Posts Tagged ‘autoracing’

NASCAR Cup Series teams  head to Talladega Superspeedway Tuesday, March 16 for an important early season test.

24 teams are expected to participate in the one day session, which will target a number of mechanical options in advance of the Aaron’s 499 on April 25 at Talladega.

Cup officials will analyze the data along with teams’ input and later make several decisions for the Aaron’s 499. Teams also will test spoilers, which will replace the current wings on the backs of cars.
NASCAR has net set a time table for the wing to spoiler move.

Vice president of competition for NASCAR Robin Pemberton said, “It’s a confirmation test for restrictor plates and gearing, and an opportunity for teams to work on their handling packages as we transition to the spoiler,”.

Rule changes, announced on Jan. 21, are the reasons for the test. Cup Series teams used larger carburetor restrictor-plate openings in the 2010 Daytona 500 and larger plate openings are expected for the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega.

At 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway, NASCAR mandated openings of 63/64-inch the largest since the one-inch mandate in 1988, the first year the horsepower reducing plates were used in Cup competition at Daytona. Each plate contains four openings, which restrict air flow to the engine, thus slowing stock cars. Larger openings mean more air, and more horsepower.

This will be the third season that the wing replaced the traditional stock car spoiler on NASCAR’s new car. Returning to the spoiler means on track testing, and another series test Tuesday, March 23 and Wednesday, March 24 at Charlotte Motor Speedway will be devoted solely to spoiler work.

NASCAR made exceptions to the current testing policy at Charlotte and Talladega. For the second straight season, Cup, Nationwide and Truck teams can not test at facilities that host national series events. This year, teams may test at tracks that host regional touring series events, but not national series events.

Nascar.com cotributed to this report

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At the Texas Motor Speedway Cup drivers Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch, Greg Biffle and Brian Vickers became the first to conduct an on-track test with a new aluminum spoiler package that could be implemented for the 2010 season during the Goodyear Tire test at Texas Motor Speedway on Tuesday.

Stewart was the first of the group to test the spoiler in the morning session, which was delayed nearly two hours from its 9 a.m. CT start time due to moisture on the 1.5-mile, high-banked oval from heavy morning dew.

The session kicked off at approximately 10:53 a.m. with temperatures in the 60s as Stewart rolled out with the wing and less than 40 minutes later was utilizing the spoiler. Vickers also got an opportunity to run the spoiler in the abbreviated morning session.

By the reaction of the drivers it seems like NASCAR is going in the right direction with the spoiler change.

NASCAR has not determined the specific dimensions as yet for the spoiler, but the one that was being used as a baseline at Tuesday’s
session was 64.5 inches wide and four inches in height with no contour in the design. Also, the rear quarter panels were extended four inches toward the ground.

NASCAR phased out the traditional spoiler on the rear deck lid of the Cup cars and went to a rear wing when the [new car] was unveiled in 2007. The return to the traditional look provides fans with the ability to differentiate between the four manufacturers more easily and hopefully enhance the passing ability of the cars and overall race action. Tuesday’s tire test was the first opportunity for drivers to test the package and provide feedback on its effects on the car.

Biffle and Busch had to wait until the afternoon session to test out the spoiler, with Busch not getting an opportunity until nearly the culmination of the session.

“With the spoiler on, the car had a looser feel to it,” Busch said. “The car was turning better and it felt like the car was sliding a bit more. ”

Stewart, Busch, Biffle and Vickers will conclude the Goodyear test Wednesday, where they are scheduled to test the spoiler package once
again. NASCAR will conduct another test with the spoiler March 23-24 at Charlotte Motor Speedway another 1.5-mile oval and sister track to TMS that will be open to all Cup teams.

“I think we’re stirring up the pot with the change, but it’s in a positive direction,” Busch said. “A lot of times NASCAR throws changes our way and the drivers and owners grumble about it.   With the spoiler, it seems like a positive reaction has been made already and just driving in it Tuesday, I don’t see any problem with it at all.”

If NASCAR is pleased with the progress and performance of the spoiler, the new package could be implemented for the Samsung Mobile 500 scheduled for April 15-18 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Earlier this year in Concord, N.C, a select number of drivers and NASCAR met at the R&D Center to discuss what would be the best way to move forward in the 2010 season.

At the top of the list from the technical side appears to be searching for a solution to keep Sprint Cup cars from lifting off the track during a spin. Consequently, NASCAR could introduce a spoiler for the new car as early as the Bristol or Martinsville race.

The spoiler change is for two reasons  to keep cars from launching and in response to fans’ dislike of the wing, according to NASCAR.

Ryan Newman, who was involved in a horrific crash at Talladega on Nov.1, said  he would welcome the change.

NASCAR.com

Fox Sports

contributed to this report.

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Everyone could see the pothole between turns 1 and 2 at Daytona International Speedway during the Daytona 500. What wasn’t so clear was whether or not the damage to the track was preventable.
There were two red flag periods during the Daytona 500 totaling over two and one half hours. (Photo: Getty Images For NASCAR) » More Photos

NASCAR and DIS workers eventually patched the hole, which grew to about 18-inches by 30-inches, after two race stoppages that lasted more than two hours, 25 minutes.

The track was last repaved in 1978, but DIS President Robin Braig said the age of the asphalt wasn’t the problem.

“It’s not unusually long [to not repave] at all because we’re in Florida,” Braig said. “We have the best temperature here. We keep such great care of our track. We walk it. We walked it [Sunday] morning. We walk it before every event.

“We know every inch. We saw no indications. We had two races [Saturday] on that track and we walked it again. This is something we couldn’t see.”

NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said that the sanctioning body did not have any indication that the heavy rains nor the cool temperatures had compromised the track during any of the other Speedweek races.

“There was no indication in any of the racing prior to the Daytona 500 that there were any issues with the track,” Poston said. “It was very unfortunate. There were no warning signs for this.”

NASCAR’s sanctioning agreement states that it can require a track to make any fixes necessary.

“Obviously their engineers are here, they’re going to make an assessment and we’ll be there with them and try to gain as much knowledge about the track as we can to see if it is a spot problem or a larger problem,” Poston said.

In all likelihood, the track will not be repaved before the NASCAR events on Independence Day weekend. Sister track Talladega
Superspeedway required five months to be repaved, and Daytona still has motorcycle racing scheduled through the first week of March before it could even start the process. There also needs to be ample time for tire testing because repaving would likely require a different tire specification from Goodyear.

Drivers are split on whether or not to repave the track, which would create higher speeds and also put handling at less of a premium.

“If you ask driver opinion, there’s clearly no consensus on repaving,” Poston said. “In fact, there’s probably closer to a consensus not to repave. But NASCAR’s role and the track’s role is to take in the safety and the maintenance of the track and those factors. They’re going to spend this week looking at it.

“The more laps you put down on the track, the more seasons it gets, the better the racing is. Some drivers, crew chiefs and spotters said yesterday may have been the best all-around racing we have ever had at that track. So the assessment needs to be whether there are patches in the track that need to be addressed or they need to repave the whole thing.”

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