Pre-Daytona Shootout Miscellenea
Well, here we are. The NFL season is over, the Arena League season has begun,
the 24 Hours Of Daytona has been run, and that all means one thing – SPEEDWEEKS.
Some random thoughts as we countdown to Daytona:
The surest sign that a race cannot justify itself comes when its format is
constantly changed. The Winston is infamous for format changes, but the Daytona
Shootout is rapidly matching Charlotte’s exercise in absurd opulence with the
latest format change – the first 20 laps are run a la the old Busch Clash, then
there is a ten-minute yellow a la The Winston, then the final 50 laps are run
with a green-flag finish required.
Obviously with the 13-gallon fuel cell mileage would not be that hot an issue
under the previous two seasons’ 70-lap format, but with the final 50 laps run
under green mileage will be a issue, and pit stops will become necessary.
Unlike The Winston, the Daytona shootout has never really required pit stops
to put on an exciting race – if anything, pit stops have tended to hurt the show
in the Shootout, most notably when Mark Martin rammed one of his crewmen in
2000.
It also speaks to a larger competitive issue – teams will likely change four
tires on the yellow, and the sport has got to get away from four-tire changes,
because such stops drive up tire bills. This is what makes the proposed change
back to softer tires wrong – tire bills inevitably drop when tires don’t have to
be changed; running a 500-mile race on just twelve tires instead of the 20 that
are common is always less expensive.
The Shootout will be the first test, albeit a incomplete one, of NASCAR’s new
aero-matching and also of its weight-balance rule requiring the front end of the
car to weight exactly 1,700 pounds and the back to weight 1,700 pounds; this
rule was put in because teams constantly shifted weight to the rear so the
spoiler was kept out of the air; one hope of the rule may be that, with the
spoiler higher in the air, the draft will kick in better, while the exactitude
of front-to-back weight transfer may help counter the inevitable porposing of
the nose with the spoiler in the air.
The 125s will also test this new rule, but the real test will be in the 500,
and the questions even after the preliminaries will hang in the air – will the
cars balance out in the draft? Will we see a repeat of last October’s Autumn 500
where mileage swatted out of contention about three-fourths of the field? How
will passing be affected? What little footage has been shown from drafting
practice suggested it may be somewhat easier, but only the 500 will really tell
us where the cars stand with these new rules.
One thing we can be sure of – aero-matching will not reduce rules lobbying.
One or more makes will suffer from aero-matching and demand changes. Right now
Ford is grumbling that it has lost some 200 pounds of down force from
aero-matching. Of course it has also lost a number of teams the last few years,
and is down to the Roush phalanx, Yates Racing, and the Wood Brothers as a
realistic shot at the title.
The worst rule in NASCAR remains the rule restricting the number of tests a
team can have. NASCAR is now considering restricting testing at non-Winston Cup
tracks because of the upsurge in non-Cup track testing.
NASCAR has to admit that the rule doesn’t work and should not be there. Teams
need unlimited opportunity to test; this is what will kill the multi-car giant
because it eliminates the need to share information – it is this need that
brought about the multi-car giant to start with.
One surprise was the defection of Kyle Busch to Hendrick Motorsports; slated
to run in the Truck series this season, Kyle Busch quit and went to Hendrick,
where he is slated to run a mixture of ARCA and Superspeedway Sportsman (aka
Busch series) events.
One wonders how Roush will take this, considering his long-time enmity toward
Hendrick Motorsports.
The 24 Hours of Daytona was the usual grind, introducing a new lead class of
road racing prototype-style racecars amid the GTS classes. There were several
rather nasty wrecks, including one rollover and a nasty head-butt shot on a
restart. Several NASCAR drivers participated; Kyle Petty’s Orbit #43 team did
the best among the NASCAR contingent, finishing sixth despite spinning on
Sunday.
The 24 Hours of Daytona has been a casualty of the absurd costs of this class
of racing; the car count was down and the event’s top class has changed several
times in the past decade; even the sanctioning body for the event has changed
several times the last ten years (you do remember IMSA, don’t you?).
This is why NASCAR needs to do a better job reigning in where teams spend
their money.
Carbon monoxide poisoning has become an issue again with Rick Mast’s
retirement. One overlooked comment was by Jimmy Spencer, who noted that he wears
an open face helmet in part because it lets in more air.
Getting fresh air into the car is necessary; one way is to stick side window
air-intake hoses for the cockpit straight out like side mirrors – this has the
double benefit of increasing drag, which the cars need. Drivers also should
consider going back to open face helmets; the safety argument for full-face
helmets was less than convincing in any event.