December 20, 2011
By Doug Demmons
It used to be one of the biggest complaints of NASCAR fans -- the Heavy Hand.
You couldn’t convince some people that NASCAR wasn’t determined to squash any semblance of crew chief creativity and turn the sport into an IROC series.
Just turn those teams loose and see what they could do, see how far they could push the envelope. That’s the way a lot of fans have always wanted it to be.
Not any more. Fans today are clamoring for NASCAR to crack the whip and muzzle those creative geniuses. Fans today want regulation, more rules, different equipment, something, anything -- whatever it takes to get rid of tandem racing at Daytona and Talladega.
Rather ironic, don’t you think?
Tandem racing is the result of a perfect storm, a confluence of changes brought about by NASCAR and International Speedway Corp. that seemed innocuous individually, but combined created this phenomenon that fans now loathe.
When NASCAR introduced the new car with its bumpers that line up perfectly and ISC repaved Talladega and Daytona, it was like dropping a Menthos in a Coke bottle. What fizzed out was tandem racing.
Two-car tandems have completely taken over at Talladega and Daytona. Gone are the big 30-car drafting packs. Gone are the Big Ones.
It didn’t happen overnight. It evolved as drivers figured out that two cars together were faster than pack drafting. It evolved as teams learned to stay hooked together longer, to get more air into the cooling system of the pushing car, to talk to different teams on the radio and negotiate deals.
It’s the sort of creative thinking about how to go faster that fans said they wanted. Except they don’t want it, not this kind. They want NASCAR to make it go away.
But NASCAR can’t seem to figure out how to do that. They’ve tweaked the restrictor plates and the cooling systems and tweaked them some more. They even told teams they couldn’t add Pam cooking spray to the bumpers during pit stops. Didn’t work.
So now NASCAR is considering something else -- reducing the capacity of the radiator, hoping that pushing cars will overheat more quickly and not be able to push as much. And they are considering banning drivers from talking to each other on the radio.
Will it work? Probably not.
Tandem racing will still be the fastest way around the track so drivers will continue to do it, even if it becomes riskier.
Reducing the capacity of the radiators is just as likely to result in more engine failures. It will mean drivers will have to switch positions more often, which means they will slow dramatically in the middle of other tandems. And that means more wrecks.
The best thing that NASCAR could do is nothing. Leave it alone.
It was tandem racing, after all, that produced the most passes in NASCAR history at Talladega. It was tandem racing that made it possible for a few brief moments to consider that Robby Gordon might actually win the fall Talladega race.
Tandem racing has been a constantly evolving phenomenon. At each plate race a new twist, a new wrinkle, a new strategy is developed.
And who knows how tandem racing will be affected in 2013 when NASCAR plans to change the noses of the cars to look more like the models sold by manufacturers.
Will a Chevy still be able to push a Ford? Will a Toyota bumper still line up with a Dodge?
But we may never learn that. We might get the 30-car packs back. We might get the 43-car freight train back. We might get drivers logging laps while they wait for the last 20 laps to start racing.
So be careful what you ask for. You just might get it.
Doug Demmons is a writer and editor for the Birmingham News ~ he writes daily and weekly auto racing columns ranging from NASCAR to open wheel to Formula One, local tracks and more... you can read Doug's columns online at ALABAMA MOTORSPORTS
Follow Doug on Twitter: @dougdemmons
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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