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Not all cars are created equal

NASCAR Know-How CLICK THE IMAGE TO LAUNCH CLIP Different types of cars Start (559K .mov) Archives • Click here for past editions of Rusty Wallace's NASCAR Know-How

Remember my old favorite car Midnight? People always asked me, 'Why didn't you take that car everywhere if it was such a great car?'

Well, while a race car that goes to Daytona and a race car that goes to Martinsville are basically the same, they're different in some important ways.

A car that you take to Daytona or Talladega, the two superspeedways that we visit, has to be slick. The body is perfect, shaped like a bullet. Here, the basic goal is to get the spoiler as low as possible and out of the air. At these tracks that means drag, and that slows you down.

For most of the tracks we'll take what's called an intermediate car. This car is usually best at the mile and a half and two-mile tracks like Charlotte and Michigan. These cars are designed to create more down force to help you get through the tight corners faster.

The biggest differences come with the short track cars. If the superspeedway cars are the sleek wide receivers of racing, the short track cars are the big bulky linemen. These cars are designed to get maximum downforce. They also have extra brake openings to cool the brakes because we're on them so much at the short tracks.

The short track cars take more abuse than any of the other cars. Heck I'm probably tougher on them than anyone! But when you've got a good short track car, there's nothing better.