EVENTS
 Sportsman of the Year
 Heisman Trophy
 Swimsuit 2001

CENTERS
 Fantasy Central
 Inside Game
 Video Plus
 Statitudes
 Your Turn
 Message Boards
 Email Newsletters
 Golf Guide
 Cities
 

CNNSI.com GROUP
 Sports Illustrated
 Life of Reilly
 SI Women
 SI for Kids
 Press Room
 TBS/TNT Sports
 CNN Languages

COMMERCE
 SI Customer Service
 SI Media Kits
 Get into College
 Sports Memorabilia
 TeamStore

It's all in the feel

Handling a focus of race teams at Daytona

Click here for more on this story

Bill Elliott, Sunday's pole sitter, is a two-time winner of the Daytona 500. AP

By John Donovan, CNNSI.com

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Speed is always a topic here at Daytona International Speedway. Often, it's the main topic. Aerodynamics -- drafting, getting pushed or getting "dirty air" -- also is in there.

But somewhere between those things, mixed up in speed and aerodynamics and the conditions of the track and the weather, is simply how the car feels and how it reacts to all those things, and how it performs when pushed to the edge.

That's what drivers are working on this week in practice before Sunday's Daytona 500. Whether at speed qualifying, practice or Thursday's 125 qualifying races, drivers just want to know what to expect from their car, both in feel and performance, when the green flag drops Sunday.

"Handling is always a factor at Daytona," Bill Elliott, who won the pole in his No. 9 Dodge, said earlier in Speedweeks. "If it gets down to a long run, the guys who are able to run through the corners flat out ... will be out front. If you can't run through the corners flat out, you're not going to win the Daytona 500."

Elliott, of course, holds the record for qualifying at Daytona with a 210 mph lap. And he won the pole last Saturday, in this era of restrictor plates and aero packages, at 183.565 mph.

The plates have slowed things down, the aero packages mixed them up. And Daytona International Speedway, no wide-open Talladega-like track, throws another factor into the equation.

But it all comes down to the basics of how a car feels to a driver and how it performs when the driver shifts, hits the gas, turns the wheel or pushes it to its limits in the corners.

"It's always been a track where you've got to handle," said Elliott, a two-time winner at the Daytona 500. "You've got to have your car working to run flat-out all day. That's usually what separates the teams as the race goes on."

Fine tuning Winston Cup teams hold their final practice Wednesday before the 125s on Thursday. Some teams already know exactly what the setup of their cars will be like Thursday. Some are still making those last-second changes. It's that second group that most needs Wednesday's practice. TV coverage The FOX-NASCAR nuptials are barely over and there's already signs of strife. It's probably normal -- FOX wants to make good on its $1.5 billion investment -- but one thing is now clear. The pressure is on, big time, for this to work. The honeymoon, as they say, is over. Trucks and stuff The allure of Speedweeks, for many race fans, also includes the non-Winston Cup events. The Craftsman Truck Series. The Busch Series. The IROC race. Those things. Daytona is a big stop for those circuits, too, and NASCAR wants everyone to know that they need some love, too.

Casey Atwood He's everybody's young, rising star, but like every rookie, he's had to adjust to big-time Daytona racing. But he's getting there. In a long practice Tuesday, he ran his Dodge to a lap of 186.648 mph, the fastest of any rookie. Now if he can just figure out all this drafting stuff ...

Weather Can't do anything about it, but fog stinks Ray Evernham Gordon's former crew chief flying high with Dodge Motorhomes Like 'em, or get run over by 'em here No. 3 fans Not all, but as a group, among the rowdiest Street traffic On race days, think Super Bowl x 2 This is, for some race fans, the Holy Land of stock-car racing. And for many of the teams racing here, too. Whether it's good or bad that this is the seasoning-opening event probably doesn't matter. It is what it is. So if you're into NASCAR, get ready.

 

Related information
Stories
Valentine's Day in the garage
Multimedia
Visit Multimedia Central for the latest audio and video
Search our site	Watch CNN/SI 24 hours a day
	Sports Illustrated and CNN have combined to form a 24 hour sports news and information channel. To receive CNN/SI at your home call your cable operator or DirecTV.