Playing spoiler

NASCAR adjustments have crews scrambling to catch up

Jeff Burton's crew chief is glad NASCAR is helping Fords be more competitive. Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images

By Denise N. Maloof, CNNSI.com

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Winston Cup teams reported to work Friday morning with clearer skies, warmer temperatures -- and news of another spoiler adjustment.

NASCAR's latest pronouncement lowered Ford and Dodge spoilers a quarter-inch, the second such concession in six days for Fords and a first for Dodges. Following Friday's only Cup practice, the ruling evoked the expected emotional stew of hand wringing, thankfulness and ambivalence.

"The problem is that the other makes have been down here testing all through practice," Rusty Wallace said. "They've done everything, got their cars balanced. We keep getting a rules concession and have to keep adjusting for it. It's just hard as hell to keep catching up."

"I'm happy that NASCAR's continuing to take a hard look at things and made another adjustment," said Frankie Stoddard, Jeff Burton's crew chief. "This is the first time that I've been involved in Winston Cup that it's actually gone in the favor of trying to make the Fords more competitive."

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"I still have concerns about whether that's really enough to get us level with all of the other brands out there," said Bob Wildberger, Dodge's senior manager for NASCAR operations. "Some of the folks are pretty strong out there."

Then there was Robbie Loomis, Jeff Gordon's crew chief: "To be honest with you," he said, "I'm not paying one bit of attention to it."

Friday's adjustment means all spoilers will remain 57 inches wide, but Ford's drop to 5 3/4 inches in height and Dodge's fall to 6 1/4 inches. Pontiac spoilers remain at 6 1/4 inches; Chevrolet spoilers remain at 6 1/2 inches. Ricky Rudd, whose ninth-place start in Sunday's 44th Daytona 500 is the highest of any Ford, said Friday's practice with the new measurement yielded no revelations.

"It doesn't really show up until you get in race trim when everybody starts getting single-file," Rudd said. "When you're running two and three wide, they punch such a big hole in the air that you really don't feel like you've got too much drag until you get in there single-file, and we never did get that way today."

"We can't go any farther because the cars are already dancing around, and those other guys are loving it now because their cars are so stuck to the ground," said Wallace, who starts 37th Sunday. "The only thing we can do is get a spoiler added to the Chevrolet and the Pontiac right now to get those guys to come back to us. 'Cause they got our doors blowed off right now."

The proof is in Sunday's lineup. All five of the top starters are Chevrolet, beginning with pole winner Jimmie Johnson and ending with five-place starter Dale Earnhardt Jr. In between are outside pole winner Kevin Harvick, defending Cup champion Jeff Gordon and defending Daytona 500 champion Michael Waltrip. Gordon won Thursday's first 125-mile qualifying race; Waltrip took the second race.

The top Ford overall was Rudd, who placed fourth in the first 125-miler. The top Dodge was Sterling Marlin, who grabbed sixth in the same race. John Andretti's eighth-place finish was the best Dodge could do in the second 125-miler, while Todd Bodine's 11th was Ford's best in the same race.

"We pretty well expected that nothing would change until after the results of the 125s," Wildberger said. "And I think that this morning was not a surprise in terms of timing. We're appreciative that NASCAR is making adjustments to try to level that playing field come Sunday morning."

In some garages, even the weather seems an enemy. Bill Wilburn, Wallace's crew chief, cited Friday's 70-ish temperatures and warm sunshine, saying his car might as well be on skates.

"We're trying to band-aid a problem here in mid-stream," Wilburn said. "This is something that needed to be addressed like when we started hollering back in December, and even January when we were testing, so we could work on our race cars. We're unbalanced at this point. We're gaining speed, but you can't hold that speed for a whole day."

"A quarter-inch in the draft is just not a huge gain," said Stoddard, who invoked recent history, recalling two spoiler cuts in four weeks when the Taurus was introduced in 1998. "Back then, if we'd have never changed the rules and decreased the spoiler size on the Taurus, the Chevrolet probably would've never won a race that year. And they would've been upset. So those same people need to appreciate that."

Although he's grateful for assistance -- whether from NASCAR, the dynamometer, or otherwise -- it's sniping between manufacturers, and their teams, that bugs Stoddard.

"And by the way," he added, "Ford has only won one out of the last eight restrictor-plate races, so do I think a Ford is going to win the Daytona 500 on Sunday?"

"It'll be a damn miracle if we do," Wallace said. "I'll tell you that."

 

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