Looking over what we learned at Daytona testing
The thing that I always stress, and I mentioned it in my , is that while I think the results from this test are going to be more real than what we've seen in the past because people need to know what they have and what they have to work on going into the first full season with the Car of Tomorrow, there are teams that hold a little bit back during the test sessions.
Richard Childress Racing is notorious for not showing their full hand when they tested. When I was with the team, our goal was to learn what we needed to learn and do the things we needed to do, but we always held something in our hand. We never went down there with the best engines, we always were a little conservative — of course, that was with the spoiler and now they have the wings — but we did things knowing that we were going to be faster when we went back to Daytona Beach, Fla., for Speedweeks.
Another thing that stood out for me during the three-day test was that the Dodges are struggling a little bit. The manufacturer's teams struggled at Talladega and they look like they are hurting on speed here at Daytona. I know that one of the things that went on in the fall is that the Dodge engine combination did not really like the gear rule, RPM band and restrictor plate size at Talladega Superspeedway and it looks like it still doesn't like it at Daytona.
That observation is based on their single car speeds and not the speeds the Dodge camp put up during drafting practice. You have to be careful in not putting too much stock into the speeds during drafting practice. The best thing people can do with those drafting speeds, and I've had to do this as a crew chief and as a broadcaster, is to rip them up and throw them in the trashcan because they are not the real world. All it takes for a slow car is to get into a good fast line catching another line and they will run a fast speed. The practice sheets from drafting can be feel good pieces but they can also be very deceiving. Instead, what you really have to look at during testing is those single-car practice runs from Monday through the morning session on Tuesday.
For the Dodges, the great equalizer is the draft, but it doesn't look like they will be very fast on pole qualifying day for the Daytona 500.
While we are talking about manufacturers, I have to share my realization that the Toyotas are looking really good. It definitely looks like they continue to work and get better from their rookie year in the Cup Series in 2007. But the thing to remember about the Toyotas, with the exception of the three Joe Gibbs Racing teams, J.J. Yeley's No. 96 Hall of Fame Racing machine, and Dave Blaney's No. 22 Caterpillar Camry, is that the other half of the contingent has to qualify on time or they have to race their way in through the Gatorade Duels if they want to be part of the starting lineup for The Great American Race.
When I look at the Toyotas, drivers like A.J. Allmendinger and Jacques Villeneuve — go or go home drivers — displayed strength during single car runs, so they look to be on the correct path.
As far the Chevrolets, they are still fast and they are going to continue that way when we get back down to Florida.
But what about Ford?
I get a sneaky feeling that Ford won't have the stranglehold on qualifying, like they have had in the past, with all of the recent changes to the overall package: Car of Tomorrow, restrictor plate size, gear rule, RPM band ...
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The thing about it is that it's so hard to predict Daytona qualifying right now because all of the restrictor plate races last year, with the exception of the Daytona 500, were impound races. With those rules in place, the top 35 teams went into those races working on their setup for the race while all the "go or go homers" are trying to see how fast they can run in order to qualify for the race.
I love impound races. I think they are good because it saves the owners a lot of money from a standpoint of things you don't spend money on for qualifying. But to me, the combination of the impound procedure, the top 35 owner points rule, and restrictor plates don't mix like they should. During the only restrictor plate race using the Car of Tomorrow to date, the UAW Ford 500 at Talladega in October, we had A.J. Allmendinger, Boris Said and Scott Riggs qualify ninth, 10th and 11th quickest respectively, yet they missed the show — something's not right about that.
The Ford camp probably won't be super fast by themselves, but I bet you they are going to race fast.
About the pit road rule changes
In case you haven't checked it out, Jeff Hammond wrote in his blog about two tweaks to rules concerning pit road that NASCAR is instituting for this season. These new rules can be challenging to teams, but both of them were done in the direction of safety.
| Speed Mail Larry McReynolds |
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Looking at the rule that doesn't allow teams to hand push their cars more than three pit boxes away from their assigned pit box, the flip side is that if your car stalls or you run out of gas and can't get it cranked, you don't have much room to push that thing. But safety obviously comes into play. We saw a few times last year under caution where guys would be pushing a race car that had stalled while race cars were going in and out of the pits. We know that these cars maintain a pit road speed, but can you imagine getting hit by a car running 45 mph (or quicker in some places)? It sounds slow when you put it in context of a race, but getting hit by something move upwards of 45 mph ... you are not going to know what hit you.
The tire situation, let's go back to Dover International Speedway in September where one of Michael Waltrip's crewmen, gasman Art Harris, got hit by a tire that was bouncing around on pit road and got hit by a car. Chances are that if that tire stays in the hands of a crew members hands until it's across the halfway mark of the pits, it will reduce the chances of an incident like the one at Dover.
It will be a learning curve that teams are going to have to work on. If I was a crew chief right now, I'd be glad that NASCAR was putting these rules into place from a safety standpoint while some of the crew members probably wish they had more than a few more months to practice under the new rules. But the bottom line is that everybody is in the same boat and that's the rule.
Final thoughts on the first session
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Ever since we left Talladega in October and got one restrictor plate race with the COT under our belt, a lot of thought, work, research, wind tunnel time, shaker rig time, pull down machine time, etc. — I'm sure the hours have been countless from the time the 2007 season ended until this test began for all the teams and operations in the Sprint Cup Series.
For the teams that took part in this week's test, they were just happy to get down to Daytona and find out what they had. They have to find out what they have before they can move forward.
Having said that, I'm sure that a lot of engineers, crew chiefs and team members in general are relieved to have this first test under their belt. For the multi-car teams, whether it is a two- or four-car team, they have an added advantage because they have information that they can pass on to their teammates who are part of the next session, even though the time is limited between now and the second round of testing starting Monday.
An example to look at is Team Red Bull with Allmendinger, who was down at Daytona this week, and Brian Vickers, who is part of the next session. Allmendinger was actually pretty fast, but I saw one of his guys on Tuesday and he told me that the ironic thing that happened this week was that the car that should have been the absolute fastest of the two they took to this week's test was actually the slowest. The problem they encountered was that the exhaust pipes on the car was bottoming out so bad that it was killing the speed of the car. So what they had to do was work on the exhaust pipes for Brian Vickers' No. 83 Camry to rectify the problem so that both teams can benefit from the information gained next week once the problem was fixed.
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Now, if Both Red Bull teams had been at the same test, or they only had one team car, they may have been able to work on the problem and fix it, but they wouldn't have known if they got it all right until they got back down to Daytona for Speedweeks.
Back in the day before all of these testing limitations, things were very different. As an example I'll use our 1992 No. 28 team with Davey Allison. The last Daytona test, we were not very good. We went home, we cut the car up and the engine guys went back to work. The weekend before we checked in to go to Daytona for Speedweeks, we were at Talladega testing for two days. Yeah, we were limited to how much we could go to Daytona, but there were times we would go to Talladega three, four and five times during the winter because you could.
Now, teams all know that when five o'clock strikes next Wednesday, that's it for testing at Daytona before Speedweeks. You are not going to quit working on the engine dyno, the windtunnel or the pull down and shaker rigs, but you are done with your superspeedway track test time until you get back to the track for the race.
You got what you got.
FOX race analyst Larry McReynolds has more than 25 years of NASCAR experience as a mechanic, crew chief and broadcaster. He and his fellow Crew Chief Club members take you behind the wall at www.crewchiefclub.com.
"How to Become a Winning Crew Chief" is on bookstore shelves, or you may order your own autographed copy from www.DWStore.com.
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