It’s a home game this week, as both the Nationwide and Cup cars take to the 1.5 mile Lowes Motor Speedway in Concord. But while the season starts winding to a close, ATIW keeps chugging along. If you don’t know what this post is, until further notice, we will be answering any and all reader questions every Wednesday, right here. So if you’ve got one, click on the ”Ask the Insiders” tab at the top of the page and send one to us. On to the questions…
1. From Justin:
Are wheels weighed by NASCAR? Never heard anything about teams lightening wheels so I’m assuming the answer is yes.
I’ve never seen a wheel weighed personally, but the rule book says they must weigh a minimum of 27 pounds uncoated and without valve hardware. – T.C.
2. From Ricky:
What really makes me mad is the fact that Dave Blaney is a great racer, and yet he drives a Start & Park car… I remember the spring race at Talladega where he led quite a few laps….and then he got spun out and parked it! I believe if he would have stayed out there he would have had a good chance at a good finish! I was so angered by the situation! The whole deal of Start and Parks angers me. If you are going to race in NASCAR’s top series, then race! Don’t go out and be whimps and park it. What do you think about this? How did you feel when Blaney put that car up front, then parked it just because of a lousy spin? I really thought that was a bonehead move… I am a big fan of Dave Blaney. Please help cool heads prevail and tell me… WHAT ARE THEY THINKING?!
The answer is they were taking the money and running. That’s the whole purpose of the start and parks. Instead of running the risk that they’ll wreck their equipment by running the whole race, they make a few laps and take the guaranteed money. For their intended purposes and the strength of their equipment it really wasn’t a bonehead move. Whether you agree with it or not, they’re becoming a fact of life. Trust me though, NASCAR is not a fan. – Journo
3. From Dot:
Regarding burning and scraping tires. How do you know when to stop scraping? What happens if you go to far? Regarding loose/missing lugnuts. If one is loose or missing (and missed by the official), wouldn’t the other ones hold the tire on?
Scraping a tire after a race run is done to get any excess rubber and garbage off the tread so an accurate tread depth reading can be made. The tire specialist only scrapes that excess off. I’m not even sure you could go too far and scrape any of the tread off. And yes, if there are only four lugs tight they will probably hold the tire on for a while. But would you really want to take the chance that they don’t hold? I know I wouldn’t. – T.C.
4. From Jason:
What is the typical amount that a business pays to sponsor a truck in the Camping World Truck series? I’ve read things like $20 – 30 million for Cup and $15 – 8 million for Nationwide. But I have never heard any number for the truck series. Thank you!
For a full season with a decent team you’re looking at $2 million to $5 million. As far as your Cup Series number goes, many are below that $20 million mark. – Journo
5. From David:
Why do the tires have red stripe on the side wall?
Tires have colored tape on the sidewalls for the tire carriers. They use that mark to line up the stud holes when they are indexing a tire during a pit stop. See more about this here. – T.C.
6. From PrincessStewart14:
It has been reported tonight, by Marty Smith, Jim Utter and Jeff Gluck to name a few, that Tom Logano had his hard card pulled for ‘gesturing at Greg Biffle postrace’ [via Marty Smith on Twitter] What are some other things NASCAR would take your hard card? Just what they would deem bad behaviour or harmful?
NASCAR could probably take a hard card for whatever reason they wanted. Hard cards are technically owned by NASCAR, and they can use the taking of one as punishment. I’m sure John Darby, Joe Balash, and/or Wayne Auton could probably answer this one better then I can. – T.C.
7. From Michael:
Whatever happened to Fatback Mcswain?
You know that’s a good question and one I don’t have an answer for. Does anyone know anything about Fatback’s whereabouts?
8. From Jeff in SoCal:
Ok so I have to say it! The Nationwide series race was way more entertaining than the Sprint cup race at Auto Club this week. What gives? Also what would you guys do to tighten up the field in a very cool(love how huge it is), yet boring race track?
I think because we saw more cautions during the NNS race, the field was bunched up more. When that happens, there is bound to be more side by side racing and more action. Double file restarts have helped too. And I have no idea how to fix the racing at Auto Club Speedway. Maybe tear it down and start over again? – T.C.
9. From Stephen:
I listened to AJ Allmendinger’s post race interview with ESPN at California and to me it sounded like he was trying to throw someone under the bus for his lack of preformance, but he never really came out and said who. I got the feeling that he was trying to say that Kahne gets the better engine’s. Do ya’ll have any insight on what Allmendinger was trying to get at?
I’m not exactly sure what you’re referring to, but it’s very possible he was referring to the engine situation at RPM. With the trouble’s they’ve had of late, plus the move to Ford, it’s not doing him, or any other member of the team, any favors in the performance department. And certainly Kahne is going to get the best engines, he’s the only member of the team with a shot at the Championship. – Journo
10. From Ric:
I’ve seen drivers / crew / TV personalities put on and take off the steering wheel. It looks like they just throw it on, no trying to align anything. There must be something to slide the steering wheel into the correct spot.
The steering column has splines on it, and the wheel itself fits onto those splines and has a quick release. Teams will help their driver line up the wheel prior to the race. Sometimes you will see drivers pull to the inside during pace laps, and what you are seeing is them setting their wheel. A tape mark at 12 o’clock tells a driver if the wheel is straight. - T.C.
11. From Neon:
Just as the drivers in Cup have their personal motorcoach delivered to each race, which of the crew chiefs have their motorcoach on the premises? Owners or other crew members?
Most owners have motorcoachs, some crew chiefs do and some team executives do to. Ultimately the guys most likely to have them are the ones who make the most money. You have to figure you’re probably spending $500,000+ on a coach, $30,000+ a year on a coach driver, and then thousands of dollars more on fuel, and upkeep. With the small number of spaces available it’s a pretty restrictive thing for those who are not drivers. – Journo
12. From Larry:
What does the announcement, by Con-way Freight, that they are moving to the Nationwide Series, with Colin Braun, do to the rumored sponsorship of Johnny Benson, in the Truck Series?
This means that Johnny won’t be sponsored by Conway. Beyond that I unfortunately can’t really offer any more insight into the situation. Does this mean Johnny won’t be back to the truck series next year? Absolutely not. Beyond the initial rumors of him going to Kyle Busch’s team next year though I really haven’t heard anything else. – Journo
And that brings yet another “Ask The Insiders Wednesday” to a close. Thanks to everyone who sent in questions. And remember, if you’d like to be a part of next week, click on the ”Ask the Insiders” tab at the top of the page and send your question in!
It’s the last day of September, and fall is in the air. The Cup and Nationwide teams take the fight to Kansas Speedway this week, but before they do, it’s question and answer time. If you don’t know what this post is, until further notice, we will be answering any and all reader questions every Wednesday, right here. So if you’ve got one, click on the ”Ask the Insiders” tab at the top of the page and send one to us. On to the questions…
1. From Steve:
Re: RPM – Yates merger and the loss of Petty engine jobs. Isn’t it likely that Yates is going to need to hire at least some more people – perhaps from the RPM engine shop – to handle the increased workload?
It’s possible. At the end of the day they’re only adding two teams though. That may or may not mean more positions at Roush-Yates. I would say even if there are new jobs it’s far from guaranteed someone from RPM would be hired for them, and even if they are I’m sure they would take a pay cut of some kind (which means they may not even be interested). – Journo
2. From Walt:
At the first of the year alot of the teams were having problems with the lug bolts because they were longer. How have the teams adjusted to this issue?
The tire changers have just gotten used to the new stud length. It forces guys to slow down a bit, and it was just going to take some time for it to happen. You’ve got to remember, some of these changers have been doing it this same way for five or ten years. Changing the rhythm overnight was just not going to happen. Plus, I believe NASCAR has relaxed the rule just a bit. - T.C.
3. From Larry:
Is their anything brewing, in the garage area, pertaining to Johnny Benson landing a ride and sponsorship, for 2010?
Yeah, as we reported a while ago the buzz is JB is heading to Kyle Busch’s potential new team next season. Ray Dunlap reported a couple weeks ago that he’s hearing Conway is a potential sponsor for the team. – Journo
4. From Dan:
Any idea how much a guy like Dave Blaney gets for qualifying and starting a “start and park” car? How are they looked upon from the rest of the teams? Is there an understanding they will stay out of the way as long as they’re on the track after the green flag waves?
A guy like Blaney probably gets a flat fee plus a percentage of the winnings, usually in the 20-40% range depending on the driver. I can’t speak for everyone, but as long as a S&P doesn’t interfere with my team, I really don’t care. I know NASCAR isn’t fond of them, and neither are teams that want to race but can’t out-qualify them. Most of the S&P’ers do a decent job of staying out of the way. But not always. – T.C.
5. From Martha:
Can you please tell when the 2009 Nascar Chase cup winner banquet will be held and shown on TV? Date, time, and channel. We missed it last year and we want to get it on the calendar for this year. Thanks.
Unfortunately NASCAR hasn’t released a lot of information pertaining to the banquet. We know it’ll be on December 4th a the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas, but other than that nothing. When it gets closer and we hear more about it, I’ll be sure to update you. – Journo
6. From Jeanette:
I noticed some time ago that Red Bull Racing has been very clever with the numbers on the car. Brian Vickers in the 83: Inside of the 3 is a sideways “V”! On the 99 Nationwide car of Scott Speed, the numbers look like “SS”. Any idea who was behind this hint of creativity? Team? Driver? Sponsors?
You know I’ve honestly never noticed that before. I don’t know if there is anything to that or if it’s just the script they use (it’s the same on all the cars) and it’s just a coincidence. Usually the designs for the cars come from the teams and are approved by the sponsors. In this case they’re one in the same. Sorry I can’t give you a more conclusive answer. – Journo
7. From Denny:
I have noticed most of the pit boxes have around three monitor screens on them. One looks to be the ABC TV-feed and where does the feed come from on the other couple of screens? One looks like the running order on the track, maybe?
Teams will usually have the live TV feed, timing and scoring, their various engineering programs, and views from the pit stop cameras available to view on the monitors on the pit box. – T.C.
8. From Lee:
I thought Hendrick always prides itself on their open book policy. So why then is Johnson bragging about some small adjustment they made, when it seems the other Hendrick teams don’t know what that adjustment was. It’s from this articlehttp://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/nascar/cup/columns/story?columnist=newton_david&idE09691and the phrase below: Those are pretty strong words from a driver considered to be one of the hardest workers in the garage. But Martin is right. While most were watching college football, gambling at the Dover Downs casino or sleeping Saturday night, Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus were looking for an edge. Finally, as Johnson said, they “just hit something in my stomach.” It was a small adjustment, one that made Johnson better in the corners. It turned into a huge advantage, one Johnson knew he had two laps into the race. Not even a new rear tire changer slowed the team.
Those are pretty strong words from a driver considered to be one of the hardest workers in the garage. But Martin is right. While most were watching college football, gambling at the Dover Downs casino or sleeping Saturday night, Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus were looking for an edge.
Finally, as Johnson said, they “just hit something in my stomach.”
It was a small adjustment, one that made Johnson better in the corners. It turned into a huge advantage, one Johnson knew he had two laps into the race. Not even a new rear tire changer slowed the team.
A couple of things. Even if they did share whatever this minor adjustment was, there is no guarantee it would have done anything for the other teams. They’re all likely working with different setups, which means adjustments affect the cars in different ways. Remember too, all of these teams are running for a championship at this point, so you might not necessarily want to give away all your secrets. – Journo
9. From Phil:
Thanks for the opportunity to ask questions and get replies. You guys are great!!!This weekend, the rain washed off the rubber at Dover before the race and had to be built back up. Can you explain how rubber on the track affects the cars. Does it increase or decrease grip? Increase or decrease tire wear? Does it make the car tight or loose? Does it make passing easier or harder? Sometimes it seems if it?s hot, the announcers say it makes the track greasy and slippery. Other times, if the track has no rubber, it seems like the announcers and drivers look forward to getting rubber build up. I?m totally confused!!!!!Incidentally, as a side story, my only experience with rubber on the track is walking on the track at Bristol before a race. I told my wife to climb to the top of the banking in turn 4 while I stood at the bottom to take her picture. She got up there but was afraid to walk back down for fear of falling so I had to walk up and hold her to walk back down. The rubber on the track was like walking in glue and I almost walked out of my shoe. We looked like total idots in front of 100,000 people!!!!
As a weekend rolls along, a track will get “rubbered in.” The more laps that are run, the more rubber gets laid down. How exactly the cars are affected by the rubber really depends on the track, the surface, the weather, and what tire compound the teams are using. For maximum grip, there needs to be some level of rubber laid down. Without it, you end up with situations like last year at the Brickyard. A green race track will usually wear tires faster. For a more detailed (and scientific) explanation of track surfaces and grip, check out this post. - T.C.
10. From windowlicker:
When the cars or trucks come in for a fuel only pit stop, they are told not to slide into the pits so as not to flat spot the tires. But when they’re leaving the pit it seems they’re always spinning the tires & sometimes smoking them. Does this affect the grip in the rear tires at all, especially if the tires are past due to have been changed?
I’m sure that some rubber is lost, but compared to what the tire goes through during a normal lap, I would imagine the amount isn’t significant. If it was, you’d see crew chiefs instructing drivers to not spin their tires leaving the stall. – T.C.