Of dams, spoilers, suspension, and other rules...What do you think?

[Jeff OTMG]

Hi everyone, I am new here and hope it is okay to spend a little time in your forum.

I have been a NASCAR fan for many years, my cousin was Darrell Waltrips pilot back around 1980 even, but I had been trying to catch what races they did broadcast since the early 1970's. The cars use to be factory based and the teams had a lot of leeway to make the car fast and competitive. I understand that many changes like the chassis and rollcages have been done for safety reasons and I fully support those. The chassis changes were probably also done because car manufacturers had gone to front wheel drive.

These recent changes to the Chevy air dam puzzle me. Why doesn't NASCAR allow any air dam and spoiler heights that the teams want to use. If a team wants more downforce at the risk of more drag and slower straightaway speed then so be it. On the other hand if a team wants more speed with less downforce let them run that way. Same things with the suspension set ups, let the teams decide what is best for them. NASCAR is turning the sport into IROC! If I wanted to watch a bunch of identical cars parade around the track I would watch IROC. I want to see racing with 455ci engines at 200+ miles per hour like it use to be. I feel that many of the rules are taking the soule out of the sport.

What do you think?

[Redneck]

Welcome Jeff OTMG!

I think the plan is to make the field stay tight. If they allow everyone to go in different direction with regards to spoiler height, suspension, and other areas it will spread out the feild. I agree with some of the frustration with the restrictive rules, especially with the new suspension rules. It does make the teams go to some pretty creative extremes to gain an advantage.

NASCAR has obviously created a business formula that is succeeding. The fans really like the tight groups of racing. For those that like the technical side of racing, it gets a little frustrating. I think that with Dodge's entry into the series, they will raise the bar significantly over the next few years. With the Daimler/Chrysler money and engineering group behind them, we are going to see a new era develop. Along with it, NASCAR will probably continue to increase retrictions.

It does leave the door wide open for some innovative entreprenuer to develop a "stock car" like series that is less restrictive. Here in the USA there is a motorcycle roadracing series that is wide-open. It is a "run-what-ya-brung" series where there are no rules regarding the motorcyle. If you can shoehorn a Chevy V-8 into a F2 frame...have at it. As long as it passes the safety inspection. Needless to say, some pretty wild bikes have shown up. They did change the rules a couple of years ago with regards to fuel. Methanol presented some hazards to the safety crews during crashes, thus they required that the fuels being used be visible when burning.

It definitely made for some interesting and very fast bikes.

Maybe we need a stock car series along those lines.

[John B]

Welcome Jeff. There have been some rumors about NASCAR going to a universal template for all makes which I hope doesn't happen.

Dale Jarrett had an interesting quote this week about how the media views NASCAR as boring if Gordon and Earnhardt are not winning. Personally I thought the 'boring' talk was tiresome. I don't really count Daytona because restrictor racing is in its own world to begin with, and the yates engine in DJ's car was probably more decisive than the car itself. Remember when Sterling Marlin dominated restrictor tracks in the mid-1990s? Rockingham is not known for producing photo finish racing every year anyway (yes I do remember Bonnett/Gant in 1985), Las Vegas was a good race with Dale Jr, Burton, Martin and Stewart showing well and 3 cars racing for the lead after a very long green flag run, and we all know what happened at Atlanta.

[Jeff OTMG]

I like it with the cars spread out. You actually had drivers buddying up to help each other with the draft when the cars were different. I hate them all bunched up. The races look more like a parade than a race and it is especially true on the restrictor plate tracks. I would like to see them drop those too! I want to see cars races, not have it all depend on the driver or pit strategy. As I said, if I wanted to watch IROC I would!

[Jared]

I'm not an engineer, and I would think that the "brains" at NASCAR would have done this already, but why not take the cars to the wind tunnel and play around with air dam and spoiler heights until the critical "aero numbers" are either really close or match? This just seems like the most sensible answer.

Next year might be he11 with Dodge joining the aero wars. Four manufacturers and lots of whining.