March 21, 2010
By Kim Roberson
Kim Roberson
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There seems to be little more welcomed -- and yet feared -- in NASCAR, than change. Change in the points, change in the car, change in a team, change in a track. As one section of the fan base celebrates a change, the other half raises their voice to complain that the change will “ruin the sport”.
So far the sport seems to have survived every change ever made by the sanctioning body or team owner. But every once in a while, the sanctioning body actually pays attention to what the FANS want, and they work to make a change that hopefully will bring acceptance by the fan base, and still allow the racing to be as good as it can be on the track. An example of that is the return of the spoiler to the Sprint Cup Series cars.
This week, two-dozen teams went to the track where aerodynamics plays a huge part in the success of the team -- Talladega Superspeedway. They took the wing off, put the spoiler on, and went out to see how the current car design works with the new spoiler on a high-speed track.
“The cars have a little bit more turbulent air when you're behind other cars. Makes the car rattle and shake a little bit more, which I heard was similar to what the Nationwide cars have,” Jeff Gordon explained after spending the day Tuesday making laps with the new configuration at the 2.66 mile track. ”You know, I think that's what's gonna be unique and probably the biggest challenge is trying to figure out if we can (draft well) with this car. With only a five-car pack out there, there wasn't a lot of that -- that materialized.”
Several complaints of late have been that the racing has lost some of its excitement in recent years, primarily because of the new car design, but Gordon was quick to debunk that. “It's hard to have a bad race at Talladega, in my opinion. You know, I think that you're still gonna have guys have strategies of wanting to be at the front versus maybe wanting to hang in the back. You know, you're still gonna see some big pile-ups, bump-drafting, you're going to see a lot of passing for the lead, which to me is what we've had here at Talladega for the last several years.”
As for the complaint last spring that the drivers were “protesting” NASCAR’s rules package at the track, Gordon says that wasn’t it at all. “The last race or maybe sometime last year, they were criticizing the single-file race during the middle. But that's just because it's 500 miles and you got to make it to the end. Then all the action's gonna happen. That's just sort of a product of -- that it's so easy to pass.”
The top speed during the morning session was just over 196 mph with Jimmie Johnson running in a five car draft. During the lunch break, NASCAR decided to make some changes to the set ups of the cars, which led to some speeds that many of the drivers had never raced before. Teammates Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano hooked up and brushed the 202 mph mark, with Hamlin hitting 202.170 mph and Logano not far behind at 201.863 mph. Logano, who is only 19 years old, was a little rattled by the speed he was travelling, and used some colorful descriptions that I can’t reprint here to explain the experience. Mark Martin said that the closure rate of the cars on each other was so fast, he didn’t have enough brakes to slow down if it came to avoiding hitting someone.
Those factors had enough of an impact that Robin Pemberton, NASCAR’s vice president of competition, made the decision to reduce both the spoiler and the restrictor plate sizes for next month’s race. "We saw that the closure rates were a little too quick in the initial drafting session after lunch--so we had the teams make some adjustments, including going down on the plate size and trimming the spoiler back some. We believe we came away here with a good starting point."
The main aim of all of these changes is to make the playing field more equal for all involved. So many fans have been in an uproar the last few years because of the dominance of the No. 48 Lowes team, driven by Jimmie Johnson. But Gordon, who is Johnson’s teammate, says that the cars really aren’t as dominant as they might seem, and that is primarily because NASCAR has made the field more even, especially at the big tracks.
“These days with the new car, the new aerodynamic package, restrictor plate, if you see a dominant car out there it's because the guys behind him are letting him lead. They're like, ‘Yeah, you go ahead, and I'm fine right here because I know when it comes down to the end of this race, all I need is one or two guys with momentum and we're going to drive right by you. ‘”
He added that fans who claim that they want to see more of the racing the way it used to be just will have to deal with the way things are today.
“It's not the way it used to be," Gordon explained. "You know, dominant performances that I've seen here in the past with (Dale) Earnhardt, myself, you know, it was just aerodynamics were completely different, so if you had good power under the hood and you got out front, you could use your mirrors and block the cars behind you and prevent them from getting the momentum it took.
“It used to take four or five guys to all get together and work together to make a pass on the leader. And now it's really not like that anymore. Now, you know, it takes two, maybe three to make that pass and that push happen. So any dominance you see today, it's only by choice of the other competitors. It's interesting that you'll see that. You know, you'll see a guy get up front. I've seen (Dale Earnhardt) Junior or (Kevin) Harvick, a couple of 'em, they get up front there, they get the right guys behind them, run that high lane, and everybody seems to be content at that point in the race. Away you go. You let one guy lead a bunch of the laps.“
When it comes to the overall racing at the big tracks like Talladega, the four time Cup Champion says he thinks it is as good as it has ever been, if not better.
“I think the races are pretty darn good here to begin with. It's hard to make them a whole lot better.“
As for the spoilers themselves, you will see them in action a week from today at Martinsville. NASCAR shipped the spoilers out to the teams on Monday with the instructions to get them on the cars and ready to go. While it might not make a difference in anything but appearance for the next few weeks, that might be all that is needed to make a whole lot of NASCAR fans happy.
By the way, on a quick side note, 24 hours was all the difference in allowing Joey Logano to dethrone Kyle Busch as the youngest driver to win a Cup pole. Joey scored the top starting spot in today's race at Bristol when he was 19 years, nine months, and 23 days -- one day younger than Kyle Busch was when he won his first pole in California back on February 26, 2005.
By the way, because Logano is only 19, he won the "21 Means 21" Cup Pole award instead of the Coors Light Cup Pole award.
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