March 22, 2010
By Matthew Pizzolato
Matthew Pizzolato
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The fans have spoken and due to declining ratings and dropping ticket sales, NASCAR officials have been forced to listen. There have been a plethora of new rule changes this season designed to restore fan interest and improve the racing.
Perhaps one of the most shocking changes announced is that NASCAR is finally making alterations to its new car. In light of the severe penalties handed out to crew chiefs that have tried to make "improvements" to the car and were unfortunate enough to get caught, this comes as quite a surprise.
Even after the tire-shredding fiasco at Indianapolis when it was obvious that something needed to change, officials refused to admit that something might be wrong with their "cookie-cutter" racecar.
Sadly, it took several life threatening wrecks before something was done.
Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's vice president of competition, announced last Wednesday that the rear wing currently in use on the Car of Tomorrow will be replaced by a spoiler starting next week at Martinsville.
CIA Stock Photos
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The Wing Reads "Mail It Back"
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"I think it's an opportunity to change things up a little bit -- and quite frankly, the wing wasn't accepted as universally as we had hoped it would be by competitors and the fans alike," Pemberton was quoted as saying in a Joe Menzer article on nascar.com. "So after much effort, we started looking and decided to go back to the spoiler."
Both fans and drivers have been complaining about not just the wing, but the entire COT platform ever since it debuted in 2007. However, due to the recent spectacular crashes at Talladega and Atlanta where several cars flipped and became airborne when spun around, the wing has become a focal point, and rightly so.
Some claim that the wing is what is causing the cars to flip, while others assert that something else is to blame for the cars launching into the air, but so far haven't come up with any answers as to what that may be.
NASCAR has stated in the past that these wrecks are not the reason they were considering reverting back to the spoiler.
Sure, cars flipped over and wrecked before the wing was introduced, but not from simply being spun out. At tracks where speeds approach 200 mph, cars that are spun have been flipped over and launched skyward.
Video evidence of Keselowski's wreck at Atlanta clearly shows that the roof flaps on the car deployed but they were not sufficient enough to keep the car on the ground, whereas in the past without the wing, the roof flaps did what they were designed to do.
It stands to reason that something that provides downforce when facing one direction would create lift when it is reversed.
The only good thing that can be said about the COT is its drastic improvement in safety innovations. It seems that those were badly needed due to the unforeseen flaws that those features had to compensate for in keeping drivers safe.
There are still some kinks to be hammered out in regards to the spoiler and more tests will have to be run, but at least significant improvements are in the works. And it's about time.
If you would like to learn more about Matthew, please check out his web site at matthew-pizzolato.com.
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