"Parity" doesn't have to restrict competition

From its very beginnings, NASCAR has attempted to impose parity among the teams participating in the races they sanction. From the very beginning, car owners and drivers have been trying to find a way to get an edge on the competition by going around the rules and finding "gray areas."

NASCAR began as a "strictly stock" series, where the only modifications allowed to the cars was to tape the headlights and bolt the doors shut. The "strictly stock" rules only lasted all of 1949 and 1950, because, after constantly having to disqualify cars because of modifications, NASCAR conceded to the owners that modifications were part of the competition.

Since then there have always been parameters within which the teams can modify their cars, but there has also been some leeway in which the teams can try to find a competitive edge. As the NASCAR version of the stock car evolved, so did the methods in which the teams and even the manufacturers "tweaked" their cars to make them run better than the competition. Notorious "tweakings" were Chrysler's Hemi engine, which was disallowed by NASCAR in the mid sixties, and Chrysler's flying wing, which was also disallowed by NASCAR in 1971, and resulted in Chrysler's withdrawal from NASCAR competition as a manufacturer.

In 2007, NASCAR began introducing what was then known as the "Car of Tomorrow" or CoT to the series. The idea behind the car was twofold--safety and parity. Now known as the "Car of Today (CoT)," the "Car of Right Now (CoRN)," or simply "the Cup car," absolutely no aerodynamic modifications to the body or the rear wing are allowed. In addition, NASCAR dictates what rear end gearing can be used, and how far the rear end tracking can be offset. This was supposed to even things up between the well financed and the not-so-well financed teams. It was also meant as a way to cut costs for the teams and sponsors.

While there have been some good races this year, most notably at Lowe's, Phoenix, Talladega, and Martinsville, the Cup car has shown that it still needs a lot of work. Often, "parity" becomes "mediocrity," as the cars are able to catch up to other cars, but unable to complete a pass while racing wheel to wheel. In order to leave the fans completely satisfied at a race, NASCAR needs to allow more competition by allowing the teams to do a little more with the aerodynamics, and allow some experimentation with the other aspects of the car. Until the introduction of the Cup car, the crew chiefs could custom fit the car's handling characteristics to the driver's wants and needs, but now, with specifications nearly as limited as they were in the "strictly stock" days, that has become much harder to do.

If NASCAR wants to find the competitive edge among the teams that would keep the fans happy, while maintaining some semblance of parity, they might want to consider administrively limiting the amount of money a team may spend on a car during the racing season. This would be similar to the salary caps imposed in other professional sports.

It has been estimated that it costs about $7 million to run one race car in the Sprint Cup Series for an entire season. That includes the construction of the car and its engines, testing costs, transportation, salaries, tires, repairs, and entry fees. "Testing" doesn't include wind tunnels and seven post shaker rigs, those are extra. If NASCAR were to limit all teams to $7,000,000 per car, if that were possible, that would be a type of parity. But there would still be engineers and crew chiefs on each team who would want to change something on the car, and they would. In that case there would still be competition within the limits of parity. The downside would be that, just as in the "parity" we see now, innovation would be strictly limited.

Of course, NASCAR is correct in not trying to impose spending. It probably would take too much administration, and would also be an overstepping of authority by the sanctioning body. The idea of the teams having their financial records under review by NASCAR would not sit well. The best sponsors want to see the teams they sponsor have a competitive edge, and will provide as much financial support as is needed. As private corporations, the teams and their sponsors would be free to go to another series and race at venues not sanctioned by NASCAR, if they didn't like the rules that NASCAR imposed. It would likely result in NASCAR losing its top notch participants, and tranfering their power and prestige to, for instance, a new sanctioning body organized by Bruton Smith.*

*In 2004, Bruton Smith was rumored to be involved with Cale Yarborough in forming a new series featuring more traditional style stock car racing than NASCAR offers, but the idea never got off the ground due to lack of interest by sponsors and team owners.

Something that would make the cars race better would be to have tires that were made for the Cup car. NASCAR is still using tires designed by Goodyear for the conventional racing stock car. Since the Cup car has far less downforce than the conventional car, the tires either provide not enough grip to make the car controllable at high speeds, as we saw earlier this year at Atlanta and Texas, or have a compound so soft it does not hold up to the rigors of the track itself, as we saw at Indianapolis and Las Vegas. The Cup car requires a wider tire that would provide more grip while using a rubber compound that would stand up to the track conditions.

Goodyear, who has an exclusive contract with NASCAR through 2012, is working on a tire that would fit the needs of the Cup car, but that tire is not expected to be available for two more years.
This leaves the responsibility for better racing now in the hands of NASCAR.

Putting louvered vents on the left side of the car that would allow air to pass through the oil tank container would give the car a little more downforce, without affecting the aerodynamic characteristics of the car itself. That would be a quick fix that would not require an overall redesign of the body, and would not be too expensive for the teams to implement. Several teams, including the #99 team of Roush-Fenway Racing, tried to get away with leaving the lid of the oil tank container loose to allow air to pass through, so it must be a good idea.

The most practical thing for NASCAR to do right now is to allow a little more adjustment. Raising the front splitter would provide a little more downforce on the front end of the car. NASCAR could allow more adjustment on the rear wing as well, giving the teams a little more leeway. The #66 and #70 teams got caught a few weeks ago trying to raise the rear wing by 1/32 inches, so, again, it must be a good idea.

At Lowe's, for the Coca Cola 600 this year, we saw some great racing. This could be attributed to the fact that NASCAR allowed the teams extensive testing at that track, and also allowed the teams to offset the rear tracking of the car by so much it seemed as thought the cars were crabwalking around the track. This required a tougher differential and rear axle, so, NASCAR, in trying to limit the cost to the teams, limited the rear end offset to 1/2 inch. If NASCAR could ease up on that restriction, and allow the teams up to 1/4 inch offset more, we may get to see, once again, the kind of racing we saw at Lowe's.

It was wrong, in our opinion, for NASCAR to design this car and then leave it up to the teams to figure out how to make it race well, without allowing more tolerance within which the teams could work than they have.

Granted, for the second time around at the tracks, the racing is expected to be better than the first time, because the teams have had some experience at those tracks. But it has become obvious that more testing is needed at each track before the teams race at each track, and NASCAR has promised that more testing will be allowed next year. They have said, however, that there will be no more testing scheduled for this year. The problem is now, and we fear that the final race of the season at Homestead may be a disaster of the kind we saw at Indianapolis.

NASCAR needs to listen to the feedback given them by the teams, and relax the rules just a little bit this year, rather than waiting until next year. Parity shouldn't mean supressing innovation. It seems that a little bit would go a long way toward better racing.

Changes in the new car may happen, but when?

A few weeks ago, NASCAR officials held a meeting with the drivers and "asked" that they refrain from dissing the new Sprint Cup car in front of the press. It was widely known as the "shut up and drive" meeting. As we saw from Sunday's race, the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, "shut up and drive" didn't seem to help the car at all, and may have hurt NASCAR's image some.

Now it isn't the drivers that are complaining about the car, having dutifully conformed to the sanctioning body's wishes, but it is the fans and the sports journalists who see the car as a disaster.

The 2008 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard woke somebody up, it seems. According to reports on ESPN's NASCAR Now, both Mike Helton and Competition Director Robin Pemberton seemed to indicate Tuesday that they would consider a wider tire for the Sprint Cup Car. The wider tire would require a change in the body style of the new car, something NASCAR has previously said wouldn't happen.

Wider wheels on the car would help, as it would give the tires a bigger footprint on the track, which would mean more traction with a harder compound, and it would reduce the "billowing" effect on the sidewalls.

A New York Times article seems to confirm that NASCAR officials are considering changes:

“The fans didn’t get what they exactly wanted, and we’ll do everything in our power and it won’t happen again, I can tell you that much,” Pemberton said in a conference call. “So we’re going to put a lot of effort towards it and get a better plan moving forward.” (read entire article)

On this blog, we have suggested before that NASCAR should allow the teams a little more leeway in adjustments, and in finding ways to make the car work better with the tires they are given. More testing is needed, and Pemberton has indicated that there would be more testing in the future. However, NASCAR has also said that they will not add any additional open testing to the schedule this year.

So, it seems, things will get better, and nothing like what happened at IMS Sunday will happen again. We will just have to wait until the off season to get a view of what changes will be made for next year.

Disappointment

I was wrong. I predicted that there would be some racing at TMS, which isn't even called TMS anymore, but the Great American Speedway. I predicted that the parity brought about by the Sprint Cup car would result in some good fender to fender competition, of which, in reality, we saw very little.
This is not to belittle Carl Edward's victory--the #99 Roush-Fenway Ford team had its act together--something not many of the other teams seemed to have. So it wasn't a case of "the wrong guy" won the race, but that, similar to Atlanta, it was a race of attrition, rather than one of drivers' and crew chiefs' skills.
Jeff Gordon fell off early, with a car that wasn't prepared for the track at all. He ended the race in position 43, for only the second time in his sixteen year NASCAR Cup career. Greg Biffle who had a promising start to the race, and looked good early, also had to drop out of competition, if not the race.
The problem this time wasn't the tires, but all the yet unknown qualities of the new car and how it reacts to differing track conditions. Testing on one intermediate track is not good for all, as there is really no such thing as "cookie cutter" tracks. Therefore, this blogger takes some solace in the fact that he was correct in his original surmise that the refusal of NASCAR to allow testing at Texas would result in actions detrimental to the fans' enjoyment of the race.
We discovered that the era of the phantom caution is not over after all. We saw at least one of those, and if the purpose was to tighten up the field, it was too late. By that time thirty-three of the forty-three cars were a lap or more down.
We expected some lapped cars, especially at GAS (no, I won't call it that, it is still TMS to me), where the high speeds often separate the men from the boys. In addition lapped cars make the restarts exciting and should run some interference for the leaders to allow the rest of the field to catch up. But lapped traffic was overdone at TMS this time, because there were only ten or so cars that came to the race with a competitive set-up.
Still, all this means is that the teams have much more work to do. The more the car is used, the more the engineers and crew chiefs can figure out what they need to make the car more competitive. So there is something positive to take from Texas. After all, the sold out crowd seemed to have a great time at the race--it is better to be there than to watch the race on television, especially with the mediocre race coverage we saw. The teams can take the positive route and put the Samsung 500 behind them as a learning experience. The racing can only get better from here.

Some questions to ponder. If TMS was a track owned by NASCAR's ISC, rather than Bruton Smith's organization, would NASCAR have allowed an extra testing session there?

If Kyle Busch was criticized for not sticking around last year after he wrecked his car, should Jeff Gordon be criticized for quitting when he had a car that didn't handle the way he wanted it to?

If the "core fan" yearn for racing the way it was in "the old days," shouldn't the Samsung 500 have been a reason to celebrate?

And finally, to Jimmy Spencer, who declared that Carl Edwards would have won four races if it hadn't been for mechanical failure at Atlanta, doesn't that mean it would still only be three if Tony Stewart hadn't cut a tire at Las Vegas?

Tired of tire issues?

"I'm tired," Brett Farve emotionally declared during his retirement announcement Thursday. The fact that Farve's retirement announcement has not effected me at all is reason for football fans to be happy that there are about 130 million of them and only one of me.
But the announcement did send shock waves throughout the sports world, much like the harder tire Goodyear brought this week for the Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta sent shockwaves throughout the NASCAR garage. (You saw this segue coming, didn't you?).
The problem is that the teams who tested at Atlanta last Fall based all their notes and set up adjustments on the softer tires Goodyear had provided at the time. The harder tire compound provides less traction, so all those notes and adjustments are practically useless. As pole sitter Jeff Gordon remarked after qualifying, "It was like the brand new tires already had twenty laps on them."
He wasn't the only one complaining. The first practice was dangerous looking, with several spinning cars, but, luckily, no serious damage. The drivers who didn't spin their cars were confounded by the handling enough to know that if they tried to produce any fair amount of speed, they would spin as well.
Goodyear has the policy of using the same tires for the Cup Series as they do for the Nationwide Series, when there are companion races at the same track. This is a practice that seems to be outdated, since the Sprint Cup cars are very different from those used in the Nationwide Series. The tire manufacturer doesn't seem to have realized that, because the tires might be fine for the Nationwide cars, but force the Sprint Cup cars to slow way down on what is supposed to be the fastest mile and a half track on the NASCAR circuit.
If the tire issues are ridiculous, so is the ritual at Atlanta Motor Speedway of having final practice at 6:30 PM, when the race starts at 2:15 the next afternoon, under completely different temperature conditions. This means that most of the information gathered from "Happy Hour" as it is called, would be useful only for the end of the race, if at all.
Still, this is not all about complaining. The Sprint Cup car has brought some incredible racing to the fans, and, as the race begins Sunday, all teams will be equa as far as experience, or the lack thereof, goes. Racing is more thrilling when the outcome can't be predicted, and this is everything we can expect come Sunday's race.
I'm sure NASCAR racing fans will be much happier this weekend than Green Bay Packers fans.

Is NASCAR going too far for a thrill?

Early this week, NASCAR recieved an offer from Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage to add a test session at TMS before the Samsung 500 April 6th, but NASCAR turned the offer down.
Gossage's reasons for wanting the tests were sound, especially when it comes to safety issues. There were eleven cautions at last weekend's UAW-Dodge, in spite of testing, he points out, also noting that because of weather changes, the testing at LVMS earlier this year wasn't conclusive.

"My concern is that they did have an open test at Las Vegas and still had a record number of cautions, including three serious crashes involving former Cup champions," said Gossage, referring to wrecks involving Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch. "We only have had a two-car Goodyear test so we could see a lot of crashes, and that causes me concern. I'm sure the teams would like as much data and track time as possible to reach that comfort level with the car and its performance at our speedway."

Texas should have a test, in my opinion, before the Cup race there, because it is probably the most treacherous of the 1.5 mile tri-ovals on the Cup schedule. The transitions from the straightaways to the turns, and visa versa are abrupt, and since everybody will be a rookie at that track it should be important for the teams to find out how the Sprint Cup car will react to those transitions. We can only be certain, from what we have seen, that it will not act like the other car did. Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton agree:

"I think Texas will be the toughest track we go to with this car, [and] it's already a tough racetrack," Gordon said. "And when you look at the transitions, the vertical loads, the bumps and the speeds, it's probably going to be closer to [Las Vegas] than to any other track we go to. The biggest challenge we're going to have with the Impala going forward this year is going to tracks that we haven't tested at and been to and gotten the data and the laps with the telemetry."
Added Jeff Burton, defending champion of Texas' spring race: "I think there are a lot of challenges at Texas -- maybe more so than [Las Vegas]. Texas is a little rougher. With this car, the bumps seem to be a pretty major issue, so I think Texas is going to be quite a challenge with this car. Some teams are going to hit and some teams aren't. The success we were able to do there last year, none of that works. None of that information will be worth a hoot, so it's starting all over again."

Does NASCAR not learn? They waited until after the death of Fireball Roberts before they required fire extinguishers and the rubberized fuel cell that helps prevent fuel from spilling. They waited until after Bobby Allison's near fatal accident, and the fatal accidents of Clifford Allison and Neil Bonnet before they even considered developing a safer car. And their concern about the HANS device and SAFER barriers didn't even surface until it was too late for Dale Earnhardt, Kenny Irwin, Jr, and Adam Petty.
Even though the new Sprint Cup car is much safer than the older car--and probably saved the life of Jeff Gordon last Sunday, and prevented serious injury to him and Tony Stewart, who also suffered a hard hit--there are still many tracks, including the majority of tracks owned by ISC, that do not have SAFER barriers all around, especially where most needed around the emergency access points.
Testing at Texas would be a safety measure, not a competition measure, and NASCAR should reconsider its denial of Gossage's proposal if they really want to prevent bad accidents in the Samsung 500.
Perhaps they don't. Perhaps they somehow feel that the best way to draw the fans is through morbid curiousity.
I know some people find crashes thrilling, but those who do are very, very far from a majority among NASCAR race fans. Maybe I am an idealist, but I like to think that most of us are there for the thrill of the race itself.
Does NASCAR realize this, or are they just hoping for a wreckfest?
I would like to think otherwise, that they really do want to present a good product for the fans--that would be good racing--as they have so far this season. They should not use the safer cars and safety devices as an excuse to promote more wrecks, because any fans they gain in that way would not be real fans, and will not stick around long before going back to their WWE matches.
Gossage offered to have the test the Wednesday before the Samsung 500, or on Thursday, the next day, during scheduled race week activities. That would not seriously disrupt anyone's schedule, and NASCAR should take the offer seriously, instead of precipitously brushing it off as they have initially.

More pre season fun!

I had a great weekend. It was good watching cars go fast on television again. It didn't quite bring the satisfaction five-hundred miles of beatin' and bangin' brings us, but it was racing and it did bring some thrills, to break what seems like the longest 11 week off-season ever. We should be happy we aren't football fans, because eleven weeks is actually the shortest off season of any professional sport.
The Rolex Grand American Series 24 Hours at Daytona isn't, in reality, a NASCAR event, but most race fans are familiar with the names of some of the drivers, and the sights and sounds are a nice break in the tedium of off season.
There were some records broken. Team Ganassi chalked up an unprecedented third straight victory in the event, with the #01 drivers team of Memo Rojas, Dario Franchitti, Juan Paul Montoya, and Scott Pruett, each an excellent and experienced driver in his own field. Due partly to the weather, partly to mechanical failure, and partly to the advanced level of competition, the attrition rate was high, and the #01 car crossed the finish line two laps ahead of the closest competitor, the #99 team of Jimmie Johnson, Alex Gurney (the son of racing legend Dan Gurney), Jimmy Vasser, and Jon Fogarty. Fogarty and Gurney were the Rolex Series Champions at the end of last year's season.
There were 23 caution flags, and 16 lead changes, both new records.
Daytona testing didn't tell us a whole lot about the new (CoT) Formula N cars. Just that the engines were working good, and maybe working with wedge, trackbar, and alignment adjustments to find that comfort spot for the drivers. Everything else is mandated by NASCAR to be the same for every team at Daytona. But now, at Vegas, there are a few more things the teams can work with. There is much more the Crew Chiefs can do as far as aerodynamics adjustments go than they could do at Daytona. As explained very well by Larry McReynolds on Speed TV, the rear wing and the struts that support it can be adjusted in several ways, in addition to changing the shape of the struts. Plus the front splitter is adjustable, to change the downforce on the front end, as well as the suspension adjustments that couldn't be done at Daytona.
So, once everyone found out how the track and the tires worked, they went to work on set ups and experiments.
Some of the experiments obviously failed, as both Tony Stewart and Jeff Burton had equipment failures in the front suspension and crashed, leaving their teams with only one car for California testing Thursday and Friday. David Regan's crew chief accepted responsibility for a loose condition he set up in his driver's car.
This brings up a point about the new Formula N car that may not have been forseen in the developmental stages. The car was supposed to make racing affordable by all the teams, but it seems that nobody can afford to wreck one.

"The car that Jeff [Burton] crashed is junk -- it'll be easier to replace it than it would be to put it back together," (RCR crew chief Gil) Martin said. "Anyone who thinks these cars will be able to take a beating better than the [standard cars] is kidding themselves.

"With the [chassis] recertification process and the tolerances we have to meet, it's easier and cheaper to just build a new one than to go to the effort of repairing one."

(from NASCAR.com)
It also seems that the car that was supposed to allow the teams to use the same car for everything from road courses to the superspeedways does not actually exist. In a NASCAR.com article from California Speedway, Kevin Harvick answered a question pertaining to the multi usefulness of the new Formula N car.

When he was asked during Thursday's lunch break at California Speedway if the chassis that Sprint Cup teams must use this season will enable organizations to use the same cars at different tracks, Kevin Harvick said yes, but only to a point.
"With these cars, you could use the same thing from a track like Bristol [short track] to here at California [intermediate, downforce track]," Harvick said. "We're using the same cars we had at Las Vegas, with minor setup changes.
"As far as the other tracks, we'll always have road-course cars and we'll always have speedway cars [for Daytona and Talladega]. But the interesting thing is, one of the cars we have here is the center section from one of last year's road-course cars, with new front and rear clips."
Dave Rodman, NASCAR.COM

But we should remember that a similar situation came in play in the Rolex Grand Am Series in 2003 with the introduction of the Daytona Prototype (DP) car. As pointed out by Charlie Turner, of Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie--in an excellent article, by the way--the DP was suppose to be a safer and less expensive alternative for the teams than the purpose built sports cars that were being used in the series at the time. There were complaints and widespread non-acceptence, but after four years, the DP has made its own history. Perhaps this tells us we need to give the Formula N car a little more time.
So the experiments at Las Vegas testing resulted in the conclusion of "we know we better not do that again"
Once this week of testing is over, there is nothing left to do but begin the exciting, or, at least, much anticipated 2008 season. The Bud Shootout is a little more than a week away, with nothing in between now and then. Unless you want to watch that thing called the Daytona 500 of Professional Football, which I, personally can't get excited about. If they could only make the players about 3000 lbs heavier and 160 mph faster, maybe they could get me to watch.
Well I have rambled on enough now. This was supposed to have been posted by Tuesday at the latest, but it wasn't so I kept adding to it until I got this mess. Thank you all for bearing with me.

Daytona Session II Day II

Well, now we are getting to the meat and potatoes of Daytona Testing. The drafting session is showing us something, now, and the teams are adding to what they learned in the first session last week. The Dodges that hung back in time in the single car runs are running at the top in drafting practice.
Franchitti seems to be catching on rather swiftly, as could probably be expected. Not only did he get the fastest times of all the Dodges in the single car runs, but he hung in the top ten in the drafting tests. I have been lauding Regan Smith as the probable ROTY this year, but Franchitti is learning as quickly as Juan Pablo ("Johnny Paul" in my book) Montoya did. Maybe even more quickly.
Regan Smith, whose determination and drive remind me very much of Denny Hamlin, did bring his car up to the second fastest time in drafting, followed by the kid who is still a question mark in my mind, Paul "Daddy bought me a car so I can wreck the big guys" Menard. Actually, to Menard's credit, without much ARCA or Nationwide/NBS experience before he began his Cup career, the kid is learning the hard way. Anyway, the DEI cars seem to be at least meeting some criteria.
Tony Stewart, driving a different car than the one he took to the track Monday, posted the sixth fastest speed Tuesday afternoon.
Known as the guy who hates having to deal with the media, yet seems to have more media events than any other driver, Smoke had some interesting comments in Monday's Q&A session.

"HERB BRANHAM: We are joined by Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota. If you could just start off by telling us how your first day and a half of testing has gone down here.

TONY STEWART: Pretty good. We've not missed a shift yet, and that's the hardest part of what we've done the last day and a half. So other than that, it's just hold it wide open and ride around." (Ooh, the man can be snarky. As Tony Stewart fans, we expect and accept that. Besides, it's funny!)
(On the move to Toyota):
"Like I told you guys last year, I don't care if it's Kia or whoever, I just want to win races."

"Q. After all your experience does it get easier to handle the changes at this level, the changes of rules, equipment, engines?

TONY STEWART: I think everybody that gets to this level can handle it. I don't think it's a bigger deal having more experience. But this year it's not as big a change obviously. In the big picture it seems like a huge change because we switched manufacturers. But if we went ahead and made this change a year ago, it would have been a lot more dramatic than it is this year with the car that's the same for everybody. It's just literally a decal package and a motor package for the most part. I think it's less of a change this year than it would have been in the past."
(Highlighted by this blogger)
On his relationship with Crew Chief Greg Zippadelli:
"I think Zippy and I are now that position to where we don't see each other doing something away from each other. If one of us decides to retire, the other one is going along with him. If he says, "I'm done, I'm ready to do something different," then that's probably when I'll say I'm ready to do something different, too, or vice versa."

The complete chart of Tuesday's times and speeds can be found here

Daytona Session II Day One

Tony Stewart has made it clear to his fans and the media that testing is his least favorite part of racing in NASCAR. If he is going to be in a race car, he wants to be in it to race. In his autobiography, True Speed, he relates a story of how he got in trouble while tire testing in an Indy car for AJ Foyt. He was told to take a lap at a certain speed. But the car was so fast, that he wanted to see how it felt to go faster. He beat the speed he was supposed to be going by nearly six miles per hour.
When he got back to the pits AJ Foyt laid into him, telling him that if he couldn't do what he was told, he would get another driver.
In recent years, Smoke has been able to forego winter testing at Daytona, opting out with the excuse that he would be racing at the Chili Bowl Midget World Series in Tulsa, Oklahoma, an annual event that takes place during the same dates as Daytona testing. Mike McGlaughlin, and more recently, Mike Bliss. have been taking on the mundane duties of test driving the 20 car in his stead.
With the Formula N car being the only car NASCAR will be fielding this year, testing has been extended and additional three days, so the teams could do what they need to do with the unfamiliar car. Tony could compete in the Chili Bowl this year, but there would be time for him to test at Daytona as well.
So, Monday he was at the venerated track, taking the #20 Toyota for laps in single car runs, gathering data for Crew Chief Greg Zippadelli, and the JGR and Toyota engineers.
Smoke seemed less than enthusiastic after the second testing session, even though he had posted the sixth fastest overall speed for the day. He pretty much echoed Mark Martin's thoughts on single car testing, saying that you can't really tell anything from single car runs, and you won't learn anything about the car until you get into drafting practice.
"You don't know what the other teams are doing," he added, "They may be holding their cards close to their chest."
Indeed, it looked as though that was what was going on with the RCR teams who posted way down on the speed chart. Nonetheless, Kevin Harvick seems very positive in regards to what is going on in the Childress garage.

Q. Do you feel like today's test session was sort of the first step in getting you there to repeat the victory?

KEVIN HARVICK: Well, I liked the fact that our main goal today was to be the first ones on the racetrack, and we accomplished that. We came down here with kind of a specific plan to – engine wise with components that they ran, that they started with last week just to kind of get a handle on our whole company's, I guess, grasp of what car is the fastest and what car is not fast. So we're trying to sort that out between the six or eight cars that we have.

So we kind of came down here not with a speed plan, I guess you would say. It's just more of just kind of going through the plan of which cars, just deciding which car is which, and after we get through with that, we're still not done. We'll have changed two or three different engines and just going through those motions.

So we haven't really gotten to our cars. Clinton coming last week was great because right out of the box the car drives good, and there's a definite difference between the two cars. We kind of came down with a little bit different plan than normal but we accomplished our goal and that was to be the first ones on the track, so mission accomplished for the day

Toyota is now very upbeat, and I love the quote from this article on NASCAR.com:

Ty Norris, president and general manager of Michael Waltrip Racing, darted into the media center at Daytona International Speedway Monday afternoon and smiled as he referred to the speed sheet from the day's opening practice session.

"Look," he said, "it's just like last year -- only upside down."

Norris made a good point. After Monday's morning session, Toyotas ruled the top of the chart. Led by MWR's Dale Jarrett, the manufacturer's cars posted eight of the top 10 lap times.

The other top ten lap times were posted by Ganassi's Dario Franchitti in a Dodge, and, of course Dale Earnhardt, Jr in the #88 HMS Chevy.
Tuesday's half-hour overview on SpeedTV will be at 6:30 PM EST. For a complete listing of Monday's speeds, go here

First Sprint Cup testing session ends with Kyle Busch and Toyota on top.

Okay, so testing isn't a competition, but it is fun to treat it as such anyway. Every team had its own testing agenda this week, and so we didn't really see every team doing its best to get the fastest times.
Many teams, including the Hendrick teams, went for speed first, and then worked from there for the three day session. What I am excited about is that the Toyota teams went for speed first, and stayed fast for the rest of the session. Not that I'm a Toyota fan, I still like Chevys, but my favorite driver happens to be driving a Toyota this season. Besides, racing has always been more about the drivers for me than about the maufacturers.
But the real story in testing this week has been about the CoT, or the Formula NASCAR car, as I like to call it. Some teams, in getting a handle on the car, have been working with the balast, to try to lower the center of gravity, which, as we can see by the shape of the car, is probably a good idea. Others worked on suspension set ups that would preserve tires, which is a good idea considering the amount of blistering that was reported the first day. Most tested in a combination of areas. Needless to say, the information gathered will be applied to the testing session that will take place next week. So the speeds from these first three days of testing aren't a real preview of the upcoming Daytona 500.
We can, however get some kind of inkling of how racy the Formula N car will be at the 500 from what the drivers have said about the car itself in testing. Jeff Gordon, for instance, told Speed TV's Bob Dilner that he felt they had a handle on the car, and noted that it is easy for the second, third, and forth place cars to pass the car in the front of the pack, something Junior Johnson discovered when he accidently first took advantage of drafting in 1960. JJ Yeley was happy enough with his car that he declared that it would be racy come the 500.
Yeley's positive attitude carried over to other Toyota drivers. A.J. Allmendinger noted the improvement in Toyota over last year in this interview:

Are you happy with how the three-day Daytona test?

“I’m just happy with the whole team’s performance. Everybody back at the Red Bull shop worked so hard to get us prepared to come test down here, and all the guys here that put a lot of effort into these three days. I don’t think anybody has shown their best hand. Everybody is going to come back with a little bit more, but so are we. Toyota has shown us that they stepped up their program. We just need to go back to the shop and not let up at all. We’re pretty good, but we have to get better.”

In the same publication, Kyle Busch's excitement over the program tells us that there are good things coming for Toyota, not only at the Daytona 500, but for the season:

Are you surprised with how fast the Toyotas have been during this three-day test?
“Not, not at all. We knew that the switch was going to be good, and the reason we went to Toyota was for the pure fact that they want to go out there and compete and win races and win championships, so that's what we're here to do with them. The biggest thing was that it was nice to see the Red Bull stuff up there and Bill Davis' stuff going fast. I'm not necessarily sure if it's a lot to do with their engines or just the way that the Camry's front end is shaped or what exactly it is. For what we've got going on with our program and the Gibbs stuff, we're proud of the way we came out of the box strong.”

This, of course, is from the guy who posted the best times for the three day session.
What we can see from here, is that the season will be competitive, that the Toyota teams will be in the mix, and that we are very impatiant for the Daytona Speed Weeks to begin.
The complete list of posted speeds for Wednesday's testing can be found here.

Preason Thunder Day 2--Toyota's looking stronger

Even as interesting as it is to me to see the top speeds in the single car runs, I tend to agree with Mark Martin that this kind of practice really serves no purpose for the drivers and teams. You really can't tell what a car is going to do during a restricter-plate race until you get the cars running in packs.
So, if you just want to see how fast your car can go, the Tuesday morning session served more of that purpose, with Jimmie Johnson again leading the field, posting a speed of 184.763 mph. Jaques Villeneuve continued to show that he could go faster than he did before, placing the second fastest time. Travis Kvapil moved into third place, up from his ninth place after Monday's sessions, and Casey Mears' speed was fifth fastest Tuesday morning.
There were some tire issues with blistering, and Mears, after posting his fifth position speed, slapped the wall after cutting a tire. Elliott Saddler, Carl Edwards, and Jeff Gordon also reported tire blistering. But the purpose of testing is for the teams to figure out what they can do with the tires and the car, and it is up to the teams to figure out how to fix the tire problems, according to John Darby and just about everyone else connected to Goodyear or NASCAR.
So Tuesday afternoon meant that it was finally time for drafting practice. Now we can taste the real meat of testing.
Much to everybody's surprise or consternation, JJ Yeley finished the day with the top speed at a little over 187 mph, after finishing fifth overall in the single car testing. This continues the good news for Toyota, as fellow Toyota driver Kyle Busch had the third fastest time after drafting practice. Big brother Kurt had the second highest speed in his Penske Racing Dodge, while Joe Nemechek and Matt Kenseth filled out the top five. Johnson, who had led the first three sessions, ended up in ninth after Tuesday's testing, while AJ Allmendinger and Jaques Villeneuve fell completely out of the top ten finishing Tuesday's drafting practice in 21st and 19th place respectively. Still they got the practice in, and will get more practice Wednesday to see if the two newcomers from open wheel are learning anything about the cars. David Reutimann driving the Michael Waltrip Racing #00 stayed in the top ten, posting the seventh fastest speed in drafting practice. Reed Sorensen, Martin Truex, Jr., and Robby Gordon filled out the top ten Tuesday afternoon.
The complete list of cumulative speeds for testing so far can be found at Scenedaily, among other places.
The biggest NASCAR news Tuesday was not from testing, but from the world of the NFL, when Coach Joe Gibbs announced that he was resigning from the Washington Redskins. He is expected to return to his role as Coach and revered leader of the racing team that bears his name.
Wednesday's overview of Daytona Testing will be aired on SpeedTV at 7 PM Eastern Standard Time.

Testing is Here!

To quote Speed TV's John Roberts, "The Holidays are over and it is time for a new season of NASCAR."

Though the phrase may seem premature at this time and date, it is not untrue. Preseason Thunder has begun at Daytona. The beginning of a two week period of testing at Daytona International Superspeedway has us dancing and jumping for joy! Finally, after seven long weeks, we get to see some cars going fast.
Monday's testing lived up to our expectations.
There isn't much gray area for the Crew Chiefs to work in on the new Formula NASCAR cars, in terms of gaining speed, so most of the work was on handling set ups and tire data. But lap speed averages are important to those of us who are mere observers, and we saw some of what was expected and many, to some, surprises.
It is no surprise that Jimmie Johnson topped the speed charts in both of Monday's sessions. His Crew Chief, Chad Knaus, in the tradition of the legendary Smokey Yunick, can find gray areas where there are none, and is well on the way to becoming a legend himself. There is no doubt the 48 team of HMS is continuing the momentum with which it ended the '07 season. The rest of the Hendrick Motorsports drivers who are participating in testing this week, Jeff Gordon and Casey Mears, also timed in the top ten in both sessions, Mears having the second fastest speed in both sessions, and Gordon posting third and sixth, respectively. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. will not be testing until next week.
The surprises weren't really surprises for those of us who expected them, and were good news for those who's favorite teams happen to be driving Toyotas this season. Red Bull's A.J. Almendinger, Bill Davis Racing's Jaques Villeneuve, Hall of Fame Racing's JJ Yeley, Michael Waltrip's David Reutimann, and Joe Gibbs Racing's Kyle Busch all posted speeds in the top ten for their Toyotas in the first session. Speaking like a true racer, Jaques Villeneuve, remarked, "We still have to find more speed. The 48 car is going so much faster, so I know we can be faster."
And, indeed, he did go faster in the second session, posting in the top five, along with A.J. Allmendinger and Kyle Busch. The other two Toyota drivers who finished among the top ten in the first session, remained in the top ten for the second session.
Toyota definitely showed that they have improved over what they had for testing last year. Perhaps some of it is due to the inclusion of JGR in the stable for that manufacturer, along with Toyota Racing Division's policy of encouraging cooperation among it's various teams. But, mainly it is that Toyota had to improve its equipment, because, after all, it couldn't get worse than it was last year.
Chip Ganassi's Juan Pablo Montoya, 2007's Rookie Of The Year, finished the first session with the ninth fastest speed, and was the eleventh fastest in the second session. Travis Kvapil, in the #28 Yates Racing Ford finished with the tenth best speed in the first session, and seventh in the second, while Aric Almirola, for DEI drove the #1 Impala for the ninth best speed in the second session.
Image by John Dunagan - Fastlines and courtesy of Motorsport.com


For a complete listing of Monday's cumulative testing speeds, click here.
It should be noted that NASCAR's "room of doom" for technical inspection is unmanned for the Preseason Thunder sessions, as there is no need for inspection since testing is not competition. With that in mind, we should consider the fact that the teams may be doing more than pushing the envelope in some areas for the sake of tire stress and handling information, and that the speeds recorded Monday may not be accurate in use for comparison of team performance.
Tuesday is the drafting session, which should tell us a bit more about the cars and drivers, and how they may perform at the Daytona 500 in February.
Preseason Thunder coverage will continue on Speed TV Tuesday evening at 7 PM Eastern time.

Time's a gettin' near!

NASCAR Pre-Season Thunder begins this week and continues through next week. This is a definite sign that racing season is nearly here.
There are many reasons to be interested in testing this year. Personally, I am holding off on making any predictions for the season until after testing, mostly because the season is going to be so different in '08 than it was in '07. Oops, does that count as a prediction?
What I'll look for in testing:
New drivers Will Hornish, Dario, and Jaques start getting a handle on the car? They are getting opportunities here that will give them a chance to learn. We will see how they do in drafting practice, and maybe get a little insight into whether they will take to it as well as JPM did. We should also be getting a look at rookie sensations Michael McDowell, who has a huge racing resume at the tender age of 22, and Ragan Smith, who is showing the potential of being another Denny Hamlin.
Toyotas Of course. Will they post some top speeds during testing, and is JGR's addition to the Toyota fold making any difference now?
Action Something to do with racing is really happening. Daytona Testing shortens the off season considerably. We will get fired up for the new season, and will have something to get excited about. Speed TV will be airing a daily review of testing every day of the week, beginning Monday, Jan 7, at 7 PM ET