Round 8: Firestone 600, Texas Motor Speedway, 6th - 7th June 2014

[Purist]

I'll have a look back at the 2012 and 2013 races to see if those give me any ideas.

The cars could possibly do with another pick-up in downforce. I think, as much as anything else, they could do with an increase in power/torque, especially when it comes to getting through lapped traffic. I can understand having some tire drop-off, but it's too much if you can't reliably pass anybody on roughly even tires after 5-10 laps of a 50-lap stint.

Of course, now, the series doesn't dare glue them to the track like the old Dallara, and potentially have a repeat of you know what.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Purist

I'll have a look back at the 2012 and 2013 races to see if those give me any ideas.

The cars could possibly do with another pick-up in downforce. I think, as much as anything else, they could do with an increase in power/torque, especially when it comes to getting through lapped traffic. I can understand having some tire drop-off, but it's too much if you can't reliably pass anybody on roughly even tires after 5-10 laps of a 50-lap stint.

Of course, now, the series doesn't dare glue them to the track like the old Dallara, and potentially have a repeat of you know what.

The DW12 is a ground effect car and much of the downforce is produced by the undertray, unlike its predecessor which was flat bottomed, therefore they could run more downforce.

[Purist]

Some of the aero changes made for the superspeedways include changes to the undertray to reduce the downforce.

The added aero option teams were given for Texas (not part of the undertray) gave them 300lb of downforce, at a cost of 50lb of drag.

I think they ought to look at allowing some of the existing body panels and pieces that can add several hundred pounds of downforce, cumulatively, while also reducing drag by a couple hundred pounds, when used together.

So, they can add a substantial amount of downforce overall, even without adding back to the undertray, or adding the barn-door-like pieces to the wings. They can even do it, in some cases, in such a way that they actually reduce the wake turbulence of the current package.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Purist

Some of the aero changes made for the superspeedways include changes to the undertray to reduce the downforce.

The added aero option teams were given for Texas (not part of the undertray) gave them 300lb of downforce, at a cost of 50lb of drag.

I think they ought to look at allowing some of the existing body panels and pieces that can add several hundred pounds of downforce, cumulatively, while also reducing drag by a couple hundred pounds, when used together.

So, they can add a substantial amount of downforce overall, even without adding back to the undertray, or adding the barn-door-like pieces to the wings. They can even do it, in some cases, in such a way that they actually reduce the wake turbulence of the current package.

Part of the thinking behind the increase in downforce, was derived from driver input Firetone received during testing in April this year. They concluded an increase would reduce the high levels of tyre degradation that dulled last year's race.

[Burp]

Not seen the race yet, trying to catch up with Detroit first, but in all the interviews ive seen/heard it sounded like the drivers really enjoyed the race and thought the cars were challenging to drive.

[Cookie85]

I thought it was a decent race, I'm sure Power was really disappointed because apart from that stupid mistake I thought he drove well but it cost him again

[gomick]

I don't think the drive thru cost Power the win, Carpenter had the lead (and drove well all race) when Power sped in pit lane - it definitely cost him a shot at the win on the final restart though.
Glad Ed won & its great that that small team has 2 wins this year - 2 more than Ganassi