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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.

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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.

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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?

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