Drivers happy with new aero, plate package at Daytona
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Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images
By Kyle Ocker
Sprint Cup Series beat reporter
So far, the changes that NASCAR has made to the car of tomorrow are paying off in the drivers eyes. NASCAR increased the size of the restrictor plate and added a new shark fin down the right side of the car. These changes increased throttle response as well as increase the speed it takes to lift the car off of the ground when it is going backwards in attempts to avoid a repeat of the crash Ryan Newman had last year at Talladega.
Also for Daytona and Talladega this year, NASCAR has placed bump-drafting back into the hands of the drivers, eliminating their somewhat controversial no bump-drafting rule they had for the October Talladega race.
Drivers had their first test with the new rules in a racing situation Saturday night at the Budweiser Shootout. And the general consensus was pleasing for both drivers and NASCAR.
The race last night had side-by-side racing for nearly every lap, a sure win for fans. While the lead changes and number of leaders was down by more than half over last year’s Budweiser Shootout, the racing throughout the entire pack was improved.
Kevin Harvick, who won the Budweiser Shootout on Saturday at Daytona, said that while the shootout compares in no way to the Daytona 500 that the series will race next week, he felt that he could be more aggressive with the car.
“I don’t know how fast we were going but it sure felt like we were going pretty fast, compared to normal,” Harvick said. “The cars, they just felt fast. But they were very forgiving, as well. You could get the cars really sideways, so you could be very aggressive, I could be very aggressive with my racecar. Even when the thing would get dead sideways, you could stay late in the gas. You could steer the thing and drive the car.
“That’s probably not the way you want to drive it every lap, but tonight you were just going 25, 50-lap increments so it didn’t really matter. But the car felt very forgiving to me. It felt like the speed was there. When you fell behind and had to lift off the gas if you got tight or loose, you could make that ground up pretty fast. Still going to be a handling race, though.”
While Kasey Kahne, who finished second in the Bud Shootout, said that while he was “on edge from the time it went green,” he believed that the bump-drafting was about the same when compared to previous years.
“I felt like I was getting hit and I was hitting cars,” Kahne said. “But I thought it was pretty similar, the way the packs get caught up. The thing is, you can get some huge bursts of speed and get some big pushes. More bump-drafting or any of that, I thought it was pretty similar to how it’s been.
“… I like everything that’s been changed. I think it’s more exciting. Definitely in the car tonight I was excited the whole time. There were a lot of times we were on edge. So I think the changes were good.”
