Quote:
Originally posted by Joe Fan
All it would have taken is another death of a driver to make it look like a terrible decision. Watkins Glen is an extremely fast road course with lots of fast downhill sections. NASCAR Winston Cup cars do not have the downforce compared to a F1 or Champ car so this would make the cars even more difficult to drive in slick conditions due to lack of grip. Also NASCAR teams and drivers have very limited experience racing in wet conditions. The only one that I know of is the exhibition race at Suzuka, Japan a couple of years ago when they qualifed for the race in the rain.
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As one who has raced in the rain quite a few times, let me say, you may have a few more fender benders, but the severity of the wrecks is WAY WAY down. We are talking speeds that are reduced by more than 50%. You would have to try to kill yourself in this situation.
Also, I would much rather be driving a car without downforce in the rain. Downforce is great, except as soon as you get out of shape (which happens a LOT in the rain), downforce is instantly lost, creating a huge gap in the mechanical grip of the tires and the amount of grip needed to save the car from spinning. Also, speeds are so low in the turns that downforce hardly comes into play. The only real help that downforce would play in the rain is at the beginning of a braking zone.
As far as NASCAR's inexperience, well, you gotta start sometime! NASCAR is so far behind and snickered at by racer's around the world, because for the most part, they are a bunch of pansies. I couldn't believe some of the quotes I heard about the driver's disgust for NASCAR actually considering the possibility of running in the rain. I've grown up here in the South and love the competitive nature of NASCAR, but as far as being compared to race series around the world, NASCAR has a long way to go. For instance, if they would use very simply electronic throttle technology, found in almost every passenger car on the road, these past stuck throttle wrecks that caused deaths might have never happend...