Notebook: NASCAR opens grilles on Cup cars

Notebook: NASCAR opens grilles on Cup cars


(February 19, 2011)

Anticipating warmer temperatures for Sunday’s Daytona 500—and perhaps fearing the new Ford FR9 engines might have a cooling system advantage over the power plants of other manufacturers—NASCAR relaxed its restrictions on grille openings across the board.
NASCAR is allowing teams to widen the inlet openings from 50 to 60 square inches.
“NASCAR is letting NSCS teams open up their air inlet openings some for Daytona 500—going from 2.5 x 20-inch to 3 x 20-inch openings,” NASCAR spokesperson Kerry Tharp said Saturday. “With continued warm weather forecast for tomorrow, this move gives the teams more air to cool their engines.”
The concession on grille openings is a tacit acknowledgement that two-car drafts are here to stay, at least for Sunday’s Daytona 500.
‘My fault’ Busch says of last-lap wreck
Kyle Busch and Joey Logano were drafting partners and contenders for the win throughout Saturday’s Drive4COPD 300 Nationwide Series race at Daytona International Speedway—until the second corner of the final lap.
Busch was pushing his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, but off-center contact sent Logano spinning. Busch took the blame for the accident.
“It was just unfortunate with Joey there,” Busch said after watching the replay of the incident. “We had two great racecars all day. We worked together the whole time. All we wanted to do was bring it home in one piece, and unfortunately we didn’t make it—just circumstances. I saw the 4 (eventual winner Tony Stewart) coming up in my mirror really, really quick, so I tried to block the middle and come down just a little bit.
“Obviously, that off-centered me from Joey’s rear bumper and turned him sideways—completely my fault. Unintentional, but just trying to make it to where the 4 didn’t have room to shoot up through the middle of us there and make us all three-wide (and) all pushing each other. I hate it for those guys and Joey. … Just unfortunate at the end there.”
Busch finished seventh and Logano 12th.
Waltrip figured all bases were covered in truck race
One way or another, Michael Waltrip figured Dale Earnhardt Sr. would get his due in Friday night’s Camping World Truck Series race at Daytona.
The race took place 10 years to the day after Earnhardt died in a last-lap crash in the 2001 Daytona 500, and Waltrip came to the track with his No. 15 truck painted black in honor of the Intimidator.
Austin Dillon, grandson of Richard Childress—the car owner with whom Earnhardt won six of his seven championships, was driving the No. 3 Chevrolet, the same number Earnhardt used with Childress. Earnhardt’s grandson, Jeffrey Earnhardt, was making his seventh start in the series.
Waltrip thought he had another base covered with Elliott Sadler, believing Sadler and Earnhardt shared the same birthday. But Earnhardt was born on April 29 and Sadler on April 30.
Dillon was swallowed up in a late crash, but Jeffrey Earnhardt avoided trouble and posted his first top 10 in any of NASCAR’s top three national series, coming home seventh.
“With that last restart, they said Jeffrey was sixth or seventh,” Waltrip said. “I was thinking, ‘If I don’t win, I hope he does. That was the first time I’d heard he was up there. That was my first reaction.
“Then I thought, you know, Elliott Sadler shares the same birthday as Dale Earnhardt,” Waltrip continued, perpetuating the myth. “I knew that if Elliot or I, either one won, Dale would be honored, because Elliott would dedicate the win to Dale, too.
“Between Elliott, me and then Jeffrey having such a good run, I was feeling pretty comfortable with how things were winding down.”
Reid Spencer

Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service