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Here's Why Drivers Wreck At Daytona

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By TONY FABRIZIO | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 9, 2009

DAYTONA BEACH - "Let's make a pole run," I said to the driver.

"We'll see what we can do," three-time defending Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson said.

We weren't going to win the pole in the 426-horsepower 2010 Chevy Camaro pace car - Daytona 500 qualifying didn't start for another two hours Sunday, anyway - but 160 mph was fast enough to get an idea how narrow Daytona International Speedway is for racing.

And bumpy.

Those of you who have done the Richard Petty Driving Experience at Daytona know what I mean.

And these guys are bumping and banging each other three- and four-wide at 190 mph in cars that have little suspension travel and not a whole lot of downforce.

No wonder there are so many wrecks at Daytona with the next-generation race car.

"One thing I want people to see is how rough this place is," Johnson said, his injured left hand casually guiding the wheel. "This is why the cars are moving around as much as they are."

They were moving around a lot in Saturday night's Budweiser Shootout. Enough to cause seven multi-car wrecks in a scheduled 75-lap race, including one that necessitated a green-white-checkered finish and another during the green-white checkered.

The past two Daytona 500s have had a slew of wrecks in the last 40 laps that have set up wild finishes. Sunday's 51st 500 might look like a summer repeat.

Drivers can't keep the new car going in a straight line. With stiff suspensions (bump stops) on a rugged track, they're "just bouncing all over the place, and nobody can hold their own lane," Kyle Busch said.

Add to that, the car also is an armored tank. Dinks and dents don't hurt its aerodynamics, so drivers are ultra-aggressive.

Despite the fact there's so little room for error at Daytona.

"It's amazing the difference between Daytona and Talladega," Busch said, comparing the two big sister tracks. "Talladega is like an eight-lane interstate, where this is like a two-lane road carving through the woods, and you don't know what's coming around the next bend."

Zephyrhills' David Reutimann agrees.

"This racetrack has got character and it's very much its own deal," he said. "At the bottom, there are some rough spots. You see the cars move up and down a little, but you don't realize how much those things really move around until you actually experience what's going on."

Johnson pulled the Camaro off the banking between Turns 3 and 4 and veered toward the entrance of pit road. He was on the brakes hard.

"It's always fun getting slowed down to 55 mph the pit road speed limit, wheels locked up and everything," Johnson said. "With our cars you've got to get on the brakes as soon as you hit the flat part; if you don't, you won't get stopped.

"In the Grand Am car I raced here in the Rolex 24, you could wait until you're 100 yards out to hit the brakes. The brakes are that much better, and the vehicle is that much lighter. The braking zone is 80 percent less than what you have with our cars."

It looks so much easier from the grandstands and TV.

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