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Driving Straight Into Trouble?

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By TONY FABRIZIO | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 17, 2008

DAYTONA BEACH - Drivers say that even under ideal conditions, NASCAR's new race car is harder to drive than the old one.

The conditions will hardly be ideal for today's Daytona 500. With temperatures expected to be in the low 80s for the 3:30 p.m. start, Daytona International Speedway will be slicker than it had been at any time during preseason testing or SpeedWeeks. That means a greater potential for wrecks and for handling to play a major role in the outcome.

"I think it will be even more of a handful," said Tony Stewart, one of the race favorites. "Obviously, it will cool down in the evening a little, and that will help. But it's going to be the highest track temps that we've seen all week at the start of the race. It's going to make the first third of the race pretty interesting. It will definitely be a factor."

Jeff Burton agreed: "This track gets slick and it gets real slimy. These cars don't handle all that great and the challenge is only going to get bigger. In addition to that, you are going to have 43 cars on the track. There is a major difference between 28 in the qualifiers and 43."

NASCAR's new car - formerly the "Car of Tomorrow" - made its racing debut at Daytona in the Feb. 9 Bud Shootout and put on a competitive and entertaining race without any major incidents. Thursday's 150-mile qualifying races also had close racing and no major crashes.

Even so, drivers say it's harder to get the new car - which is taller, wider and has less front downforce - to rotate properly through the corners. That's particularly true when the tires start wearing and grip diminishes.

"After 20 laps, it was definitely more challenging to drive, even running out front and up high," Dale Earnhardt Jr. said after winning one of Thursday's qualifiers. "You're correcting the car, sliding the right rear into the corner, backing into the entrance of every corner. It's way easier to do that when you're leading than when you're second or third. ... I can't imagine running 20th with still 20 more cars behind you, pushing you down in the corner. You've got no air downforce on the car because of the field in front of you."

Kyle Petty, whose career has spanned several car changes, said the new car reminds him of the stock cars from the early 1980s, when NASCAR downsized to a smaller chassis. He adds that there is one notable difference: A tight rules package gives the teams little freedom to set the suspension to a driver's liking.

"You can't tune each corner of the car," he said. "The older cars that we used to race, we could physically tune all four corners of the car."

Aggressive camber, or wheel lean, is one way crew chiefs are trying to give their drivers more grip with a car that tends to be very loose. But some of those crew chiefs are paying a price. Tire blistering has been a problem since preseason testing, and with the higher temperatures forecasted for today, the tires will be subjected to even greater stresses.

Matt Kenseth figures tire issues will be a factor in the race.

"We had tire problems when we tested here, so we knew we were going to have them when we came back; they didn't change anything to fix it," he said. "So other than the racetrack rubbering up a little bit from Friday's Craftsman Truck Series race and Saturday's Nationwide Series race, there's really no change.

"But not everybody is having tire problems, so we've got to keep working on our cars to get the car not to have them."

Drivers have less grip with the new car, but because the carburetor restrictor plates being used have larger holes, they have more throttle response. That means a quicker closing rate and, potentially, more passing. But it also means a quicker closing rate.

Casey Mears suggested that two crashes in Bud Shootout practice last week were caused by drivers underestimating the closing rate.

"Blocking is probably the biggest issue that causes crashes on super speedways, and I think with the closing rate that we have with these cars, guys' timing is off," he said. "They're looking in the mirror and going, 'OK, I've got time to get over and block that hole,' and they're not doing it in time."

Lee White, Toyota Racing Development's general manager, said the new car is a major step forward on many levels and will put on a better Daytona 500.

"Is it harder to drive? Yeah," he said. "Dang right, it's harder to drive. But you know what? For what these guys get paid, that's OK in my book. It should be harder to drive. You're not supposed to be able to take a walk in the park to be able to drive one of these cars and make millions of dollar a year."

NOTE: With most of the favorites taking no chances with their cars, Reed Sorenson and Carl Edwards posted the fastest speeds in Saturday's final practice sessions.

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