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Front and center Debate over body type advantage begins with the nosePosted: Monday March 10, 2003 5:15 PM
Last week we discussed whether the fact that NASCAR has adopted a "common template" meant that cars were, in fact, the same. I hypothesized that the answer was "sort of, but not really." Plenty of evidence was introduced in favor of the position that the cars are still radically different. Dodge guru Ray Evernham is building a Chevy to see what the differences between the two makes are, an endeavor he certainly wouldn't waste time undertaking if they were the same. And there was some good ol' fashioned complaining about the topic, too. "I've been screaming all winter that the Chevys have the advantage," said Tommy Baldwin, Dodge driver Jimmy Spencer's crew chief. "They just have a better front-end nose, and it's better aerodynamically than we are right now." Ah, the nose. As we touched upon last week, cars still have different front ends, and those can play a mighty big role in a car's handling. Last year NASCAR tinkered so extensively that Sterling Marlin quipped that the Chevrolets had more nose jobs than Michael Jackson. (Have you heard this story about how Jackson doesn't even have a nose any more? It's just like two nostrils in his face that he puts a prosthetic device over.) Predictably, Chevy drivers are having none of this talk. "Michael Jackson has a real nose," said Robby Gordon. (Just kidding.) "I think the people that are grumbling are always grumbling," Dale Earnhardt Jr. said, for real. "I think that is just in their personality. I think the cars are close to the same. Look at the teams that run up front -- they're all just good teams. That's what it comes down to." And his teammate Michael Waltrip noted, after last Sunday's race in Vegas, "The cars are alike and there is not a story there. The cars are even, and we can just drive the heck out of them. I think it's a great story that y'all can finally write that it's not a story. If somebody is dumb enough to say, 'Man, our cars aren't even,' then I wouldn't want to be that person." Well, on Sunday we saw another Chevy romp, which means we're going to hear all about their advantage for at least another week. I, for one, don't mind all the griping. It begets smack-talk, and we like that. But Junior's theory is pretty flawed. Some of those guys driving Fords slowly are on some pretty good race teams. So don't be surprised to see NASCAR take some measures, such as hauling cars off to the wind tunnel or pretending to listen as grown men scream at them about noses.
Matt Kenseth. Your Winston Cup points leader was hounded by the occasional horrible finish last year. Sunday he, by all rights, should have blown up. (His teammates did.) But he finished, took the points lead and perhaps showed that he has kicked the DNF habit. Johnny Benson. The dude is sixth in points -- without a top 10.
Kurt Busch. No longer Kobe-like. Last Saturday they had K-U-R engraved on the Winston Cup trophy. Now he's in 14th.
The Dodge boys. Only two in the top 20 in points, and one of them is 20th.
"We've always had a problem under the hood. We try and try and try. We gain horsepower, we're just not competing under the hood with the other teams."
Dave Marcis is readying a car for a handful of races, and the car will perhaps feature Tim Sauter behind the wheel. "We do have a few sponsors that are interested in doing 10 or 12 races," Marcis told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. "I feel like we'd have a race car for any racetrack we'd run," he continued, failing to point out that said car would be a good bet to finish 36th. Britney Spears is looking at Josh Hartnett or Marky Mark to star (and maybe drop trou) in her upcoming NASCAR movie. An honest observation: Hartnett can't act. Pearl Harbor was the worst movie I've ever seen. Normally a movie that bad can be enjoyed for mocking purposes, but not when it is three hours long. To borrow from Jeffrey Ross, that movie was so bad I fired my agent. It was so bad I walked out halfway through -- and I saw it on a plane. You get the idea. Wahlberg, on the other hand, was great in Three Kings and Boogie Nights. And if you want a little-seen gem, check out a flick called Traveller, with Wahlberg, Bill Paxton/Pullman (same thing) and Julianna Margulies. It's about a pack of Irish grifters.
Courtesy of John in Hanover, Pa.: "Last year several teams changed engines and were penalized to the back of the field, only to see them come back through the field and have a top-10 or top-five finish. What is your opinion of this rule? Should there be some additional type of penalty, such as a stop-and-go on lap 100?" Well, John, you're right that it's not exactly a deterrent, at least on certain tracks. (Drivers will be far less inclined to risk blowing an engine or making a change at New Hampshire or someplace like it, where passing is virtually impossible and you have to start up front to contend.) But if you're someplace such as Texas, it's not a huge concern. Witness Matt Kenseth's win last year after an engine change. So, what to do? I think a stop-and-go is far too severe, but I think something should be done to give the rule some teeth. I'm open to suggestions. What do you guys think?
Darlington is another of my favorite tracks. It's quaint and cozy and a bit peculiar, with its egg shape and its requirement that you scrape the wall coming out of Turn 2. And it has a cool nickname -- "The Lady in Black." What do you need at Darlington? Well, being a Burton helps. Jeff and Ward are always strong there. In fact, it seems as if only a handful of guys have the place figured out. Only six different drivers have won the past 16 races (and only five different surnames have gone into the record books). Coming from the back to the front is not an option at Darlington, so you also need to qualify well. Historically, more than two-thirds of the winners at the track have started the race in the top five. With that in mind, I'm picking Ryan Newman. The guy can qualify a car anywhere, and he was strong in both races on The Black Lady last year. Speaking of my picks, I had Bobby Labonte last week, which continues my feast-or-famine trend. (My picks have gone 36-4-43-1.) He led the most laps, too, so we can add 185 points to my total, giving me 444 for the season. That's good for 14th place, wedged comfortably between Newman and Kurt Busch, which doesn't sound like a fun place to be wedged. Mark Bechtel covers NASCAR for Sports Illustrated and SI.com. Click here to send him a question.
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