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Draft card Passing at Daytona depends on air and patience
Posted: Monday February 14, 2000 02:25 PM
By Ryan Smithson, CNNSI.com A driver has to have friends at Daytona. At its best, Daytona International Speedway is one of the most challenging tracks on the circuit. At its worst, it's a 2.5-mile nightmare wrapped in 31-degree banks and restrictor-plate engines. Tony Stewart found this out last year. Although it seems incredible now, Stewart came to Daytona with absolutely no Winston Cup experience. He became the toast of Speedweeks by putting his Joe Gibbs-owned Pontiac on the front row, right behind defending series champion Jeff Gordon. As a rookie, Stewart had "yellow stripes" -- that is, an implied warning for other drivers to steer clear. Yellow stripes can be a serious problem at a track that literally forces everyone to work together. During a pre-race drivers' meeting before the 1999 Daytona 500, seven-year veteran Jeremy Mayfield put his hand on Stewart's shoulder. "I'll be there if you need me," Mayfield said. Mayfield was offering to draft with Stewart when the situation arose during the race. Drafting looks like a pretty simple science on television. You hook your car to the back of another car. You stay there. You wait until the last lap. You pass him. Not that simple. Here are three serious issues drivers have to deal with when drafting with other cars: 1. Forget "Days of Thunder," where the cars bump each other hand enough to cause damage to the front. Obviously, that kind of abuse ruins the aerodynamic advantage that crew chiefs spent all winter to perfect. When drafting properly, some drivers do bump cars -- but only slightly. This is called "bump drafting." This is when one car draws onto the first car's bumper and touches it slightly - this keeps the pace steady between the two cars. But bump drafting can actually be counterproductive. Since the cars rely heavily on airflow streaming into the car's radiator, bump drafting can actually make engines overheat. 2. When a car gets out of line of cars on a straightaway, the driver must be sure that another car will follow him out of line -- hence the "drafting partner." If a car gets out of line and no one follows, the car will be hung out to dry with a minimum loss of several positions. It is not uncommon for a car to lose 10 positions on one straightaway. 3. Since the cars are so close together, avoiding an accident is difficult at best. Naturally, this is a two-sided problem: since the cars are running nose-to-tail on high banks, conditions are optimal for sudden accidents. For this reason, the winner at Daytona is sometimes not the fastest or the most skilled - but rather, the luckiest. Or most friendly.
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