Ford and Jack Roush made waves this weekend after word seeped out of the camp that the teams were directed to draft exclusively with their manufacturing counterparts. With two Roush Fords in serious contention for the championship it wasn’t a surprising edict – especially not from Jack Roush.
At the end of the race we saw what appeared to be the edict in action as Trevor Bayne gave up drafting with Jeff Gordon to draft with Matt Kenseth. The move was bad news for Gordon who ended up finishing way back in 27th. Bayne and Kenseth finished 15th and 18th.
The help kept Kenseth in contention, moving him to second in the points just 14 back from teammate Carl Edwards. And after everything, not doing damage is the most important thing at a place like Talladega.
The track serves as THE wild card race in the Chase where literally anything can happen. That uncertainty leads teams to do everything they can to control the things they can. This is why you see teams like Roush and manufacturers like Ford letting their drivers know where loyalties need to lie.
In this instance there seems to be some surprise that Bayne switched dancing partners choosing a teammate over a potentially better pairing. But it makes sense when considering what was at stake: a championship, a precarious future and a whole lot of money. Would you not have done the same?
Success in this sport involves reliance on those who are around you. That goes for the Ford teams, the Chevrolet teams, the Dodge teams and the Toyota teams. While the Roush and Ford team orders are the only ones that made the press this weekend there were no doubt similar understandings at organizations throughout the sport. Consider the other teams on track. Who was working with whom?
The Fords were with the Fords, the Chevrolets with the Chevrolets and on and on.
At superspeedways you draft with who brung ya – it’s true for EVERY manufacturer and EVERY team. While it’s unfortunate for those left out, it’s a cold hard fact.
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A lesson from this weekend? It’s easy to be a Monday morning quarterback. A demonstration of that is the couple of people telling TC he’s full of it for writing that all those deals for Daytona would fall apart (thank you for pointing out the obvious). Turns out they didn’t. In a couple of instances (like AJ Allmendinger and Marcos Ambrose), two guys stuck together through thick and thin at the detriment of one or both teams.
Through 170 laps we had guys working different strategies with a singular hope – that they would be in a position to be lucky at the end. It was, in a word, chaos. At the heart of everything was the tandem drafting that dominated from the drop of the green flag and has become the new norm at superspeedways. When all was said and done, there were 57 lead changes among 25 drivers. Compare that to just 23 lead changes before tandem drafting at the same event in 2009.
In the after math of Saturday, some have taken to their respective perches to decry this new style of racing as boring and not racing at all. It’s fast paced, high energy and always edge of your seat. But it’s made the races almost inconsequential as teams jockey just to be decently positioned when the race comes to an end. To some extent it’s more about luck now than it is about quality of equipment or even skill. See example of this type of racing below.
Then there is the old pack style of drafting where you had 20 or 30 cars literally within inches of each other doing 200+ mph. There was no getting away from the packs and when you had the big one, you had the big one. Still, drivers weren’t dependent on just one other car to make things go. And everybody worked with everybody. It often though led to follow the leader style races through the middle portions and made for racing that was less than exciting. See example below.
I think either way you slice it, there were people for and against both styles of racing. Which is the best way? I’m not sure I’ve got an answer, but I’ll bet you do. Which style do you prefer? Sound off on Daytona.
Deal making at the restrictor plate tracks is not a new phenomenon. The drivers are constantly working through spotters and crew chiefs to find that always important “dancing partner.” In this new era of the tandem draft however, finding the right guy to work with most likely will mean the difference between a chance at winning and running in the back. As important as these deals are however, believing that the drivers have already found their partner is ludicrous. Any deals made before the race aren’t worth the paper they weren’t written on.
Why am I calling BS on these deals? Because once the green flag drops, all that talk goes out the window. Especially from the beginning of the race, the drivers’ drafting partners will be limited by who they qualify near. If driver X qualifies on the pole, and his pre-planned drafting partner starts 35th, there’s no way that deal happens. That’s not to say that those two may not hook up later in the race, but it certainly won’t happen at the start. You can be sure that once the field is across the line, guys will start pairing up almost immediately, deal or no deal.
Now, where deal making will really matter is after qualifying. If teammates or other possible partners qualify near each other, than those initial deals can be worked out. And obviously guys will try and work together as much as possible through the race, but pit stops and cautions will play a role in who is able to actual stay working together.
Since we are talking about pit stops I also want to point out that drafting partners, while certainly vital at speed, will also be very important for pit stops. Since there are no big packs anymore, drivers can’t just pit with everyone else and expect to stay with the field. If they don’t make a deal and pit with their partner, they risk losing the draft and going laps down.
As the weekend progresses, you will no doubt hear plenty about all the deals made and broken. And you can be sure the drivers will be burning up those radios and their new found ability to talk to multiple drivers, both inside and outside their own teams.
Love it or hate it, restrictor plate racing has created some ridiculously close finishes over the years. This last weekend at Talladega was just another example. Why? Because choking off the engines levels the playing field. Squeezing a restrictor plate in between the carburetor and intake has certainly slowed the cars down, but in the process it has also spawned a level of parity that we don’t see at any other race track. Underdogs and back markers are suddenly not so. And guys like Trevor Bayne and Dave Blaney become stories.
To this point in 2011, we’ve run two of the four plate races for the season. And through those two races, only three drivers have finished in the top ten in both: Carl Edwards, Mark Martin… and David Gilliland. Wha?! Yep, that’s not a typo. David frickin’ Gilliland. Driving the under supported, we can’t afford sticker tires, #34 Ford for Front Row Motorsports, Gilliland is suddenly a contender at plate tracks. In both events he qualified in the 39th position, but was able to stay out of trouble and draft his way to the front. And the restrictor plate on his engine made it possible.
One of the more interesting story lines from Sunday’s Aaron’s 499 was that of Dave Blaney. Blaney drives the #36 for Tommy Baldwin Racing, where usually he has to pull off the track early in races with perfectly good race cars. With very few sponsors, TBR and Blaney are forced to start and park so they can afford to race full events here and there. At ‘Dega, they brought Golden Corral on board and had one of their best days to date. While the possibility of a good finish was ruined by a spin off the nose of Kurt Busch’s car late in the race, Blaney ran up front and was even able to lead 21 laps. There are no moral victories, but what happened to Blaney and TBR would be the closest thing to one. Hopefully it helps them secure more funding for future races.
The opportunities that plate racing provides are not just limited to the Cup Series. Joe Nemechek was able to work with another underdog, Mike Wallace, and fight his way back from being a lap down to finish third in the NNS race at Talladega. Wallace was also on his way to having a season making day, but was the main victim of the last lap crash that resulted in his car taking a tumble down the backstretch.
When we head to Daytona in July, you can be sure that you’ll hear the usual from the media about tandem drafts, deal making, and spotters. But by the end of the weekend, there is a good chance that the story of an underdog driver will be part of the headlines. And it will all be because of a thin piece of aluminum.
Heading to Talladega this weekend, we are getting ready to bear witness to a couple of newer phenomenon in NASCAR competition. The first of course is the new style restrictor-plate racing that dominated the day at Daytona in February. The tandem drafting will most likely be the name of the game again on both Saturday and Sunday at ‘Dega. And the second I’m referring to is the ability that drivers now have to talk to each other during the race. Racing Radios and Racing Electronics can now program systems in which the drivers can jump from their own radio frequency to that of another driver and actually communicate during the race. We saw it happen at Daytona because it allowed the drivers to better navigate the tandem drafting, but I’m not sure if it’s something that should be happening.
Some teams have had setups in the past where teammates could switch over their radios and talk to each other, but it didn’t happen often, and when it did it was usually under caution or at superspeedways. Now though, some drivers will have as many as 15-20 different drivers they will be able to talk directly with during the race.
I understand why some find it necessary, as with the tandem drafting and the “switch” that must take place periodically it can make things easier. But I question if discussing strategy and talking with competing drivers is really in tune with the spirit of competition. It can also create problems for spotters, crew chiefs, and crews.
Just as an example, when driver A jumps over to driver B’s channel, he can no longer hear radio traffic from his own channel. Any information that needs to be conveyed to the driver from the crew and crew chief must now be relayed through the spotters. It adds a level of complication to making adjustment and pit strategy calls that probably isn’t necessary. I’m wondering how long it will be before a driver needs to pit, or is calling out adjustments he needs to his crew, but isn’t on the right radio channel. Chaos will most certainly ensue.
For the spotters, when drivers are hooked together, we’ve seen that usually the lead car’s spotter will end up spotting both cars. This effectively eliminates the immediate need for half the spotters stand. The half that aren’t working however, must still continue spotting their race car, as their driver could return to his own radio channel at any moment. It’s a very odd situation to listen to.
Besides the communication issues, I also wonder if spending time and focus switching radio channels while at speed is the right thing for drivers to be doing. Racing at Daytona and Talladega is hard enough without having to worry about what radio channel you are on. This gives me a driving while talking/texting vision.
You won’t often read a blog post by us that doesn’t have a clear cut opinion, but I have to say that I’m really on the fence with this one. I certainly understand the reasons why the drivers are doing it, but I also have clear reservations.
Thoughts?
As we get ready to head to Talladega this weekend, pit crew coaches across the sport will spend the week preaching to their crews about the importance of not making mistakes. Even if it means pit stops take a few extra seconds than normal, it’s more important to get things right, than it is to have quick stops. Why? Because pit stops in the new era of superspeedway racing really don’t matter.
In a world where races often have multiple leaders per lap, the importance of track position has been lowered. Cars can go from the back to the front, or front to the back, very quickly. Having blazing fast pit stops and picking up spots on pit road is really not worth the risk of possibly having dropped lugnuts, loose wheels, and other mistakes. Obviously crew chiefs don’t want slow stops, but there is less of a focus on being quick, and more of a focus on being mistake free.
Besides the nature of the racing, another reason why pit stops mean less has to do with the tires. Now that both Daytona and Talladega have new surfaces, tire wear over the course of a race has become a non-issue. Some even said that it may have been possible to run the entire Daytona 500 on one set of tires! In any case, crew chiefs want to spend the least amount of time on pit road possible, and if they don’t need to take tires, they won’t. At Daytona in February, this led to a lot of fuel only and two tire pit stops.
Something else to keep in mind when watching pit stops this weekend, is that some teams will set the cars up to maximize speed on track, and in turn sacrifice speed on pit road. What I am referring to specifically is the shock package that some teams use. We’ve seen in the past that the front tire changers and carriers will struggle with the right front. When the car is jacked up, the shock won’t bleed down and it causes the right front tire to stay up in the fender. It makes it very difficult for the changers to get the old tire off, and for the carriers to get the new tire in. Not every team has this problem, but it can significantly slow down pit stops for the teams that do.
Like I’ve said here before, races can’t necessarily be won on pit road, but they can certainly be lost there. This weekend, crews will be doing everything possible to ensure the race is decided on the track and not on pit road.
The opening weekend of the 2011 NASCAR season is in the books. We saw spectacular finishes, a lot of action, and even some controversy. So from Friday’s wild Truck Series race, all the way through Sunday’s incredible finale, was Daytona what you’d hoped for?
After Thursday’s Duel races, I can’t lie, I was afraid we might be in for a very boring 500. The tandem drafting created a completely new style of superspeedway racing, and there really was no telling what kind of finish we’d see. But if Saturday’s Nationwide Series race was any indication, we were going to be in for a treat on Sunday.
The Truck Series races at superspeedways are always full of drama and action, and the Friday night premiere did not disappoint. We saw our first close finish of the weekend with Michael Waltrip just sneaking by Elliott Sadler for the win, and we also had our first controversy. It was discovered after the race that the spoiler on Waltrip’s truck had laid down, due to a part malfunction. NASCAR is taking the pieces back to the R&D center, and if any penalties are levied, expect them to be announced Tuesday.
Saturday’s NNS race kept the streak of close finishes going, with T0ny Stewart beating Clint Bowyer back to the line by only a few thousandths of a second. And while Cup drivers dominated the show, it’s nice to see that the current top five in NNS points is Landon Cassill, Reed Sorenson, Jason Leffler, Ricky Stenhouse, and Trevor Bayne.
As for the Daytona 500, it was a shame that we had so many wrecked race cars, but the finish was unbelievable. It was fantastic watching the #21, with a retro paint scheme, go to victory lane with young Trevor Bayne at the wheel. The Wood Brothers have so much history in the sport, and it was fun to watch that team celebrate a Daytona 500 win and add another chapter to their story.
Who’s ready for Phoenix?!
Filed under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Sprint Cup, Hendrick Motorsports, NASCAR
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