S. have risen for over 33 percent in the past two years.  As a result, many consumers have opted to use cars and smaller trucks.  Last January, GM in Detroit already cut production on its largest sports vehicles—the Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yucon at their GM plants in Mexico, Wisconsin, and Texas.

Chevrolet—the online automotive sponsor of Liveearth.msn.com—is to launch a major ad campaign in order to let the world know about the far-reaching approach needed to reduce petroleum consumption. The campaign will be integrated throughout MSN. This includes online banner ads across the MSN platforms, Windows Live Spaces, Messenger and Hotmail. The campaign is developed with the help of Campbell-Ewald and it seeks to raise awareness about Chevy-proposed solutions for attaining a better fuel economy. It will also showcase advanced technologies of Chevrolet vehicles that exhibit a decreased dependence on oil.

Chevy serves as the sponsor for the “green” content found throughout MSN. The Chevrolet will be integrated throughout the network with branding, banner ads and video. As for its multi-media campaign, it will include newspaper, magazine, out-of-home, advertising on the internet as well as television. The campaign kicked off with a major online platform – the Live Earth concerts and environmental awareness content on liveearth.msn.com. In the said platform, Chevy is the exclusive automotive digital sponsor of the MSN online global broadcast event.

According to Chevrolet general manager Ed Peper, “teaming up with MSN as the exclusive online automotive sponsor for LiveEarth.MSN.com was natural for Chevy because, in addition to our high fuel economy cars and crossovers – 8 that get over 30 mpg, Chevy offers more alternative fuel vehicles than anyone.” Chevy has more than 1.5 million E85 FlexFuel vehicles that is currently on the US roads. These are cars that have been built to run on renewable ethanol fuel. By the end of this year, a fleet of 100 Fuel Cell Equinoxes is expected to hit the road as part of the Chevy’s Project Driveway. Also, it is important to note that Chevy have shared their innovations for the Volt Concept car, which is an electric powered car that emits zero emissions.