Buzzwords

Plot lines resurface after holiday break

Spoilers have caused controversy early in the 2002 season. Getty Images

By Denise N. Maloof, CNNSI.com

ATLANTA -- As the Winston Cup circuit regroups from its holiday break and motors toward Texas, expect all the pre-Easter plot lines to resurface.

A quick synopsis, for stragglers: The first six races gave Sterling Marlin time to disprove or legitimize his jackrabbit status; he did the latter. Big-splash rookies Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Newman proved no fluke; they're in 4th-place and 7th-place, respectively, in the points race. Big teams like Robert Yates Racing and Richard Childress Racing fought both mechanical and mental gremlins, and big guns like Jeff Gordon, Dale Jarrett and Bobby Labonte had only bad luck, or none at all.

Other subplots center around sponsor-less Haas-Carter Motorsports ceasing operations, and the yet-to-be-foreseen fallout from all of Bristol's bruised feelings.

But in an everyday sense, expect none to saw more nerves than the aerodynamic debates, whether it's the latest Ford spoiler adjustment, or cleaner Chevrolet noses.

These days, it's advanced far beyond, "loose," or, "tight." "Aero," is the most au courant of garage buzzwords, and if you ask anybody in the Cup corral for an opinion, you won't be disappointed.

Bored, maybe? Well...

It's the physics and the formulas and the ratios that matter right now; no matter that drivers still perform without telemetry and other open-wheel gadgets. Cup racing has progressed to such a science that the slightest fingernail-thickness of something resounds in half-seconds and miles-per-hour -- enough to ruin a team's race day, its chance of making a field, or a decent qualifying lap.

And squawking season may soon expand beyond restrictor-plate events. At Darlington, nearly a month ago, NASCAR president Mike Helton admitted different sets of aero rules for high-banked and low-banked tracks weren't farfetched reasoning. But for now, every tweak sets off seismic reaction. Predictably, Ford folks aren't happy with the recent 1/4-inch increase in their spoilers for Talladega. The week following the Atlanta race, Chevrolet camps howled at perceived disadvantages in wind-tunnel numbers leaked through the media.

"Arguing about aerodynamics and engines and those types of other issues in the garage area is something we do," Helton said during his Darlington press session, adding he'd rather be fielding aero gripes than dealing with the more somber issues of 2001.

The Thursday before the Bristol race, NASCAR officials announced some Chevrolet relief: an extra one 1/4 inches for the front end. Beginning in Texas, Chevys will be given the same reference line on the inspection-room floor as the Fords and Dodges -- 100 1/4 inches. Pontiac remains at 99 inches.

"It adds downforce to the front," said Robbie Loomis, Jeff Gordon's crew chief, of the change. "It helps plant the front end, which will make it turn better in traffic -- I hope."

To understand aero, you must grasp its cousin, downforce, which is defined by the 2002 Winston Cup media guide as, "A combination of aerodynamic and centrifugal forces. The more downforce, the more grip your car has. But more downforce also means more drag, which can rob a race car of speed."

Remember how Ford drivers wailed at Daytona? How some wailed even louder after repeated spoiler adjustments made their cars wild? At some point, something called aero push bedevils nearly everybody, and Rusty Wallace gives it a voice:

"When you go out there, you're running real good and all of sudden you pull in behind a car, and this real good grip you had in the front end, all of a sudden it goes away," Wallace says. "And the front end starts sliding on you and you can't seem to pass a car. And that's what's called aero push. You got a real sticky front end by yourself and you get behind a car and that's gone."

Imagine Wallace racing with a baby elephant strapped to his deck lid, and you have the sensation of too much downforce. Add a more intense and exacting inspection process mandated by new Winston Cup series director John Darby, and a thorny issue is magnified. Most teams have mastered Darby's preferences after six races, but less wiggle room also means more checklists.

"They're trying to clean the cars up, trying take downforce off of them," said Mike Beam, Ricky Craven's crew chief. "That's what they're trying to do. They're doing a pretty good job at it."

"We'll reach a point where we may not be able to add any more," Darby said of future allowances. "And directionally, if I look way down into the crystal ball, I think our goals down the road are set at a reduction at the importance of aerodynamics anyways."

But it's no wonder most drivers prefer the throwback tracks, or as Elliott Sadler blurted at Bristol, "I think here, all this aerodynamic downforce, and quarter-panel heights, and spoiler-angle heights -- is all out the window. I've seen Dale Earnhardt run very well with no front fenders on, so I think it gets the driving back to the driver."

 

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