NASCAR reacts to tandem racing with more rule changes

NASCAR reacts to tandem racing with more rule changes

By Reid Spencer

NASCAR Wire Service

Jan. 12, 2012

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.— If NASCAR's objective was to eliminate tandem drafting at restrictor-plate racetracks, it remains a work in progress, based on Thursday's first Preseason Thunder test session at Daytona International Speedway.

Accordingly, in a meeting with crew chiefs at approximately 5:30 p.m. Thursday, NASCAR announced additional modifications to a restrictor-plate competition package that already had undergone major changes in the offseason.

Even though Kyle Busch topped the speed chart in Thursday afternoon's Preseason Thunder test session at Daytona International Speedway at 202.402 mph—in a tandem draft with Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Joey Logano—NASCAR will make the cars faster, less stable and more prone to overheating on Friday.

The sanctioning body increased the diameter of restrictor-plate openings 1/32nd of an inch to 15/16ths inches, adding an estimated 26 horsepower to the engines.

In addition, NASCAR has lowered the pressure relief valve settings from 30 pounds per square inch to 25 psi and narrowed the grille openings of the cars, thereby decreasing airflow to the engine. Both measures are designed to decrease the number of laps one car can push another without overheating.

NASCAR officials acknowledge that most fans don't like the two-car hookups. Chairman and CEO Brian France is on record favoring the breakup of the tandems, and during the offseason NASCAR instituted rule changes designed to promote that result.

But no sooner than the drivers began to climb into their cars after a break for lunch on Thursday, the so-called love-bug racing was back.

Earlier that morning, the sanctioning body confirmed the imposition of another obstacle to drivers bent on maintaining the sustained two-car pushes. Henceforth, car-to-car radio communication is embargoed, and drivers won't be allowed to talk directly to each other during competition—not even to teammates.

That prescription followed the litany of changes to the competition package that were in force for Thursday's practice: smaller spoilers, smaller capacities for the radiator and overflow tanks, softer rear springs and repositioning of the radiator inlet opening closer to the center of the nose of the car.

Nevertheless, after a morning session restricted to single-car runs, several sets of teammates paired up in two-car drafts during the afternoon session—and went appreciably faster. In fact, Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch and Joey Logano topped 202 mph.

Even before the last set of changes was communicated to the teams, NASCAR officials said they were pleased with the progress of the three-day test. Increased speeds in single-car runs (which will only be enhanced by the larger plate size on Friday) bodes well for Daytona 500 qualifying, with the prospect of a of pole speed in excess of 195 mph. Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the pole for last year's race at 186.089 mph.

For another, cars won't be able to run as many laps hooked together without separating and changing positions.

"I think that small doses of the two-car push are OK," NASCAR vice president of competition Robin Pemberton told reporters during the afternoon test session. "It's a tool. It's like anything we do. When the competitors learn something, they'll use it when they can to their advantage, and they're supposed to do that.

"…Right now, we're at a happy place. We've made some good strides, and some of the things that are coming back to us we're pretty pleased about."

Nonetheless, NASCAR went ahead with the rule changes later that afternoon.

Sprint Cup series director John Darby said the ban on driver-to-driver radio chatter was a response to feedback from the drivers themselves.

"We've had a number of drivers kind of weigh into us anonymously that the last few plate races--with the ability to carry as many as 20, 30 channels on their radios--that there was a point where it got so confusing to them that they actually lost focus on what they were doing and felt much better if we could back that off somewhat and get it to a standard or more common communications between driver and spotter and driver and pit crew as we've known it in the past," Darby said.

"Matt Kenseth said it the best to me in the garage. He said anything that NASCAR can do to help us get back to one against 42 others, he supports.

"In the restrictor-plate era, 200 mph has always been a speed that gets NASCAR's attention, but Pemberton said that, though tweaks to the competition package are possible, the sanctioning body was comfortable with the session-best 202.402 mph Busch posted in the afternoon.

"The 202-mile-an-hour lap--we knew that was a pretty good lap," Pemberton said. "It's something similar that you see at any of these places where you have two cars that are not just pushing but catching other cars. 

"We saw that, too, and we watched it as it happened, and right now we're not concerned with anything."