NASCAR AERODYNAMICS WARS

The paradox of modern racing is that
racers want to go faster, but the realities of the speeds being turned has
necessitated slowing the cars down. To that end, Steve Park ran a test at Texas
Motor Speedway in January using a roof spoiler and a wicker on the rear spoiler
identical to the aero anchors used in October 2000 at Talladega.

And from quotes in the Fort Worth
Star-Telegram, Park didn’t like how the car ran in the test.

"At one point, it got the cars to
where we could run wide open," said Park. "If everybody can run wide
open, it’s going to be a pretty boring race. It’s like running slot cars. We
know that’s not the answer."

Park also claimed the aero anchors
"caused a pretty good imbalance in the car. We don’t want that, either. We
don’t want a race that’s full of crashes."

There is, though, a vagueness here.
"A pretty good imbalance" can mean several things, but Park does not
provide any specifics. Moreover, it clashes with the consensus of drivers when
the package was used at Talladega, namely that the cars were very stable in the
massive turbulence of displaced air.

As for running wide open, the cars are
almost wide open at Texas, Charlotte, Michigan, and other such tracks in any
event – the problem involved is that the speeds don’t allow the drivers to race
each other through the corners.

There is also the draft – which the aero
anchors increase by the greater amount of air blasted open. "The draft
doesn’t take effect here like it does at Talladega or Daytona, but it helps, it definitely
helps here," Donnie Allison said at Charlotte in 1977. The aero anchors add
roughly 100 drag power to the cars, and the greater draft vacuum created means a
stronger draft.

It would therefore seem that, despite the
misgivings of Steve Park, the aero anchors used at Talladega are worth trying
elsewhere, for slower speeds and stronger drafting, which would improve passing
opportunity.

This dispute is the latest in a changing,
ongoing aerodynamic war that really began in 1966. Until then the cars were
basic box shapes and the emphasis was on horsepower. Then Dodge debuted the
Charger 500, a car with a long, low nose and sloped roofline and trunk. The
car’s aerodynamics made it faster, but it also made it unstable; this was solved
when NASCAR allowed the use of a small rail on the tip of the trunk to capture
air.

When Richard Petty’s un-aerodynamic
Plymouth humiliated all comers in 1967, Ford went to work with a vengeance, and
came out with the 1968 Torino and Mercury Montego, fastback monsters that
quickly outclassed the Chryslers. In mid-1968 Dodge came with a redesigned
Charger, featuring a smaller roofline and flatter trunk. Richard Petty wanted to
run the Dodge, but Chrysler insisted he stay with Plymouth, and also would not
increase its efforts, which it had slashed by roughly half in 1967, so Petty
went to Ford for 1969.

Dodge stepped up in latter ’69 with the
debut oft he Daytona, a high-winged shark-nosed monster that could more than
hold its own against the fastback Fords. To get Petty back Chrysler built a
Plymouth version, the Superbird, and Mopar’s winged avengers won ten of fifteen
superspeedway events in 1970.

But the increased speeds led to the first
restrictor plate, and NASCAR handicapped the winged Mopars by mandating they
could only run 305 CID engines. The Chryslers thus switched to more conventional
1971 Plymouth Roadrunners and Dodge Chargers, but compared to earlier machinery,
these "conventional" cars were handsomely and efficiently aerodynamic,
and thus signaled a permanent aerodynamic factor in the sport.

During the 1970s General Motors machines,
featuring sleeker noses and rooflines than their counterparts except the 1971-4
Dodge Charger, became the car to use, as parts shortages brought about the end
of Chrysler and the reduction of Ford to less than half a dozen teams. When
NASCAR banned the Chevrolet Laguna S3 after 1977, many GM teams switched to the
Oldsmobile Cutlass 442, a fastback droop-nosed machine that proved very loose.
NASCAR then mandated a larger spoiler area, which solved the stability issue.

But the issue of stability became big when
NASCAR switched to 110-inch wheelbases for 1981. The eligible cars almost all
bore squarish rooflines, and testing saw Greg Sacks slam the inside wall and
tumble at Daytona. Then Bobby Allison and Harry Ranier went with a Pontiac
Lemans, a fastback car that proved more stable than the others. The car
dominated Daytona despite losing on a brilliant pit call for Richard Petty. At
Atlanta NASCAR reduced the Lemans’ spoiler to where the car was no longer
competitive; thus Winston Cup became primarily a field of Buicks.

The Lemans did win a race – the 1983
Daytona 500 with Cale Yarborough. It also served as a major influence on the
sport – Ford reentered NASCAR racing for 1982 and in 1983 it debuted a new
Thunderbird that incorporated much of the Pontiac Lemans’ body style but
included rounder corners and roofline. It took two seasons, but then the
aerodynamic ‘bird exploded to 14 wins in 1985. GM fought back with fastback rear
windows and smoother noses for the Chevrolet Monte Carlo and Pontiac Grand Prix,
but the round look became permanent with the GM10 body beginning in 1988.

Aero wars took another turn in 1995 when
Chevrolet introduced the Monte Carlo – a car built more with downforce rather
than low drag in mind. The Chevrolet dominated everywhere, and amid constant
lobbying NASCAR began windtunneling cars to determine aerodynamic numbers. Thus
began an ever-greater campaign of lobbying, testing, and aero changes.

And with the aeroization of the cars,
combined with greater horsepower and radial tires, the speeds continued to
escalate and the quality of the racing suffered. Restrictor plates were brought
back in 1988 and in April 1997 NASCAR tested air-displacement rails on four cars
at Daytona. Surprisingly, NASCAR rejected the use of aero anchors in 1997
because they bred what was thought to be too much four-wide racing.

But that changed in 2000 with a decline in
attendance and TV ratings. NASCAR decided to use aero anchors at Talladega in
October, and when the lead changed hands 49 times among 21 drivers, it was clear
that the bigger draft they created was what the sport needed.

So successful were these aero anchors that
Atlanta asked for their use in November 2000. NASCAR curiously declined, but
with the coming of an expensive new TV package, the need for better ratings
necessitated better racing, so came tests of aero anchors at Texas and Las Vegas
in January.

Despite the misgivings of Steve Park, it
is clear that aero anchors are necessary, and thus ought to be tried in races in
2001. The stronger draft created can bring the racing back to the level that
brought NASCAR to its present level of popularity.