{"id":310,"date":"2002-01-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2002-01-16T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/archive-305-test-two\/"},"modified":"2002-01-16T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2002-01-16T00:00:00","slug":"archive-305-test-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/archive-305-test-two\/","title":{"rendered":"Test Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

"You couldn’t bump draft, you
\ncouldn’t get to people. They will change the rules again, I’m pretty
\npositive." So commented Kenny
\nWallace<\/a> before the start of the rain-delayed second test session at Daytona.<\/p>\n

His teammate Dale
\nEarnhardt Jr.<\/a> concurs – "We will be stuck, not able to pass, and the
\nwhole race will depend on how quick you can get in and out of the pits….if you
\nkept the changes they made, except keep the bigger plate, it’d be fine,
\ntoo."<\/p>\n

Now, was there any warning that the result
\nof taking the roof spoiler off the cars might lead to something like this?<\/p>\n

One abbreviation comes to mind here – S.I.T.Y.S.<\/a><\/p>\n

Matt Kenseth claims the drivers will
\n"be forced to race hard and try to stay with the draft the entire
\nrace," and John Darby claimed the results of the first drafting session
\nwere premature since only five cars per draft ran. But past experience doesn’t
\nbode well on that score – Darby presided over the last four plate races in Grand
\nNational and only one – the 2000 Talladega 300 – had any memorable competition.
\nWithout the powerful draft of the roof spoilers, passing becomes steadily more
\ndifficult no matter how hard some of these drivers run.<\/p>\n

Kenny Wallace acknowledges that "All
\nof us drivers are unsure about what everybody wants," i.e. they themselves
\ncan’t make up their minds what they want other than to not have to race hard all
\nday. The roof spoiler rules were "too competitive and we were wrecking too
\nmuch," as if they weren’t wrecking the same before the roof spoilers. And
\nthe term "too competitive" is a flat contradiction – there is no such
\nconcept as too competitive.<\/p>\n

That these drivers and the sport in
\ngeneral knew entering this test that the cars would not be able to pass without
\nthe roof spoiler only makes things more frustrating. Junior pines for a larger
\nrestrictor plate and Mikey Waltrip whines that the cars should be able to run
\n193, but a larger plate won’t solve anything and making the cars faster is
\nsomething the sport should not be doing. When Junior and Mikey talk about
\nwanting "something we could run faster with and be able to slingshot with
\n(Junior)," they ignore that it is the draft, not throttle response, that
\nmakes passing possible – they can slingshot with the restrictor plate; they
\ncannot do so without the draft. By killing the draft, the drivers killed their
\nability to race – and for what? An "improvement" in safety that
\namounts to nothing.<\/p>\n

\n

With Monday a rainout, teams did something
\nthey didn’t do in the first test and which I don’t believe they’ve ever done
\nbefore – they got their cars inspected before going onto the track. Sure enough,
\nmost weren’t legal. That they were legal now showed in the mile per hour gap
\nbetween the two tests – Week One testers cracked 183; Week Two couldn’t quite
\nget there as of the first day. Once again Chevys were on top, but this time
\nthere were four Dodges – all of Ray Evernham’s teams plus Jimmy Spencer – in the
\ntop ten of Day One. The fastest Ford was 14th – Andy Hillenburg subbing for
\nRicky Rudd – and only two Fords cracked the top twenty.<\/p>\n

Bill Elliott posted a speed of 187 and
\nchange early in the test, but a snap teardown revealed the car had the wrong
\nsized plate. Rival crew guys no doubt cracked jokes about Elliott getting
\n"The Call" restrictor plate Dale Junior got in last year’s Firecracker
\n400 – certainly message board denizens circulated joking jibes in that regard.
\nBut in seriousness, Ray Evernham did not find the situation at all funny and
\nessentially vowed that someone’s head would roll.<\/p>\n

Surprisingly, no one seemed to recall 1999
\nwhen Geoff Bodine tested at Talladega without a restrictor plate and easily
\ncracked 217 – how that happened has never really been explained; nor has an
\nexplanation come as to why Elliott’s team went through with such a move as using
\nthe wrong plate.<\/p>\n

\n

There they went again.<\/p>\n

Rootin’ Tootin’ Bruton and Howard A.
\nWheeler were at it again about how NASCAR "promised" them a second
\nTexas racedate, and they also griped about how NASCAR has not held down costs.
\nBut I haven’t read much from them in the way of ideas. I’d like them to spell
\nout their ideas for cutting costs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

"You couldn’t bump draft, you couldn’t get to people. They will change the rules again, I’m pretty positive." So commented Kenny Wallace before the start of the rain-delayed second test session at Daytona. His teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. concurs – "We will be stuck, not able to pass, and the whole race will depend on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-original-archive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racindeals.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}