February 10, 2003

I will take Gena Lee Nolin for the block please.

Hollywood Squares? No its big league auto racing the way it has evolved in Winston Cup.

This years running of the Daytona 500 will be filled with much of the same in regard to blocking, a defensive maneuver developed to deal with poor throttle response in the Winston Cup series. If a driver has to lift from the accelerator or, touch the brake for one reason or another he finds himself at a loss of momentum thus goes on the defensive.

The 2002 running of the Daytona 500 would see Kevin Harvick blocking Jeff Gordon during lap 149 to the point of an eighteen car pileup resulting in the ‘big one.” Gordon would come into contact with RCR prepared No.29 Monte Carlo in turn one and send Harvick spinning.

It boils down to cause and effect whereas drivers like Kevin Harvick display the effects from current aero policies mandated by NASCAR the sanctioning body.

Jeff Siner/Charlotte Observer

Ward Burton would go on to win the 500 last year. Other cars were faster than Burton's that day but, the Virginia short track ace showed patience in his approach which resulted in timeless history. The next day Ward would comment about the incident between Harvick and the four time Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon saying "You’ve got somebody coming up behind you five miles an hour faster, you can’t block them.” Burton would also comment about his thoughts as to what he witnessed during the race "It looked to me that every wreck that I saw was about blocking.”

Goodyear will bring 1,900 left and right Superspeedway radials to Daytona for the running of the Daytona 500 in 2003. This tire compound is exclusive to Daytona and, has been in place since 1999. The tires don’t seem to give up much and contribute to why the cars must block. The other noted concern about competition for this tire compound is that even if you stop to take on four tires at the end of the race you most likely won’t get around the leader of the race whom did not pit.

Two tires, four tars, no tires, it doesn’t matter because in this day and age it’s all about momentum. The pit window for this race will be 32-36 lap based on the smaller fuel cell.

Defensive racing is based on the loss of momentum as, offensive stock car racing is based on throttle response with the effect being the ability to catch the leader and overtake him. What we see now in blocking are the effects from long term aero polices and choices (plates) mandated by the sanctioning body. There are other alternatives to restrictor plate racing which may include having a look at a smaller engine block at Daytona and Talladega.

NASCAR implemented an out of bounds policy whereas if you better your position in the race by traversing below the yellow line, you will be penalized. An out of bounds policy is a great temporary fix but, does little to solve the problem of why cars have to block. One positive note in regard to the out of bounds rule is the fact that it works well with the idea of keeping cars off the angled transition. Tony Stewart showed a lot of class during the Shootout going below the line while racing with Ryan Newman but yet recovering with no penalty from NASCAR.

Maybe Mike Helton should stop worrying about what Gary Nelson is spending on his new office furniture and pay attention to competitive adjustment in the series. It takes more than an image to bring fans to the track.

Wider will be better this year in Daytona folks, how wide can you make it?

You can contact Joe at: Insider Racing News

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