March 10, 2009
By Allen Madding
A lot has been said and written of Kyle Busch’s dominance in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and many have expected him to parlay those successes into the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. When he failed to three-peat at California, many were baffled at why.
The sages of the sport did not expect a three-peat and were not surprised when it did not come.
Why? Because getting a handle on the track with the Truck or the Nationwide car has absolutely nothing in common with the chassis utilized in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
Since the introduction of the car formerly known as “The Car of Tomorrow”, Jimmie Johnson has charted 12 wins, Carl Edwards has logged 11 race wins, and Kyle Busch has scored ten wins. Jeff Gordon has three wins in the COT, while Greg Biffle, Kasey Kahne, Jeff Burton, Denny Hamlin, Clint Bowyer, Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth have all logged two wins each in the newer car. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, Martin Truex Jr. and Juan Montoya have each scored one win in the “COT”.
A review of these statistics does not indicate that these drivers cannot win in the new car. What it does indicate is that the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams are still struggling to get the car close enough to their driver’s liking, so that the driver is comfortable enough that he does not feel like he is fighting the car as opposed to driving the car even after more than a year working with the new car.
Comments from Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend seem to support this theory. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was most notable for his comments on the struggle this weekend.
“… this is a hell of an excuse for a race car. It’s hard to drive. It makes everybody’s job harder. Even Goodyear's.", Dale Earnhardt, Jr. commented during a press conference.
The comment illustrates the team’s frustration and the driver’s frustration in attempting to obtain the setup they need to achieve with the newer car and the tire provided by Goodyear to make the driver comfortable. Many expected there would be a significant challenge in adjusting to the new car when it was introduced to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. But no one expected teams to still be struggling to get a grip of Atlanta Motor Speedway’s surface after three visits.
Atlanta is the fastest track on the schedule and the large sweeping turns lend to high corner speeds and high exit speed which with limited traction. That produces a car that is in either a four wheel slide at the exit of the turn or a loose condition with the car exiting the turn almost sideways.
What has been the biggest obstacle for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams to overcome with the transition to the newer car?
The new car is taller and has more rollover characteristics than the older car due to a higher center of gravity. More rollover leads to abusing the right front tire with a pushing condition. Teams have worked freverntly to loosen up the chassis to prevent premature wear of the right front tire. It seems though that the lack of grip in the tire itself leaves the teams without a means of achieving a neutral balance.
Why is there no grip in the tires? Because the tires the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is competing with were developed over years of work for the old car. Goodyear is working on developing a new wider and taller tire to stand up to the demands of the new chassis. Many wonder if that will further complicate the issue for teams or assist them in getting traction and allowing them to achieve a neutral balance.
Kyle Busch seems to be adapting to the challenge better than many of the other drivers while playing catch-up to Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards. Despite the car coming out of the turn sideways, Busch continues to right it and keep the throttle applied. Kyle and the No. 18 team seem to be making inroads to catching up to the success of the Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards in the newer car while the rest of the field seem to be one more step behind Busch and the No. 18 team.
A significant factor in succeeding at this point with the car seems to be to acknowledge that this car is not going to achieve a comfortable neutral setup. So the driver and the team has to decide which condition better matches their driver’s driving style, loose or tight, and then adjust accordingly. And the driver has to accept that he is going to have to adapt to either driving a loose or a tight car.
As one crew chief noted last week, it is not a matter of getting the car to handle as it it to get the car to handle better than the rest.
Busch’s team has seemed to have acknowledged that Busch is comfortable with a loose car and if there is not a neutral setup they can obtain, then they will give Busch a loose car and let him adapt to it. Kyle Busch’s success this season will largely come from his ability to adjust to a car that has less than desirable handling characteristics and get the most out of it.
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.
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