Well we’ve been down here in Daytona for almost a week and from the very start it has been really interesting.
The opening practices of Speedweeks on Friday saw cars going out in groups of two. They basically were shadowing or mirroring each other and combined they make an incredible amount of speed. We watched drivers go over 200 mph again. We saw that in January testing down here.
What is interesting is we have seen the two-car hook up work at Talladega Superspeedway, but until now, never really saw it work here at Daytona International Speedway. Why it hasn’t worked here in the past was simple – the old surface. It was literally too bumpy for two cars to stay hooked up like that. However, this newly repaved surface has made it possible.
So the new surface has changed the way these drivers do things. It’s changed the way they drive. It has changed how they race each other and allows them to do things they never have done before. We saw it happen during the January test, but that first practice here last Friday verified it.
Then the next question was could they do that and maintain that speed in a race. We really weren’t sure, that is, until they dropped the green flag Saturday night for the Budweiser Shootout.
Now you have to remember that when NASCAR introduced the new nose on the Sprint Cup cars, one of the goals was for the front and rear of cars to be able to line up with one another. The old nose had a wedge shape to it. The problem with that, as you know, was it would go up underneath the car ahead of it and jack the back end up and spin the guy out. So the beauty of this new design is it eliminates that. Now drivers can literally push each other all the way around the racetrack. What has happened and we learned this at Talladega is that two cars hooked together increased their speed by roughly 10 mph. So they started to use that to their advantage.
Again, now with the new surface at Daytona, they can do it here. Like Talladega, these guys can now bump draft all the way around the track. That’s where these incredible speeds are coming from. Two cars hooked together maximize power while minimizing the drag. It’s a really unique technique. This new design on the car now allows that to happen.
As race fans, we now have everything we wanted. At first the Car of Tomorrow was nothing anybody liked. It was ugly. It didn’t look like a race car we were used to. Nobody liked the wing or the splitter. Now all of that is a thing of the past. The wing is gone. The spoiler is back. The new nose is so much better. The bumpers still line up perfectly.
Saturday showed us a bunch of two-car drafts. There wasn’t a big wad of 20-plus cars in a pack going around lap after lap. The lead changes alone Saturday night were incredible. The thing to remember, however, was that we only had 24 cars on track on Saturday night, not the normal 43 like we will have for the Daytona 500.
You also can’t forget that Saturday night was optimum conditions for racing, creating maximum horsepower and perfect grip. The cool night air, combined with a new smooth surface, equated to speeds reaching 206 mph. No one expects to see those kinds of speeds on Sunday anyways. The warmer air and track temperature alone will slow these cars down.
NASCAR is kind of caught in a trap. They don’t want cars going 206 mph again because they don’t feel that’s safe. NASCAR also doesn’t want to see two-car drafts either. They want to see the cars closer together and racing closer together.
NASCAR has now decided to make a minor change that will reduce the amount of air flow into the radiator. It really won’t slow the cars down with what they have decided to do. They are going to reduce the size of the grille opening which naturally will limit the amount of air going into the car's radiator.
In theory, this will eliminate cars being able to push each other around the racetrack lap after lap because the car doing the pushing is going to need air to its engine and can’t stay hooked up for a very long time. The engine will need to be cooled.
NASCAR’s hope is that with all that going on, it will bunch everyone up more. It’s going to be interesting to see how theory translates into reality. It is supposed to be in the low 70’s on Thursday for the Gatorade Duel qualifying races. That’s easily the warmest it’s been since we have been down here.
My opinion is you simply can’t make a judgment call based on what you saw Saturday night. It was a short exhibition race basically with a limited amount of cars. It was just more than half a full field that we race with. Again, the weather and track conditions were at a premium. They won’t be anywhere near that again before the Daytona 500.
Leave the cars alone. We’ll get a good look at things on Thursday with these much warmer temperatures.
We have momentum going so let’s keep it that way. We wanted a good looking race car and now we have it. We wanted a fast race car and now we have it. We wanted exciting, action-packed racing and we’ve got it.
We’ve got everything we have basically been asking for in these last couple years. This is lining up to be one of, if not the most exciting Daytona 500’s any of us have experienced. Let’s try and keep that in mind and not overreact with a bunch of changes based on one Saturday night race. Let’s keep this excitement going.
