I know it has been a while, but I needed to take a deep breath after the Chicago weekend. Faithful followers of this column will know that Chicago of last year was my final as a race engineer for RGM. In honor of that anniversary I went and ran a different kind of race. And instead of it ending in tears or emm-effs like just about every race I did with the 7, this race ended at a brewery. Of course I am taking about the Boilermaker 15K road race in Utica New York. It is actually one of the biggest 15K races in the country, and more than 10,000 people ran it. It was a beautiful morning to run, and the community came out in force to support the runners. I ran through little neighborhoods where Irish bands, high school rock bands, belly dancers, and old ladies handing out popsicles lined the streets. Nine point 3 miles and an hour and forty minutes later, I crossed the finish line, watched my partner Kerry reveal her bloody toes from her left sock, and saddled up to the Saranac beer truck for a 10am happy hour.
The start of the Brickyard is just hours away, and you cannot help but get wrapped up in the pageantry of any event held at Indy. The place is so huge and steeped in the shadows of the people that have competed there in the past hundred years, that you can practially breathe the tradition. When you finally get to run a race there, you feel as though you have arrived. I only did one race there in 2007, but it was certainly memorable. We wrecked our primary car before qualifying (dubiously), and had to go to a backup. It was hot as hell that day, and my inner thighs were begging for some Gold Bond by the end. We qualified really bad and ran like a turd in the race, but you could not beat the atmosphere of the event. Take the feeling you get when you play your rival in a high school sporting event, multiply it by 200,000, and that will get you pretty close to what it feels like to walk down Gasoline Alley on the way to the pit box before the race.
So what have teams been working on to dial in their cars for Indy? Just about every team has tested there this year as a result of Goodyear holding about 5 tire tests. So all of the teams (even the really small teams like Tommy Baldwin) have data off their cars. The engineers and crew chiefs have been pouring over the data, and the 7 Post operators have all made really good track maps to test their cars with. The track is really smooth now, so the shock settings can be optimized to keep the car low and out of the air instead of having to control bumps. Since all the teams have had so much time to test and 7 post, you will see the fast cars with the splitter on the ground all the way around the track this afternoon. The two key areas of the track are the exit of 2 and the exit of 4, since they lead onto the longest straights. The team that can get their car to maximize their exit speed of those two corners will be formidable.
Predictions. Juan has not had a top 5 yet this season, but I think that will change today. The Ford's are still struggling, so I don't anticipate them being a factor. I think the top 3 will be some combination of the 14, 9, and the 42. I think the 7 will do better than their qualifying effort, and there could be a spot in the 15-20 range if they don't beat themselves on pit road.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
Pass Heard 'Round the World
This week, I laid a pass on Kyle Busch…and it wasn’t in NASCAR ’09. It was not in the Arby’s drive through near the Gibbs shop, and it was not in the aisles of Target either. Now that I think about it, I didn’t really lay a pass on him, so much as he wrecked, and I drove around the wreck. Then I wrecked and he drove back by me one corner later. Actually, it seems as though Kyle has caught the RC racing bug, and he was in my race at one of the local RC tracks in the Charlotte area. Even the 34th bast NASCAR drivers have insanely packed schedules, so it was pretty flattering to see one of the best drivers on the circuit to come out and race toy trucks with the rest of us dorks. And the coolest part was that he was 2s off the pace of the fastest guys. Just don’t mention that I was 3s off the pace.
I have been racing RC cars since I was a teenager, and it’s one of the influences that led me to a career in motorsports. My dad was intelligent enough to realize that we did not have the bucks to blow on a go-kart and a toter home to race “proper” cars. So, shortly after he quit smoking two packs of Winston’s a week, he decided that he wanted to be my crew chief. He placed a call to Sheldon’s Hobbies in California with my mom’s Sears credit card, and a week later, our RC10CE (gold chassis) came in the mail. It took us as while to get it together, but by the time the snow melted in Massachusetts, we were at the local RC dirt track in Hoag’s Corners, NY (wherever that is). Racing at any level is very difficult, and it took a few months to get the car tuned and for me to be comfortable driving. Eventually we won a few races and lost a bunch more. I guess the point of the exercise was that you can sit in front of the tube watching David Ragan zing around Texas Motor Speedway, but I guarantee you will feel way better about yourself if you go out and achieve your own glory, rather than relish in victories that you had no part in.
Enough preaching. On to the races. Chicago is not one of the crown jewels of the season, but I feel like it just might be in the next couple of years. Chicago was the last race that I did before I got 2 weeks of severance and 3 months to dominate Mario Kart Wii. We ran both a Nationwide and a Cup car for Robby, and with the tracks proximity to the big commercial center of Chicago, there were a bunch of Mapei and Beam big wigs in town for the race. There was a ton of pressure put on us by the boss to have an awesome race and impress the sponsors. So what did I do? I helped the Nationwide crew chief run that thing out of gas in the first stint, which was totally my fault, but we were running like ass anyway. I don’t remember the Cup race specifically, but we probably tripped on our dick. Then I came in to work on Monday really hung over, and I was packing my bags by the end of the week.
Chicago is tricky because of the banking. It looks like Charlotte if you look at it from the space station, but it is banked far less. What this means is that keeping momentum in the corner, and keeping your mid corner speed as high as possible is key. You are not going to dominate here with an awesome motor. A low center of gravity, and optimized tire camber will take you a lot further up the grid.
Predictions. Qualifying is over, and the Red Bulls seem to have something figured out. But for all their poles, they seem to fade into oblivion when the rag drops. Roush is a bit out to lunch at the moment, and I do not think they will rebound here. I will go for the 24 to get another win if they can figure out how to out fox the 48. I will pick the 17 for a top 5, as he seems to be wiley here. The 7 has never been good at Chicago, and I don’t know why this week would be different. About 28th to 35th is about as good as it will get.
I have been racing RC cars since I was a teenager, and it’s one of the influences that led me to a career in motorsports. My dad was intelligent enough to realize that we did not have the bucks to blow on a go-kart and a toter home to race “proper” cars. So, shortly after he quit smoking two packs of Winston’s a week, he decided that he wanted to be my crew chief. He placed a call to Sheldon’s Hobbies in California with my mom’s Sears credit card, and a week later, our RC10CE (gold chassis) came in the mail. It took us as while to get it together, but by the time the snow melted in Massachusetts, we were at the local RC dirt track in Hoag’s Corners, NY (wherever that is). Racing at any level is very difficult, and it took a few months to get the car tuned and for me to be comfortable driving. Eventually we won a few races and lost a bunch more. I guess the point of the exercise was that you can sit in front of the tube watching David Ragan zing around Texas Motor Speedway, but I guarantee you will feel way better about yourself if you go out and achieve your own glory, rather than relish in victories that you had no part in.
Enough preaching. On to the races. Chicago is not one of the crown jewels of the season, but I feel like it just might be in the next couple of years. Chicago was the last race that I did before I got 2 weeks of severance and 3 months to dominate Mario Kart Wii. We ran both a Nationwide and a Cup car for Robby, and with the tracks proximity to the big commercial center of Chicago, there were a bunch of Mapei and Beam big wigs in town for the race. There was a ton of pressure put on us by the boss to have an awesome race and impress the sponsors. So what did I do? I helped the Nationwide crew chief run that thing out of gas in the first stint, which was totally my fault, but we were running like ass anyway. I don’t remember the Cup race specifically, but we probably tripped on our dick. Then I came in to work on Monday really hung over, and I was packing my bags by the end of the week.
Chicago is tricky because of the banking. It looks like Charlotte if you look at it from the space station, but it is banked far less. What this means is that keeping momentum in the corner, and keeping your mid corner speed as high as possible is key. You are not going to dominate here with an awesome motor. A low center of gravity, and optimized tire camber will take you a lot further up the grid.
Predictions. Qualifying is over, and the Red Bulls seem to have something figured out. But for all their poles, they seem to fade into oblivion when the rag drops. Roush is a bit out to lunch at the moment, and I do not think they will rebound here. I will go for the 24 to get another win if they can figure out how to out fox the 48. I will pick the 17 for a top 5, as he seems to be wiley here. The 7 has never been good at Chicago, and I don’t know why this week would be different. About 28th to 35th is about as good as it will get.
Pass Heard
This week, I laid a pass on Kyle Busch…and it wasn’t in NASCAR ’09. It was not in the Arby’s drive through near the Gibbs shop, and it was not in the aisles of Target either. Now that I think about it, I didn’t really lay a pass on him, so much as he wrecked, and I drove around the wreck. Then I wrecked and he drove back by me one corner later. Actually, it seems as though Kyle has caught the RC racing bug, and he was in my race at one of the local RC tracks in the Charlotte area. Even the 34th bast NASCAR drivers have insanely packed schedules, so it was pretty flattering to see one of the best drivers on the circuit to come out and race toy trucks with the rest of us dorks. And the coolest part was that he was 2s off the pace of the fastest guys. Just don’t mention that I was 3s off the pace.
I have been racing RC cars since I was a teenager, and it’s one of the influences that led me to a career in motorsports. My dad was intelligent enough to realize that we did not have the bucks to blow on a go-kart and a toter home to race “proper” cars. So, shortly after he quit smoking two packs of Winston’s a week, he decided that he wanted to be my crew chief. He placed a call to Sheldon’s Hobbies in California with my mom’s Sears credit card, and a week later, our RC10CE (gold chassis) came in the mail. It took us as while to get it together, but by the time the snow melted in Massachusetts, we were at the local RC dirt track in Hoag’s Corners, NY (wherever that is). Racing at any level is very difficult, and it took a few months to get the car tuned and for me to be comfortable driving. Eventually we won a few races and lost a bunch more. I guess the point of the exercise was that you can sit in front of the tube watching David Ragan zing around Texas Motor Speedway, but I guarantee you will feel way better about yourself if you go out and achieve your own glory, rather than relish in victories that you had no part in.
Enough preaching. On to the races. Chicago is not one of the crown jewels of the season, but I feel like it just might be in the next couple of years. Chicago was the last race that I did before I got 2 weeks of severance and 3 months to dominate Mario Kart Wii. We ran both a Nationwide and a Cup car for Robby, and with the tracks proximity to the big commercial center of Chicago, there were a bunch of Mapei and Beam big wigs in town for the race. There was a ton of pressure put on us by the boss to have an awesome race and impress the sponsors. So what did I do? I helped the Nationwide crew chief run that thing out of gas in the first stint, which was totally my fault, but we were running like ass anyway. I don’t remember the Cup race specifically, but we probably tripped on our dick. Then I came in to work on Monday really hung over, and I was packing my bags by the end of the week.
Chicago is tricky because of the banking. It looks like Charlotte if you look at it from the space station, but it is banked far less. What this means is that keeping momentum in the corner, and keeping your mid corner speed as high as possible is key. You are not going to dominate here with an awesome motor. A low center of gravity, and optimized tire camber will take you a lot further up the grid.
Predictions. Qualifying is over, and the Red Bulls seem to have something figured out. But for all their poles, they seem to fade into oblivion when the rag drops. Roush is a bit out to lunch at the moment, and I do not think they will rebound here. I will go for the 24 to get another win if they can figure out how to out fox the 48. I will pick the 17 for a top 5, as he seems to be wiley here. The 7 has never been good at Chicago, and I don’t know why this week would be different. About 28th to 35th is about as good as it will get.
I have been racing RC cars since I was a teenager, and it’s one of the influences that led me to a career in motorsports. My dad was intelligent enough to realize that we did not have the bucks to blow on a go-kart and a toter home to race “proper” cars. So, shortly after he quit smoking two packs of Winston’s a week, he decided that he wanted to be my crew chief. He placed a call to Sheldon’s Hobbies in California with my mom’s Sears credit card, and a week later, our RC10CE (gold chassis) came in the mail. It took us as while to get it together, but by the time the snow melted in Massachusetts, we were at the local RC dirt track in Hoag’s Corners, NY (wherever that is). Racing at any level is very difficult, and it took a few months to get the car tuned and for me to be comfortable driving. Eventually we won a few races and lost a bunch more. I guess the point of the exercise was that you can sit in front of the tube watching David Ragan zing around Texas Motor Speedway, but I guarantee you will feel way better about yourself if you go out and achieve your own glory, rather than relish in victories that you had no part in.
Enough preaching. On to the races. Chicago is not one of the crown jewels of the season, but I feel like it just might be in the next couple of years. Chicago was the last race that I did before I got 2 weeks of severance and 3 months to dominate Mario Kart Wii. We ran both a Nationwide and a Cup car for Robby, and with the tracks proximity to the big commercial center of Chicago, there were a bunch of Mapei and Beam big wigs in town for the race. There was a ton of pressure put on us by the boss to have an awesome race and impress the sponsors. So what did I do? I helped the Nationwide crew chief run that thing out of gas in the first stint, which was totally my fault, but we were running like ass anyway. I don’t remember the Cup race specifically, but we probably tripped on our dick. Then I came in to work on Monday really hung over, and I was packing my bags by the end of the week.
Chicago is tricky because of the banking. It looks like Charlotte if you look at it from the space station, but it is banked far less. What this means is that keeping momentum in the corner, and keeping your mid corner speed as high as possible is key. You are not going to dominate here with an awesome motor. A low center of gravity, and optimized tire camber will take you a lot further up the grid.
Predictions. Qualifying is over, and the Red Bulls seem to have something figured out. But for all their poles, they seem to fade into oblivion when the rag drops. Roush is a bit out to lunch at the moment, and I do not think they will rebound here. I will go for the 24 to get another win if they can figure out how to out fox the 48. I will pick the 17 for a top 5, as he seems to be wiley here. The 7 has never been good at Chicago, and I don’t know why this week would be different. About 28th to 35th is about as good as it will get.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
And The Wheel Goes 'Round
Last week I learned an important lesson about tires. I went to the Mini dealership for my regular service appointment. I expected to get my oil changed and a car wash and be out of there in an hour. However, it got ugly in a hurry. The service chick came over to me and said, "We got your oil changed and the rest of your car serviced, but you have a problem with your tires. There is a chunk of your right front tire wrapped around your axle, and it will be $800 to replace the front tires." Whoah...I asked to have a look at it, and sure enough, a 1 inch wide slice of my RF tire had delaminated and wrapped itself around the axle like ribbon on a Christmas present. Unfortunately, the car was really unsafe to drive and I had to suck it up and get some new tires. I drive 30+ miles to work each day on the highway, and you cannot take chances when you drive a small car.
Speaking of tires, it looks like the Indianapolis tire issues have finally been resolved. For those of you who are not Jayski junkies, NASCAR has had about 4-5 tire tests at Indy in the last 3 months to sort out the tire debaucle of last year. The first 2 tests were a disaster, and the tires were only living for about 10 laps like last year. However, after the Indy 500 was run, they brought 8 or 9 cars out there and some new tire compounds. Normally there are only 4 cars at a tire test, but they wanted to lay down a lot of rubber and see how much less the wear was with track conditions more representative of the race weekend. That was two weeks ago, and an engineer friend of mine said that his car was good for atleast 30 lap on a set of tires. A fuel run is about that long, so they essentially had the issue resolved after that test. However, a whole new fleet of cars went up there on Monday and did all again. The early reports that I have been hearing from that test suggest that the tires will be just fine and the race will not be the joke that it was last year. We shall see.
If you are a Robby Gordon fan, the season starts this week. Optimism springs eternal for the fans and team alike when the circuit visits the road courses, and why not. You have a shot at the pole, you are high up the practice speed charts, Lindsay Czarniak is hanging out in your pit all weekend, things are good. Until you realize that Sonoma is a fuel mileage race. In 2007 RG had the pace to win and led 50+ laps. However, the cautions never came, and some cars could run 15 more laps on fuel than RG, and he got smoked. Then last year they made an ass out of themselves by running out of fuel in the first half of the race, and finished two laps down. In fact, RG does not even have a top 10 at Sonoma in the last bunch of years. There is no way the 7 will win a fuel mileage race at a road course. The only course of action is to try to dominate the pace of the race, and hope the pit strategy works out. At the very least, don't come without being remarkable.
Predictions for this week. I will go for a maiden victory for the 47 followed cloesly by the 14 and the 18. Marcos ran so good last year that I think he will be unstoppable with a better peice under him. I will pick the 7 for a 5th. It is hard to be compete for wins, when you don't compete for wins. I just think the pressure will breed a mistake from either the driver or the crew, and victory will elude them.
Speaking of tires, it looks like the Indianapolis tire issues have finally been resolved. For those of you who are not Jayski junkies, NASCAR has had about 4-5 tire tests at Indy in the last 3 months to sort out the tire debaucle of last year. The first 2 tests were a disaster, and the tires were only living for about 10 laps like last year. However, after the Indy 500 was run, they brought 8 or 9 cars out there and some new tire compounds. Normally there are only 4 cars at a tire test, but they wanted to lay down a lot of rubber and see how much less the wear was with track conditions more representative of the race weekend. That was two weeks ago, and an engineer friend of mine said that his car was good for atleast 30 lap on a set of tires. A fuel run is about that long, so they essentially had the issue resolved after that test. However, a whole new fleet of cars went up there on Monday and did all again. The early reports that I have been hearing from that test suggest that the tires will be just fine and the race will not be the joke that it was last year. We shall see.
If you are a Robby Gordon fan, the season starts this week. Optimism springs eternal for the fans and team alike when the circuit visits the road courses, and why not. You have a shot at the pole, you are high up the practice speed charts, Lindsay Czarniak is hanging out in your pit all weekend, things are good. Until you realize that Sonoma is a fuel mileage race. In 2007 RG had the pace to win and led 50+ laps. However, the cautions never came, and some cars could run 15 more laps on fuel than RG, and he got smoked. Then last year they made an ass out of themselves by running out of fuel in the first half of the race, and finished two laps down. In fact, RG does not even have a top 10 at Sonoma in the last bunch of years. There is no way the 7 will win a fuel mileage race at a road course. The only course of action is to try to dominate the pace of the race, and hope the pit strategy works out. At the very least, don't come without being remarkable.
Predictions for this week. I will go for a maiden victory for the 47 followed cloesly by the 14 and the 18. Marcos ran so good last year that I think he will be unstoppable with a better peice under him. I will pick the 7 for a 5th. It is hard to be compete for wins, when you don't compete for wins. I just think the pressure will breed a mistake from either the driver or the crew, and victory will elude them.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Hail Caesar
Before diving into the Cup talk this week I have to tell you about an excellent culinary adventure I had the other day. For the first time in my life, I made my own salad dressing and it came out awesome. I made a fresh Caesar dressing. MMM..mmmm.The fresh ground garlic just gave it a sublime quality that is unmatchable by the packaged stuff. It was so easy and I would recommend it to anyone. I'm not sure why I got motivated to do it, but it was a fantastic experiment.
I digress. Dover proved to be an excellent race. It is great when there are fast cars that are all on different tire and fuel strategies. Tony's resistence was admirable but was always doomed to failure due to the amazing pace of the 48. The Hendrick cars (the Stewart/Haas cars included) are so dominant just at the moment, you just can't bet against them. I know there has been a lot of critiscism of Dale Jr. recently, but he will have his day again. It is amazing that the other 5 cars are in Chase positions. Kudos to them.
I normally rant and rave that Pocono is a boring race, but I am very curious to see how this one plays out. This is the first week of the double file restart rule, and that will throw a significant enough monkey wrench into mix to make it interesting. I have read a decent amount about how this rule works, and I still cannot wrap my head around how the lap down cars play into it. The way I understand it is that they will let lap down cars get back on the lead lap so long as they don't pit under caution. If that is the case, it will be interesting to see under what circumstances teams will gamble and stay out on old tires just to get their lap back. It should make for a bigger speed differential between the cars, and will probably lead to more wrecks. Not to mention the better racing at the front of the field. This rule pretty much gives Kyle a liscensce to dominate even more races.
As far as setups go, Pocono is pretty extreme. You need a ton of motor to get down the long straights and have a chance of running people down. However, like at any track on the circuit, corner exit speed (especially off of turn 3) needs to be high to get a good lap time. So you almost need to run a short track suspension setup to get through the corners, but you also need to keep the attitude of the car low on the straights, so you don't kill your straightaway speed. So this may require shocks with a lot of damping (like you would run at Charlotte) combined with a spring package that would run at Phoenix.
Predictions for this week. I am going to go for a Kasey Kahne win. The new Evernham engine seems like it is pretty stout, and I know they have a hot shit new low center of gravity car, so I think he will be a force. I will look to the 2 car to have a top 5 and continue their excellent season. As far as the 7 goes, this is the weekend that makes all of the team members cringe. RG is running the Baja and he will have to start dead last with zero miles in the car before the green flag. Luckily it is hard to go a lap down at Pocono, so it might not be as bad as it would be at other tracks. I will go for a hard fought 30th
I digress. Dover proved to be an excellent race. It is great when there are fast cars that are all on different tire and fuel strategies. Tony's resistence was admirable but was always doomed to failure due to the amazing pace of the 48. The Hendrick cars (the Stewart/Haas cars included) are so dominant just at the moment, you just can't bet against them. I know there has been a lot of critiscism of Dale Jr. recently, but he will have his day again. It is amazing that the other 5 cars are in Chase positions. Kudos to them.
I normally rant and rave that Pocono is a boring race, but I am very curious to see how this one plays out. This is the first week of the double file restart rule, and that will throw a significant enough monkey wrench into mix to make it interesting. I have read a decent amount about how this rule works, and I still cannot wrap my head around how the lap down cars play into it. The way I understand it is that they will let lap down cars get back on the lead lap so long as they don't pit under caution. If that is the case, it will be interesting to see under what circumstances teams will gamble and stay out on old tires just to get their lap back. It should make for a bigger speed differential between the cars, and will probably lead to more wrecks. Not to mention the better racing at the front of the field. This rule pretty much gives Kyle a liscensce to dominate even more races.
As far as setups go, Pocono is pretty extreme. You need a ton of motor to get down the long straights and have a chance of running people down. However, like at any track on the circuit, corner exit speed (especially off of turn 3) needs to be high to get a good lap time. So you almost need to run a short track suspension setup to get through the corners, but you also need to keep the attitude of the car low on the straights, so you don't kill your straightaway speed. So this may require shocks with a lot of damping (like you would run at Charlotte) combined with a spring package that would run at Phoenix.
Predictions for this week. I am going to go for a Kasey Kahne win. The new Evernham engine seems like it is pretty stout, and I know they have a hot shit new low center of gravity car, so I think he will be a force. I will look to the 2 car to have a top 5 and continue their excellent season. As far as the 7 goes, this is the weekend that makes all of the team members cringe. RG is running the Baja and he will have to start dead last with zero miles in the car before the green flag. Luckily it is hard to go a lap down at Pocono, so it might not be as bad as it would be at other tracks. I will go for a hard fought 30th
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Monster Myrtle
As was the case when I used to work for RGM, I took the 600 weekend off and went to Myrtle Beach for the holiday. The 600 is insufferably long and I can never get myself to stay in town for it. And, when your friend has a condo on the beach that he is letting you stay at for free, you go. You just go, and let all the other locals deal with traffic and hullabaloo. I remember two years ago I was at the beach, and I got a call from Robby at about 3.30 on raceday. He says, "Where are you?", and I go, "Uhhhh...Myrtle Beach." Then he says, "Can you get here and do the fuel mileage?" and I go, "No. I already talked to Gene, and he is cool doing it on his own." Yeah. A bit awkward, and I felt bad about it for about an hour. Then I got really drunk and danced with everyone in the beach house, and my chi was restored.
Obviously the big news this week in Robby world was the rear end confiscation and subsequent penalty. So, I guess it is time for a technical discussion about what was wrong, and how it could possibly come to be. First of all, I would like to comment on the penalty. I really thought it was going to be much bigger. After NASCAR threw the book at Carl Long for his minutely oversized engine, I assumed it would be doom and gloom for the 7 car. Especially since you could argue that rear end was probably more blatent and more of a performance advantage than the engine.
It has been vogue for about a year and a half for the Cup cars to run 1/2 an inch of toe in at the LR and 1/2 an inch of toe out on the RR. The picture below shows the difference between a zero toe and 1/2 toe in, toe out car as it drives down the track. The toe does two things, one aero and one mechanical. The aero effect is that the car will crab down the track, and the driver actually has to steer a little bit to the right to keep it pointed straight. The right side of the car is exposed to the air and creates side force (like downforce, except it pushes the car left towards the apex of the corner). The side force gets the car to turn better and keeps it stable. The mechanical effect is that it creates rear steer in the middle of the corner, which helps to alleviate the tight in the center condition that plagues COTs. When a monster truck steers, the front wheels point to the corner apex and the rears, point away from the corner. Rear steer is much more sensitive than front steer, and it rudders the monster truck so that it can go around sharp corners. The same principal applies to the Cup cars, and pointing the rear axle towards the stands steers the rear of the car.
Now, the toe measurement that NASCAR takes is relative to the chassis. There is some adjustment in the axle mounting bushings and the axle can be mounted such that a 1/2" housing can be rolled forward to make a 5/8" housing, or rolled back to create a 3/8" housing relative to the chassis. My suspicion is that the car went through tech, the rear end was measured and was just this side of being legal, and passed inspection. Then, in the race, the bolt that holds the axle mount must have loosened up enough so that it was just barely out of specification when it was post race inspected. So, in effect, this was sort of a similar penalty to a car showing low in post race inspection. Just a consequence of running laps at a track with high cornering loads or bouncing off the wall.
Obviously the big news this week in Robby world was the rear end confiscation and subsequent penalty. So, I guess it is time for a technical discussion about what was wrong, and how it could possibly come to be. First of all, I would like to comment on the penalty. I really thought it was going to be much bigger. After NASCAR threw the book at Carl Long for his minutely oversized engine, I assumed it would be doom and gloom for the 7 car. Especially since you could argue that rear end was probably more blatent and more of a performance advantage than the engine.
It has been vogue for about a year and a half for the Cup cars to run 1/2 an inch of toe in at the LR and 1/2 an inch of toe out on the RR. The picture below shows the difference between a zero toe and 1/2 toe in, toe out car as it drives down the track. The toe does two things, one aero and one mechanical. The aero effect is that the car will crab down the track, and the driver actually has to steer a little bit to the right to keep it pointed straight. The right side of the car is exposed to the air and creates side force (like downforce, except it pushes the car left towards the apex of the corner). The side force gets the car to turn better and keeps it stable. The mechanical effect is that it creates rear steer in the middle of the corner, which helps to alleviate the tight in the center condition that plagues COTs. When a monster truck steers, the front wheels point to the corner apex and the rears, point away from the corner. Rear steer is much more sensitive than front steer, and it rudders the monster truck so that it can go around sharp corners. The same principal applies to the Cup cars, and pointing the rear axle towards the stands steers the rear of the car.
Now, the toe measurement that NASCAR takes is relative to the chassis. There is some adjustment in the axle mounting bushings and the axle can be mounted such that a 1/2" housing can be rolled forward to make a 5/8" housing, or rolled back to create a 3/8" housing relative to the chassis. My suspicion is that the car went through tech, the rear end was measured and was just this side of being legal, and passed inspection. Then, in the race, the bolt that holds the axle mount must have loosened up enough so that it was just barely out of specification when it was post race inspected. So, in effect, this was sort of a similar penalty to a car showing low in post race inspection. Just a consequence of running laps at a track with high cornering loads or bouncing off the wall.
Off to Dover this week, and another track I can sink my teeth into. High banks, fast laps, and good wrecks....MMMM..MMM. Dover is Roush country, and I will pick the 99 to get his first win, with the 16 nipping at his heels. After his strong run at Bristol, I will go for Ambrose for a top 10. This will be the first time in a while the RG will get to qualify the 7 at the first Dover race, as he is usually in Baja. Even with other people qualifying the car, he has done decent here, so I will go for an 15th for the 7.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Bump and Run
What a superb race at the weekend. There was something to cheer about for everyone. Each manufacturer had a stint in the lead, rookies came to the front, plenty of wrecks, different pit strategies, and many different drivers had a dominant stint of the race. Can you believe that I fell asleep with 30 to go? What a great day for Hendrick too. Their engines and engineering support were behind each car in the top 5. They are the classiest operation in Cup racing and proved it in a big way at Darlington.
Now it is back "home" to Charlotte for 2 weeks. From a logistical standpoint, the Charlotte races are fantastic. The track is half and hour or less from most crew members houses and race shops, so you can sleep in your own bed after the practices and the race. And, if you happen to wreck a car it is easy enough to send body or fab people from the shop if the damage is major.
One of the uniquities of Charlotte from a chassis tuning point of view, is the bump at the entry of turn one. Right at the fastest point of the track, the driver has to start braking and turning the wheel to address turn 1. The front of the car starts to load up, the springs compress, and then the car hits the bump. The car gets light and uncomfortable, and the driver will sometimes panic and back off too much and screw up the corner and the lap. Obviously, you cannot move the bump, so you have to do something to the car to give the confidence back to the driver to get over it. One tuning tool that helps this is "bump steer".
When the front of the car goes down and compresses the springs, the tires do not stay in a straight line. The tires will actually steer to the left or the right a little bit, and this is due to the lengths and angles of the suspension and steering arms. Since the tires only need to turn about 3 degrees to get through the corners at Charlotte, a little bit of "bump steer" feels like alot. The crew chiefs can control how much and in which direction the bump steer goes with the adjustment holes on the steering link. For alot of the tracks, the teams will set the cars up to have as little bump steer as possible to keep a consistent feel at the steering wheel. However, at Charlotte, they may setup the RF tire to turn to the right a small amount. I know the turn is left, but they will make it turn right. This will help stabablize the car over the bump and give the driver something to feel and pull against as he steers into the corner. It's a bit counter intuitive, but this was usually a gain for Robby at Charlotte and some of the other 1.5 mile tracks and I know it is for other drivers as well.
The All-Star race is so unpredicatable, which is why it is so fun. For the showdown, I predict the 55, 00, and 83 to qualify for the AS race (55 on votes obviously). For the main event I will go for back to back wins for Kasey. Charlotte suits him so well it is stupid. I think it was evident at Darlington that the chassis and engine is strong enough. Robby does really well at Charlotte and I think he will be close to one of the transfer places. I just think there is too much quality to get out of the Showdown, so I will go for a 5th in the showdown.
Now it is back "home" to Charlotte for 2 weeks. From a logistical standpoint, the Charlotte races are fantastic. The track is half and hour or less from most crew members houses and race shops, so you can sleep in your own bed after the practices and the race. And, if you happen to wreck a car it is easy enough to send body or fab people from the shop if the damage is major.
One of the uniquities of Charlotte from a chassis tuning point of view, is the bump at the entry of turn one. Right at the fastest point of the track, the driver has to start braking and turning the wheel to address turn 1. The front of the car starts to load up, the springs compress, and then the car hits the bump. The car gets light and uncomfortable, and the driver will sometimes panic and back off too much and screw up the corner and the lap. Obviously, you cannot move the bump, so you have to do something to the car to give the confidence back to the driver to get over it. One tuning tool that helps this is "bump steer".
When the front of the car goes down and compresses the springs, the tires do not stay in a straight line. The tires will actually steer to the left or the right a little bit, and this is due to the lengths and angles of the suspension and steering arms. Since the tires only need to turn about 3 degrees to get through the corners at Charlotte, a little bit of "bump steer" feels like alot. The crew chiefs can control how much and in which direction the bump steer goes with the adjustment holes on the steering link. For alot of the tracks, the teams will set the cars up to have as little bump steer as possible to keep a consistent feel at the steering wheel. However, at Charlotte, they may setup the RF tire to turn to the right a small amount. I know the turn is left, but they will make it turn right. This will help stabablize the car over the bump and give the driver something to feel and pull against as he steers into the corner. It's a bit counter intuitive, but this was usually a gain for Robby at Charlotte and some of the other 1.5 mile tracks and I know it is for other drivers as well.
The All-Star race is so unpredicatable, which is why it is so fun. For the showdown, I predict the 55, 00, and 83 to qualify for the AS race (55 on votes obviously). For the main event I will go for back to back wins for Kasey. Charlotte suits him so well it is stupid. I think it was evident at Darlington that the chassis and engine is strong enough. Robby does really well at Charlotte and I think he will be close to one of the transfer places. I just think there is too much quality to get out of the Showdown, so I will go for a 5th in the showdown.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Boyscout Cookies
This is tough to admit, but I was a boy scout when I was a kid. When I was in my second year of scouts I was really into it. I was dominating merit badges and earning ranks like it was going out of style. The ranks go First Class, Star, Heart, then Eagle scout. I was in my review for my Star rank, and my bitch female scout master failed me while the rest of my friends got their badge. She rejected me on the grounds that I made fun of a Cub scout's cookies at a previous scout meeting. The emotional anguish it caused the Cub scout was justification for me not being a good person (at 13 years old) and thus not recieving the badge that I had rightfully earned. I quit that troop, joined another, and went on with my life. Meanwhile, my ex-scoutmaster's karma bank was sufficiently drained. She was convicted of stealing money from my small town, was living in a loveless marriage, and took a post at the McDonald's on the interstate. I think I made out better in that battle. I never talked to her again, but if I had, it probably would have gone a little something like my interaction with Robby's former crew chief, Walter Giles last week.
Walter came to the seven post the other day, and it was the first time I had seen him since he launched me from RGM last July. Regular readers will know that I was (nearly) forcibly deposed from my post amidst a cloud of lies that WG had made up about me. It was a difficult situation, but I am for sure glad that I am out of there. I was mostly miserable and I did not have the balls to quit, so it was for the best. Despite the greener grass on the other side, I still hate Walter. He basically attempted to ruin my reputation like a teenage girl instead of just firing me. Thus, I was not much interested in ever speaking to him again let alone run a 7 post session for him. Despite my fantasy of a big blowup, our mutal professionalism led us to a non-confrontational, even cheery interaction. It seemed all to nice and normal, and drama free. Bygones, I guess, are just going to have to be bygones. However, I am sure my thin northern blood will still hold a grudge until the end of time. No matter how much 700 club I watch, I can never convince myself to forgive completly like the southerners down here.
Speaking of Southern, I guess we are off to the Southern 500 this weekend. I am not particularly interested in delving into any technical discussion this week. This is just a great week to enjoy the sunshine and the racing. I will let the people in the garage mess with that stuff for a week. In the meantime, I will be saddled up to a 12 pack and the trackpass for some wall grinding Darlington action.
Darlington is so unpredictable. The Roush cars have been underwhelming, but Darlington is Biffle style. Kyle is for sure has the bit between his teeth, but it is boring to keep picking him. I will go for a win for the 16 and a top 5 for the 00. RG had a nice result last week, but I think that will end here. His last bunch of outings here have been lacklustre, and there have alot of pit crew changes that will take a while to gel. I would reckon a 25-30 is about all you can ask for. I do like the paintscheme though.
Walter came to the seven post the other day, and it was the first time I had seen him since he launched me from RGM last July. Regular readers will know that I was (nearly) forcibly deposed from my post amidst a cloud of lies that WG had made up about me. It was a difficult situation, but I am for sure glad that I am out of there. I was mostly miserable and I did not have the balls to quit, so it was for the best. Despite the greener grass on the other side, I still hate Walter. He basically attempted to ruin my reputation like a teenage girl instead of just firing me. Thus, I was not much interested in ever speaking to him again let alone run a 7 post session for him. Despite my fantasy of a big blowup, our mutal professionalism led us to a non-confrontational, even cheery interaction. It seemed all to nice and normal, and drama free. Bygones, I guess, are just going to have to be bygones. However, I am sure my thin northern blood will still hold a grudge until the end of time. No matter how much 700 club I watch, I can never convince myself to forgive completly like the southerners down here.
Speaking of Southern, I guess we are off to the Southern 500 this weekend. I am not particularly interested in delving into any technical discussion this week. This is just a great week to enjoy the sunshine and the racing. I will let the people in the garage mess with that stuff for a week. In the meantime, I will be saddled up to a 12 pack and the trackpass for some wall grinding Darlington action.
Darlington is so unpredictable. The Roush cars have been underwhelming, but Darlington is Biffle style. Kyle is for sure has the bit between his teeth, but it is boring to keep picking him. I will go for a win for the 16 and a top 5 for the 00. RG had a nice result last week, but I think that will end here. His last bunch of outings here have been lacklustre, and there have alot of pit crew changes that will take a while to gel. I would reckon a 25-30 is about all you can ask for. I do like the paintscheme though.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Sing When Your Friends are Winning
So maybe I was wrong about Talladega being boring. Perhaps I just turned on the TV at the right time, but it was a fantastic result. There is no limit to the amount of times that I can watch Carl's wreck. On a personal note, the truck and nationwide races held more joy than the cup race, as two of my friends got their first wins. My friend Seth has been the race engineer on the #6 busch car for like 3 years, and finally got his first win at Talladega. Then, Mike Skinner closed the deal in Kansas in the truck race, and my friend Jay got his first win as race engineer too. I never got close to victory lane when I was working for Robby, so I have to live vicariously through their stories I guess.
Obviously one of the big buzz words after the Talladega race is "safety". There is a lot of chatter about how to make the cars and the catch fences safer for drivers and for fans, and there are always ways to make improvements. From the team engineers perspective, most of the safety stuff is out of your hands. The walls and fences are designed for the tracks, and NASCAR mandates all of the steel tubing thickness and the roll cage configuration of the car. So there is little to do to design any more safety into the cars. In F1, the engineers are tasked with designing the main car structures, and the burden of safety is taken on by the enginneering staff.
The installation of sensors for testing was really the only time the NASCAR team engineer is faced with decisions for safety. For example, if the data engineer installs the throttle sensor incorrectly, the throttle can stick open and cause a massive wreck. Also, things like tire temperature sensors that can rub and cut a tire need a good bit of care during installation so they don't cause any problems. It is not hard to get right with a little bit of common sense. The worst thing that I ever did was I had a ride height laser, which is the size of a candy bar and weighs 6oz., fall off of RG's car during Daytona testing and knocked a hole in Sterling Marlins nose. It did not cause any major damage, and no one was hurt, but it could have been big if it managed to cut a tire or something. Needless to say, we installed those better after that mishap.
Off to Richmond this week, and sadly, I will not be watching it as I have a wedding to go with. I like the layout of Richmond, and it's nice that they do a Saturday night show. This week will be an impound race, but that will not cause the teams any trouble. At Talladega you can throw the kitchen sink at the car to put down a good qualy lap and screw up the car for the race. Short track race and qualy setups are not too terribly different, so it will not trip anyone up.
I will go for a win for the 11 as he has been good on the shorter tracks this year. Hendrick seems to dominate this track, so I would expect the 24 and 48 to be in the mix. I will tip the 6 for a top 10. He ran good here last year, and he and the team will be bouyed by 2 good results last week.
Obviously one of the big buzz words after the Talladega race is "safety". There is a lot of chatter about how to make the cars and the catch fences safer for drivers and for fans, and there are always ways to make improvements. From the team engineers perspective, most of the safety stuff is out of your hands. The walls and fences are designed for the tracks, and NASCAR mandates all of the steel tubing thickness and the roll cage configuration of the car. So there is little to do to design any more safety into the cars. In F1, the engineers are tasked with designing the main car structures, and the burden of safety is taken on by the enginneering staff.
The installation of sensors for testing was really the only time the NASCAR team engineer is faced with decisions for safety. For example, if the data engineer installs the throttle sensor incorrectly, the throttle can stick open and cause a massive wreck. Also, things like tire temperature sensors that can rub and cut a tire need a good bit of care during installation so they don't cause any problems. It is not hard to get right with a little bit of common sense. The worst thing that I ever did was I had a ride height laser, which is the size of a candy bar and weighs 6oz., fall off of RG's car during Daytona testing and knocked a hole in Sterling Marlins nose. It did not cause any major damage, and no one was hurt, but it could have been big if it managed to cut a tire or something. Needless to say, we installed those better after that mishap.
Off to Richmond this week, and sadly, I will not be watching it as I have a wedding to go with. I like the layout of Richmond, and it's nice that they do a Saturday night show. This week will be an impound race, but that will not cause the teams any trouble. At Talladega you can throw the kitchen sink at the car to put down a good qualy lap and screw up the car for the race. Short track race and qualy setups are not too terribly different, so it will not trip anyone up.
I will go for a win for the 11 as he has been good on the shorter tracks this year. Hendrick seems to dominate this track, so I would expect the 24 and 48 to be in the mix. I will tip the 6 for a top 10. He ran good here last year, and he and the team will be bouyed by 2 good results last week.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
No Fun in Alabama
While the NASCAR circus was out at Phoenix last week, I took the opportunity to take in a late model race at Hickory. Hickory is about 90 minues north west of Charlotte, and is a short track that used to host Busch series races, and maybe even a couple of truck races. Now it is a place for late model races and is a stepping stone track for Drive for Diversity and other young drivers. It is a pretty cool track actually. They do not let you bring beer into the track, but luckily the lot of us had just come from the Hickory beer festival, so that was about the last thing we needed. So, the main event was a 100 lap late model race. In the race there was a pretty good battle between the top two drivers until with 20 to go, one of the drivers cut a RR tire. The guy fell back to the end of the pack and finally just stopped in the middle of the track. The caution came out and he came in and changed the RR tire and bled air out of the RF tire. Yellow laps did not count, so he did not lose a lap and started at the tail end of the pack. Then he proceded to stomp through the entire field and win the race by a couple of seconds. The second place finisher was really pissed obviously and tried to park in the winner circle. He was kicked out by the officials and the result stood. Thus illustrated, in very clear terms, the importance of fresh tires. When I got home I caught the tail end of the Cup race and in a de ja vu moment, saw Newman try to be a hero by not taking any tires. I think he lost about 8 spots on the first green lap and was just a sitting duck. It is pretty funny that the teams spend so much time and money trying to make their cars good, and it can all be erased with poor tire management.
This week is Talladega and tires could not matter less here. I think we used to double stint the tires here a while back. The track is so smooth that you do not need the enhanced handling like you would at Daytona. I have to admit, I kind of hate Talladega. It is just so damn boring. It is boring to be there and it is boring to watch on TV.
I don't think alot of teams are spending alot of time on their Talladega cars. One of my other engineer friends who works for a team that will remain nameless commented to me last night, "I thought the next race was Richmond, because we haven't done any engineering work for Talladega". The teams expend so much effort for Daytona that they pretty much just dust off their Daytona primary or backup car, make it their Talladega primary, stick it in the box and send it down the road. If it is the chase race in October or if you have to qualify on time, then you will spend alot of time prepping the car, but not for this one. The race is so unpredictable that it is not good value for money to tweek on the car that much for this race. Maybe that is pessimistic, but if I was the crew cheif, I would make sure it fit the templates, and that all the bolts were tight and call it good.
It is so difficult to pick plate race winners. The cars are so evenly matched that you have to pick the drafting wizards to be at the front at the end. Kyle had a tough end to the Daytona 500 and I like the way that he tries to lead every lap of the plate races instead of laying back. So I will pick the 18 for the win. The 16 has aweful luck here, but I think their bad plate run is over, and I will pick him for a top 10. RG has had a rough run of form. I anticipate that he will stay in the back for the entire day and try to avoid wrecks and push for a top 20 in the last 50 laps. I think they will come out with a good result and kick away from the 35th owners points position.
This week is Talladega and tires could not matter less here. I think we used to double stint the tires here a while back. The track is so smooth that you do not need the enhanced handling like you would at Daytona. I have to admit, I kind of hate Talladega. It is just so damn boring. It is boring to be there and it is boring to watch on TV.
I don't think alot of teams are spending alot of time on their Talladega cars. One of my other engineer friends who works for a team that will remain nameless commented to me last night, "I thought the next race was Richmond, because we haven't done any engineering work for Talladega". The teams expend so much effort for Daytona that they pretty much just dust off their Daytona primary or backup car, make it their Talladega primary, stick it in the box and send it down the road. If it is the chase race in October or if you have to qualify on time, then you will spend alot of time prepping the car, but not for this one. The race is so unpredictable that it is not good value for money to tweek on the car that much for this race. Maybe that is pessimistic, but if I was the crew cheif, I would make sure it fit the templates, and that all the bolts were tight and call it good.
It is so difficult to pick plate race winners. The cars are so evenly matched that you have to pick the drafting wizards to be at the front at the end. Kyle had a tough end to the Daytona 500 and I like the way that he tries to lead every lap of the plate races instead of laying back. So I will pick the 18 for the win. The 16 has aweful luck here, but I think their bad plate run is over, and I will pick him for a top 10. RG has had a rough run of form. I anticipate that he will stay in the back for the entire day and try to avoid wrecks and push for a top 20 in the last 50 laps. I think they will come out with a good result and kick away from the 35th owners points position.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
The Queen of Beers
Normally I start with a little bit of food talk, but this week is all about beer. Charlotte (Queen City) born beer that is. In the past couple of days I was able to visit two of the local breweries, both of which I would recomend as a side trip for anyone coming in town for the May (or October races). The first one I went to was the Carolina brewery http://www.carolinabeer.com/. It is in Mooreville across the street from the Penske shop. Their flagship beer is Carolina Blonde, but they have a nice selection of artisan and seasonal brews for the more adventurous. It is only open from 12-2 on Saturday afternoons, but for $5 you get a tour of the brewery and 5 six ounce sample glasses, which I can assure you is plenty if you are going to drive afterwards. The other brewery, Olde Mecklenburg Brewery, I visited just last night http://oldemeckbrew.com/. OMB is only about a month old and last night was thier opening night for thier tap room. They only make one beer right now called Copper, and it is a German style beer that is a medium amber color. It is not too bitter, but I fear the militant Bud Light drinker will find it to be too heavy. Nonetheless it was a fun little brewery and I recommend giving it a visit.
On to the racing. After a nice long off weekend, the circus is back out to Phoenix. PIR is for sure one of my favorite oval circuits. It is short and flat with corners of differing radius. All of these elements reward the drivers who are smooth and the teams that can get the big heavy Cup cars to corner well with out help from big banking. The location is superb as well, with the cactus dotted desert mountains providing a picturesque backdrop.
So if a car needs to turn well at Phoenix, what can you do to the setup to help that. One of the biggest items on the minds of the crew chiefs is RF camber. The tire that Goodyear brings to Phoenix likes to have alot of it. NASCAR mandates that you can only run 8 degrees of camber when the car rolls through the tech line, and at Phoenix, some of the teams will get close to maxing this out. More camber means that the car will turn better, but it also means the tires will wear out faster. This will make the cars slower late in a run, and could lead to tire failures. The drivers will be using alot of brakes here too, so expect to see openings in the nose of the car to duct cool air to the brakes and to the bead of the tire.
Another tool in the crew chiefs pocket to get the car to turn better is at the rear of the car. The rear suspension is a solid axle and there are two truck arms that mount it to the chassis. Below is a picture of the bottom of a Cup car showing the truck arms and where they mount. Instead of having both truck arms mounts at the same height, one of the truck arms will be low, and the other one will be high. Doing this will get the rear axle to steer when the car gets into the corner, and it will help the car turn better.
On to the racing. After a nice long off weekend, the circus is back out to Phoenix. PIR is for sure one of my favorite oval circuits. It is short and flat with corners of differing radius. All of these elements reward the drivers who are smooth and the teams that can get the big heavy Cup cars to corner well with out help from big banking. The location is superb as well, with the cactus dotted desert mountains providing a picturesque backdrop.
So if a car needs to turn well at Phoenix, what can you do to the setup to help that. One of the biggest items on the minds of the crew chiefs is RF camber. The tire that Goodyear brings to Phoenix likes to have alot of it. NASCAR mandates that you can only run 8 degrees of camber when the car rolls through the tech line, and at Phoenix, some of the teams will get close to maxing this out. More camber means that the car will turn better, but it also means the tires will wear out faster. This will make the cars slower late in a run, and could lead to tire failures. The drivers will be using alot of brakes here too, so expect to see openings in the nose of the car to duct cool air to the brakes and to the bead of the tire.
Another tool in the crew chiefs pocket to get the car to turn better is at the rear of the car. The rear suspension is a solid axle and there are two truck arms that mount it to the chassis. Below is a picture of the bottom of a Cup car showing the truck arms and where they mount. Instead of having both truck arms mounts at the same height, one of the truck arms will be low, and the other one will be high. Doing this will get the rear axle to steer when the car gets into the corner, and it will help the car turn better.
As far as predictions, you just get the feeling that the big teams will dominate again. Hendrick has historically had a really strong flat track program and I would expect them to be at the front again. Harvick used to dominate at this track though, so I will go for a win for the 29 with a Hendrick piece in tow. For some reason, the 9 can get a result at Phoenix, so I will tip Kasey for a top 5. RG has not been that good in a cup car here since 2005, and I fear that run will continue. A top 30 is about all that can be expected unless they have done alot of homework.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
I Need a V8
The first stop at the two short tracks is behind us, and true to form, it has stirred the blood and fueled rivalries again. You get the sense that Gibbs vs. Hendrick will be the NASCAR version of Ferrari v. McLaren. Kyle dominates Bristol and rips on Dale Jr., and a week later later the 48 gives the 11 the dirty slide job to win the race. I know the 17 won the first two races, but Gibbs and Hendrick are the two best teams, and it will be fun to see the battle throughout the season.
I want to divulge in a more technical topic for a change, but not quite yet. I have to first say that I made a magnificent dinner last night. I got inspired and went to the grocery store and picked up some Cod fillets. I baked them in a bed of lemon juice, green peppers, and jumbo scallions. I served pine nut couscous on the side and I took the rest of my leftover cabbage from my St.Patricks day feast and made some homemade slaw. MMMMM...loved it.
I had been seeing cars come on the 7 post recently with rear anti-roll bars (ARBs) in them. I thought this was weird, because these were outlawed for all tracks 1 mile and over for the last bunch of years. So I thought the teams were doing some 007 stuff, but it turns out, the rule was changed. You can run them everywhere now (but maybe not the speedways), so I thought I would explain ARBs for a moment.
ARBs tie the right side of the suspension to the left side of the suspension, and they add stiffness that helps the car resist roll. Resisting roll helps in a couple of ways. It helps to keep the camber of the tires at a more desirable angle, and it allows the car body to stay flatter and in a better aerodynamic position. The normal 4 springs help to keep the car from rolling a little bit too, but to be able to do it as well as an ARB, you would have to run really big springs. Running big springs, especially at a track like Texas, will hurt your downforce and increase drag, which is the opposite of going fast. What the evolution (not intelligent design) of the cup car has led us to, is running soft springs at the front, with a big ARB. This lets the nose of the car travel to an aerodynamically advantageous position and still keeps the car from rolling over.
This picture shows one side of the ARB on a mini. Couldn't find a good picture of a cup car ARB, but it looks almost identical.
Rear ARBs do the same thing. Addind an ARB at the rear will make a car turn better, so running them at short tracks and flat tracks will be an advantage. The one big difference between the front and the rear ARBs is that the front ARBs will be anywhere from 1.25" in diameter, up to 3" in diameter, and are usually over 2" at 1.5 mile tracks. At the rear, they are much smaller, and are usually about 1/2" in diameter. So the effect is much smaller at the back. I do not know why NASCAR banned rear bars in the first place, as it did not save anyone any money.
Predictions for this week. Back to the big tracks again, so you have to bet on who was fast at Atlanta. Look for the Penske cars to be strong, as well as the Roush and Hendrick cars. I will go for a Mark Martin win, and I will pick the 6 to rebound from his crappy season for a top 10. I think RGM will fair better at the bigger track and a top 25 is in the cards I think.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Smell the Thunder
Another race and another week of pure domination by Kyle. Just brilliant don't you think. In the same way that Schumacher stunk up F1 in the early part of the decade, Kyle has taken the fight to the rest of the grid in a way that has not been seen in Cup in a very long time. Perhaps it ruins the show a bit, but you can't help but envy the talent.
I was fortunate to scrounge up some passes for the race, so I was able to be at Bristol live and in person. I had never seen a race there from outside the pits, and I totally understand why this place sells out all the time. It was a 3 hour race (barely) and I was only bored for about 10-15 minutes in the middle, which is far less than at the cookie cutter big tracks. I liked the new paint scheme on the 7 this week too. The blaze orange looked pretty good with the classic swoopy design that has been on those cars for 5-6 years now. I was obviously wrong about their pace in my prerace predictions, and it was pretty late in the race before they went a lap down. So I think they will be happy with the result and the speed of the car. I didn't have a scanner for the race, but it looked really tight in the early stages, and loose off. Whatever it was, it obviously ran ok.
I went to part of the Nationwide race the day before and that was pretty cool too. The legends race was a bit of a joke, but I guess it is fun that it existed, regardless if it was a good show or not. I don't think anyone in their right mind will say that they saw these legends in their peak form, as most of them needed walkers it seemed. Rusty was obviously up for the task, and Sterling is barely a legend and he is still an active driver, so I am a bit confused by his role in the race.
Off to Martinsville this week, and I think it will be an intriguing race. This is another homeish track for the series, which is cool for the travelling employees. It is only a 2 hour drive from Charlotte, so alot of the team members will be going home on Friday and Saturday nights to hang out with the family before enduring another fly away race next week. It will probably rain for qualifying, so the top 35 will be in play. That means the 24 will start from the pole, and I do not think you can bet against a Hendrick package at M-ville. I will go for the 24 to take home the clock, and I will pick the 83 for a top 5 or just outside. Red Bull will be embarrassed after last week and I think they will come with guns blazing. Sorry to say this, but it could be a bleeder for the 7. I cannot remember the last time they finished a race there or finished it without being 100+ laps down. It seems to be either a gear or a wreck in every race, and I will pick a gear failure or a wreck again for this weekend.
I was fortunate to scrounge up some passes for the race, so I was able to be at Bristol live and in person. I had never seen a race there from outside the pits, and I totally understand why this place sells out all the time. It was a 3 hour race (barely) and I was only bored for about 10-15 minutes in the middle, which is far less than at the cookie cutter big tracks. I liked the new paint scheme on the 7 this week too. The blaze orange looked pretty good with the classic swoopy design that has been on those cars for 5-6 years now. I was obviously wrong about their pace in my prerace predictions, and it was pretty late in the race before they went a lap down. So I think they will be happy with the result and the speed of the car. I didn't have a scanner for the race, but it looked really tight in the early stages, and loose off. Whatever it was, it obviously ran ok.
I went to part of the Nationwide race the day before and that was pretty cool too. The legends race was a bit of a joke, but I guess it is fun that it existed, regardless if it was a good show or not. I don't think anyone in their right mind will say that they saw these legends in their peak form, as most of them needed walkers it seemed. Rusty was obviously up for the task, and Sterling is barely a legend and he is still an active driver, so I am a bit confused by his role in the race.
Off to Martinsville this week, and I think it will be an intriguing race. This is another homeish track for the series, which is cool for the travelling employees. It is only a 2 hour drive from Charlotte, so alot of the team members will be going home on Friday and Saturday nights to hang out with the family before enduring another fly away race next week. It will probably rain for qualifying, so the top 35 will be in play. That means the 24 will start from the pole, and I do not think you can bet against a Hendrick package at M-ville. I will go for the 24 to take home the clock, and I will pick the 83 for a top 5 or just outside. Red Bull will be embarrassed after last week and I think they will come with guns blazing. Sorry to say this, but it could be a bleeder for the 7. I cannot remember the last time they finished a race there or finished it without being 100+ laps down. It seems to be either a gear or a wreck in every race, and I will pick a gear failure or a wreck again for this weekend.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Je No Se Corned Beef
Traditions have a way of bringing people together. Especially when there is good food involved. Tuesday was St. Patrick’s day, and I busted out the crock pots and cooked my 4th annual corned beef and cabbage dinner. Sprinkle in some good friends, a bit of Guiness, and the train wrecks on American Idol and good times were had by all. I accidentally had a 5 Guys bacon cheese burger for lunch, so I was meat and potatoed out by the end of the day, but it was a good hurt. The amout that I write about food, there is no way you would belive that I am running a 4 mile road race on Saturday.
Bristol is one of those tracks that has a bit of je no se quoi, and people love to come back to it year in and year out. Like walking down the crowded streets of a small England town, there is a sense of place that cannot be matched by the newness and enormity of the recently built circuits like Texas and California. For sure a weekend to get excited about.
The Bristol cars may not be one-offs in terms of the chassis itself, but the setup and spring combinations will be. The g loading in the corners is so great that teams will deal with this with beefier bumpstops and about an 800 lb RF spring, or they will run a 2000 lb RF spring and stay off the bumpstop all together. No other track on the circuit will bring out as great a diversity in spring choice as Bristol. The decision on which of these two paths to take will be hashed out on the 7 post or simulation. The crew chiefs will also have an eye to what a particular driver has liked in the past.
Qualifying will be of particular importance this week. So many times we have seen the top 4 or 5 cars go and put half the field a lap down in the first 50 laps. You need to qualify up front to avoid going a lap down early and to avoid all of the rough racing in the middle of the field. The lap is so quick that .3s will probably cover most of the field. Normally fuel mileage is not an issue in this race, but there have been green flag stops since they repaved the track, so I would not be too surprised to see a 150 lap caution-free run.
It looks like the weather has broken for the most part in the southeast, so I don’t expect to see any snow angels. Speaking of snow angels, I will go for 2 in a row for the #2. It has been a couple of years since he has driven with as much confidence and pace as he has this year, and he will love coming back to happy hunting grounds. The Gibbs stuff runs well at Bristol too so I will tip Hamlin for a top 5. Sadly, RG usually has no luck at Bristol. I remember the spring race of 2007 when we finished 10 laps down in 37th. If I were placing bets, 30-35th is as high of a finish as I can see from here.
Bristol is one of those tracks that has a bit of je no se quoi, and people love to come back to it year in and year out. Like walking down the crowded streets of a small England town, there is a sense of place that cannot be matched by the newness and enormity of the recently built circuits like Texas and California. For sure a weekend to get excited about.
The Bristol cars may not be one-offs in terms of the chassis itself, but the setup and spring combinations will be. The g loading in the corners is so great that teams will deal with this with beefier bumpstops and about an 800 lb RF spring, or they will run a 2000 lb RF spring and stay off the bumpstop all together. No other track on the circuit will bring out as great a diversity in spring choice as Bristol. The decision on which of these two paths to take will be hashed out on the 7 post or simulation. The crew chiefs will also have an eye to what a particular driver has liked in the past.
Qualifying will be of particular importance this week. So many times we have seen the top 4 or 5 cars go and put half the field a lap down in the first 50 laps. You need to qualify up front to avoid going a lap down early and to avoid all of the rough racing in the middle of the field. The lap is so quick that .3s will probably cover most of the field. Normally fuel mileage is not an issue in this race, but there have been green flag stops since they repaved the track, so I would not be too surprised to see a 150 lap caution-free run.
It looks like the weather has broken for the most part in the southeast, so I don’t expect to see any snow angels. Speaking of snow angels, I will go for 2 in a row for the #2. It has been a couple of years since he has driven with as much confidence and pace as he has this year, and he will love coming back to happy hunting grounds. The Gibbs stuff runs well at Bristol too so I will tip Hamlin for a top 5. Sadly, RG usually has no luck at Bristol. I remember the spring race of 2007 when we finished 10 laps down in 37th. If I were placing bets, 30-35th is as high of a finish as I can see from here.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Rock, Scissors, Paperclip
It's the off weekend for all three of the top NASCAR series, and we have a chance to take a deep breath before the tulips come up and the circuit starts making its spring stops. Atlanta turned out to be a bit of a bust after the 47 crew members goofed and put 3/4 of the field a lap down before the first 200 miles of the race was completed, so I think we are all ready for Bristol, which is never boring.
Obviously the off week is not really any break for the teams. They still have 32 races in front of them, and plenty of development work to make headway on. Off weeks are traditionally a time to go testing and this year is no different. A popular destination for test teams this week was a track known as "Little Rock". Little Rock is a Martinsville clone circuit that was built in the infield of the old Rockingham Speedway, which was traditionally the second race of the Cup season. The testing rule states that teams cannot test at any tracks that are on the Cup, NW, and truck schedules. Rockingham is not on any of them, so it is game on. I have never been to Rockingham or "Little Rock", but I have heard that Little Rock is an excellent reproduction of Martinsville, complete with asphault straights and concrete corners. Here is a pic of when it was getting built.
Martinsville is so unique and requires such a different car build, that if you do not test, you are going to be screwed for the race. The brake heat buildup is so great, that there will be some interesting air ducting strategies to keep the brakes and the tires cool. Drivetrains also take alot of abuse, and I would not be surprised to see teams doing long runs to test rear gear durability. If you fry the gear or the brakes in the middle of the race, it doesn't matter how fast your car was.
On the performance side of the spectrum, you will see alot nice details in the cars to get the weight out of them. Obviously there is a minimum weight rule, but there is an advantage to being able to put more weight down low in the frame rails. Some of these details you will not be able to see. Last year Red Bull was busted for having a roof that was made of steel that was too thin. There is a technique where you can acid dip steel panels to remove a few thousandths of an inch of material. This does not sound like much, but with the roof panel being so large and so high on the car, it is a significant advantage if you can get away with it. A couple of years ago, one of the acid dipping companies actually put adds in the bathrooms at the Martinsville race, so it was only a matter of time before someone got busted. The only way to check steel thickness when it is on the car is to use a electronic metal thickness gauge, and I would expect an official to have one in hand again this year.
Enjoy the week off and get ready for a good stretch of some of the more unique racetracks that are coming up in the next month or so.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Doing Donuts
I had a little bit of a battle with a bag of donuts this week. Yes, a bag of donuts. My partner's family was visiting my place over the weekend of the Daytona 500. Her dad was really excited about getting a Krispy Kreme donut, so he went out and bought a dozen of them. Well...He ate 2 of them, and for some reason he put the other 10 in my freezer. I didn't realize this until last Sunday when I saw a gallon bag of donuts while I was grabbing some girlscout cookie ice cream. Since the credit crunch is upon us and everyone is trying to save money, I could not in my right mind throw them out. So I starting eating two of them each morning for this past week. Uggghh. They are good, but 2 a day is pretty rough. I guess I know how Morgan Spurlock felt in that movie "Supersize Me" when he ate only McDonalds for a month.
I was half right about the Vegas race being a fuel milage deal, since a lot of the field got pinned a lap down late when the caution came out half way through the pitstop cycle. There were a lot more cautions than usual though, so a good bit of the field was able to stay on the lead lap for most of the race. You just have to love Kyle cueing the mic and going “Goodnight Gracie” after he blew by the 31. Pure entertainment.
Off to Atlanta this week. I think it snowed in the spring (winter?) race last year on the Saturday before the race. It is beautiful in the Carolina’s today (Friday) and will be this weekend, and I suspect the weather will be just fine in Atlanta as well. I think the big story this week will be the tires. The tire this year has a good bit more grip, so the speeds should be higher than last year. The setups will most likely have to change a little to get the balance back with added grip. With more speed comes more force on the car, so teams may need to change their bumpstop package a little, or maybe add some more spring in the car to keep the splitter from crashing into the ground. The teams with the best simulation will win the day on Friday, but after Saturday practice, the smaller teams should have a chance to catch back up and be fine for the race.
Atlanta has some nice big banking that rewards “over driving” the car. Look to the drivers that are known for driving a car in deep to be good in qualifying and the race. Robby has had a good past record at Atlanta, and the team will be buoyed by the good result last weekend. With Bristol looming, you should see another smart calculated race from the 7 car, so that there is no doubt about top 35 status after Bristol. It is difficult to pick winners with the top teams trading engine troubles from week to week. Roush is in a bit of a tizzy after last week and I don’t think they will recover for this week. I will go for 2 in a row for the 18, and I will tip Newman to get out of his funk and get a top 10.
I was half right about the Vegas race being a fuel milage deal, since a lot of the field got pinned a lap down late when the caution came out half way through the pitstop cycle. There were a lot more cautions than usual though, so a good bit of the field was able to stay on the lead lap for most of the race. You just have to love Kyle cueing the mic and going “Goodnight Gracie” after he blew by the 31. Pure entertainment.
Off to Atlanta this week. I think it snowed in the spring (winter?) race last year on the Saturday before the race. It is beautiful in the Carolina’s today (Friday) and will be this weekend, and I suspect the weather will be just fine in Atlanta as well. I think the big story this week will be the tires. The tire this year has a good bit more grip, so the speeds should be higher than last year. The setups will most likely have to change a little to get the balance back with added grip. With more speed comes more force on the car, so teams may need to change their bumpstop package a little, or maybe add some more spring in the car to keep the splitter from crashing into the ground. The teams with the best simulation will win the day on Friday, but after Saturday practice, the smaller teams should have a chance to catch back up and be fine for the race.
Atlanta has some nice big banking that rewards “over driving” the car. Look to the drivers that are known for driving a car in deep to be good in qualifying and the race. Robby has had a good past record at Atlanta, and the team will be buoyed by the good result last weekend. With Bristol looming, you should see another smart calculated race from the 7 car, so that there is no doubt about top 35 status after Bristol. It is difficult to pick winners with the top teams trading engine troubles from week to week. Roush is in a bit of a tizzy after last week and I don’t think they will recover for this week. I will go for 2 in a row for the 18, and I will tip Newman to get out of his funk and get a top 10.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Full of It
Vegas was always a cool place to go. It was one of 2 tracks on the circuit where the city seeminly could not care less that the cup race is in town. The other being Sonoma. It always felt like more of a vaction when you went to a place that did not live for the cup race like places like Talladega and Bristol. The one thing you have got to hate about the Vegas race is all the stupid gambling cliches that the idiot announcers are going to jam down your throat in about 4 hours.
The California race was a bit of snoozer, but I think we got to see which teams will be strong in the early months of the year. Obviously every time Kyle gets into a Truck or a Nationwide car, you 'd be stupid not to pencil him in for the win. On the cup side, as I anticipated, it was all the teams that you did not hear drama from that brought their cars to the front. Hendrick, Rousch, Gibbs, Penske, and even MWR were some of the quietest in the offseason in terms of driver lineup and restructuring. Low and behold, their staff was able to focus on preparing for races instead of worrying about their jobs. It is teams like Evernham or RPM whoevertheyare that are really going to strugle until they get their core organization in order and get the boat pointed in the right direction.
Since fuel mileage could play a role in the Vegas and the Atlanta race next week, I thought I would explain a little bit about how this is figured out. It is usually the job of the race engineer to calculate the fuel mileage for the crew chief. On smaller teams, and in the early days at RGM even, the crew chief can assume this role too. It is a pretty simple calculation really. The gas man has three big red dump cans of fuel ready to fuel the car at all times during the race. After they fill these up at the gas pumps in the garage area, they weigh them on an electronic scale to get the starting weight of the fuel and the gas can. This is usually in the neighborhood of 82-88 lbs. When the car is pitted, the gas man fills the car with fuel. On a full fuel run, this will take about a can and a half or so. After the pit stop, the gas man puts the fuel cans back on the scale and gets the final weight of the can and whatever fuel is left in the can. These numbers are then given to the engineer to figure out the mileage. The difference between the starting weight of the fuel can and the weight of the can after the stop is the total weight of fuel that is used. So now...
Fuel Used (lbs.)= Weight of Fuel Before Stop - Weight of Fuel After stop
The Sunoco people will weigh a known volume of fuel before the race to assess the density of the fuel for the weekend. (Remember HS physics) This varies slightly, mostly due to temperature, but it is normally about 6.3 lbs per gallon. So the gallons used is...
Fuel Used (gallons) = Fuel Used (lbs.) / 6.3 (lbs/gal)
On a full fuel run this will be approximately 18 gallons...Now what the engineer has to do is figure how many miles were run. Normally the amount of laps run is figured in "equivalent green laps". Each caution lap is normally figured as half of a green flag lap in terms of fuel consumption. So...
Equivalent Green laps = Green Flag Laps + (Yellow Flag Laps / 2)
So if there were 54 green laps and 4 caution laps, this would mean the car ran 56 equivalent green laps. Then you just multiply this by the length of the track to get the miles ran. In this case, 56 laps * 1.5 miles at Vegas = 84 miles.
Now, the mileage is easy. Number of miles ran divided by gallons used. In this case 84 miles / 18 gallons, which gives you 4.66 mpg.
The tricky part about this is that there are a couple of fudge factors to this calculation that rely on experience to figure out. One is that if there is spillage during the stop, then you have to try and estimate what it was and how it will effect the mileage. The other is handling. If the car is tight, the driver will try to steer the car with the throttle and thus use more fuel then when he is loose and trying to slowly put power down. So sometimes it is a bit of crap shoot. (I got my cliche in for the year.)
Vegas predictions. Robby has not had as bad a start to the season as this year in long time. In the last 3 or 4 years he has had good finishes at Daytona and California and been in the top 20 in points. Now he is the thirties, with the two short tracks looming in the near future which normally don't yeild good results. So, I think the 7 car will be a bit more aggressive at Vegas to get a good result and I feel the efforts will be rewarded with a top 25 if the Toyota power doesn't blow up. I don't think you can bet against the Hendrick stuff this week. I will go for a win for the 48 and my darkhorse is Stremme for a top 10.
The California race was a bit of snoozer, but I think we got to see which teams will be strong in the early months of the year. Obviously every time Kyle gets into a Truck or a Nationwide car, you 'd be stupid not to pencil him in for the win. On the cup side, as I anticipated, it was all the teams that you did not hear drama from that brought their cars to the front. Hendrick, Rousch, Gibbs, Penske, and even MWR were some of the quietest in the offseason in terms of driver lineup and restructuring. Low and behold, their staff was able to focus on preparing for races instead of worrying about their jobs. It is teams like Evernham or RPM whoevertheyare that are really going to strugle until they get their core organization in order and get the boat pointed in the right direction.
Since fuel mileage could play a role in the Vegas and the Atlanta race next week, I thought I would explain a little bit about how this is figured out. It is usually the job of the race engineer to calculate the fuel mileage for the crew chief. On smaller teams, and in the early days at RGM even, the crew chief can assume this role too. It is a pretty simple calculation really. The gas man has three big red dump cans of fuel ready to fuel the car at all times during the race. After they fill these up at the gas pumps in the garage area, they weigh them on an electronic scale to get the starting weight of the fuel and the gas can. This is usually in the neighborhood of 82-88 lbs. When the car is pitted, the gas man fills the car with fuel. On a full fuel run, this will take about a can and a half or so. After the pit stop, the gas man puts the fuel cans back on the scale and gets the final weight of the can and whatever fuel is left in the can. These numbers are then given to the engineer to figure out the mileage. The difference between the starting weight of the fuel can and the weight of the can after the stop is the total weight of fuel that is used. So now...
Fuel Used (lbs.)= Weight of Fuel Before Stop - Weight of Fuel After stop
The Sunoco people will weigh a known volume of fuel before the race to assess the density of the fuel for the weekend. (Remember HS physics) This varies slightly, mostly due to temperature, but it is normally about 6.3 lbs per gallon. So the gallons used is...
Fuel Used (gallons) = Fuel Used (lbs.) / 6.3 (lbs/gal)
On a full fuel run this will be approximately 18 gallons...Now what the engineer has to do is figure how many miles were run. Normally the amount of laps run is figured in "equivalent green laps". Each caution lap is normally figured as half of a green flag lap in terms of fuel consumption. So...
Equivalent Green laps = Green Flag Laps + (Yellow Flag Laps / 2)
So if there were 54 green laps and 4 caution laps, this would mean the car ran 56 equivalent green laps. Then you just multiply this by the length of the track to get the miles ran. In this case, 56 laps * 1.5 miles at Vegas = 84 miles.
Now, the mileage is easy. Number of miles ran divided by gallons used. In this case 84 miles / 18 gallons, which gives you 4.66 mpg.
The tricky part about this is that there are a couple of fudge factors to this calculation that rely on experience to figure out. One is that if there is spillage during the stop, then you have to try and estimate what it was and how it will effect the mileage. The other is handling. If the car is tight, the driver will try to steer the car with the throttle and thus use more fuel then when he is loose and trying to slowly put power down. So sometimes it is a bit of crap shoot. (I got my cliche in for the year.)
Vegas predictions. Robby has not had as bad a start to the season as this year in long time. In the last 3 or 4 years he has had good finishes at Daytona and California and been in the top 20 in points. Now he is the thirties, with the two short tracks looming in the near future which normally don't yeild good results. So, I think the 7 car will be a bit more aggressive at Vegas to get a good result and I feel the efforts will be rewarded with a top 25 if the Toyota power doesn't blow up. I don't think you can bet against the Hendrick stuff this week. I will go for a win for the 48 and my darkhorse is Stremme for a top 10.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
The O.C.
If you flip a coin 4 times and you get heads each flip, it is just a matter of time before it comes up tails. Unfortunately, that seems to be the story of Robby's 2009 500. After putting up the best finishes at speedway races last year, a shock issue relegated him to also ran status. Getting hit in the Jr. fiasco probably did not help either. For sure a dissappointing way to start the year. It will
The 500 was a dissappointment from the 7 pit and it was a dissappointment from my perspective as well. You endure the first 180 laps just to watch the insanity of the last 20, and the rain made sure that was out of the cards. It's like being in high school and making out with a date in your parents basement, only to have your brother kick open the door before reaching your final destination. Then, Dale Jr. had to go and wipe out all of the competitive Toyota's and ruin any chance I had at a victory lunch. On a brighter note, my friend Chris used his free Honey Baked Ham coupon that he got from Roush to get an eight pound ham for the festivities. He made some bitchin potato salad, and I was among a bunch of friends so I cannot complain too much.
Of course there is alot of hullabaloo that goes along with Daytona, but I would look to California this week to get a better barometer of how the teams stack up in terms of pace and who will be in the hunt for race wins this season. California is the first of the fast speedways that actually requires braking and throttle control, so we will get to see who has made the most of thier offseason testing, simulation, and rig work to put a good setup under their driver.
Probably the biggest thing to look for, especially in qualifying, is the cars attitude. It will be interesting to see the toed out rear housings again that were the hot setup last year. The rule is that you can only toe the rear end 1/2", but we will see if anyone has figured out how to get away with a little more. Also, the cars that have the splitters on the ground all the way through the corner without bouncing around over the bumps too much will probably be the fastest.
With California being on the bigger side and everyone tip toeing around trying to maximize thier points and lock into the top 35, a fuel mileage race could be in the cards. There is none better than Carl at the fuel mileage game. With Carl's eye for mileage and the normally stout 2 mile Roush engine package, I will tip Carl for the win with atleast 2 other Roush cars in the top 10. Obviously Kyle will be a threat, and I will tip Vickers for a top 5 as my dark horse. I feel that RG will struggle this week. California has not been a happy hunting ground for him in the last bunch of years, despite it being in his back yard. He will have plenty of family and friends, but they may go home dissappointed. The Toyota power may help, but all of the bigger teams have spent more of their offseason refining their chassis package, and it could be a bleeder.
The 500 was a dissappointment from the 7 pit and it was a dissappointment from my perspective as well. You endure the first 180 laps just to watch the insanity of the last 20, and the rain made sure that was out of the cards. It's like being in high school and making out with a date in your parents basement, only to have your brother kick open the door before reaching your final destination. Then, Dale Jr. had to go and wipe out all of the competitive Toyota's and ruin any chance I had at a victory lunch. On a brighter note, my friend Chris used his free Honey Baked Ham coupon that he got from Roush to get an eight pound ham for the festivities. He made some bitchin potato salad, and I was among a bunch of friends so I cannot complain too much.
Of course there is alot of hullabaloo that goes along with Daytona, but I would look to California this week to get a better barometer of how the teams stack up in terms of pace and who will be in the hunt for race wins this season. California is the first of the fast speedways that actually requires braking and throttle control, so we will get to see who has made the most of thier offseason testing, simulation, and rig work to put a good setup under their driver.
Probably the biggest thing to look for, especially in qualifying, is the cars attitude. It will be interesting to see the toed out rear housings again that were the hot setup last year. The rule is that you can only toe the rear end 1/2", but we will see if anyone has figured out how to get away with a little more. Also, the cars that have the splitters on the ground all the way through the corner without bouncing around over the bumps too much will probably be the fastest.
With California being on the bigger side and everyone tip toeing around trying to maximize thier points and lock into the top 35, a fuel mileage race could be in the cards. There is none better than Carl at the fuel mileage game. With Carl's eye for mileage and the normally stout 2 mile Roush engine package, I will tip Carl for the win with atleast 2 other Roush cars in the top 10. Obviously Kyle will be a threat, and I will tip Vickers for a top 5 as my dark horse. I feel that RG will struggle this week. California has not been a happy hunting ground for him in the last bunch of years, despite it being in his back yard. He will have plenty of family and friends, but they may go home dissappointed. The Toyota power may help, but all of the bigger teams have spent more of their offseason refining their chassis package, and it could be a bleeder.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Just Shoot Me
The Shootout last night provided the baby steps of a very long season, like the first tulips that rise from the frozen earth in the spring. I know that I was saddled up to the TV last night with my other racing buddies and pounded some hotdogs and Ford Dave's famous macaroni and cheese. The season is truly upon us, and there is much to be excited about. Qualifying is on in the background as I write and Truex is still on the pole. You just get the sense that the DEI/Ganassi, whoeverthehelltheyare cars may have a good run in the 500, but will most likely fade into oblivion when the circus heads to circuits that require braking and cornering ability.
I think the savvy racefan and all of the Cup crew chiefs last night will have learned a good bit from the Shootout, even if they were not in it. One lesson was stay away from Logano and Stremme. However, the biggest lesson was that taking tires late in the race is death sentence. Vickers relinquished the lead and took 4 tires with 7 laps to go. He restarted in 13th or 14th and just did not have enough room or time to use the extra grip to his advantage. The 83 crew chief tripped on his dick for sure. The Daytona tire is total junk, and you can see how dicey it starts to get after about 15 or 20 laps, and that is only half of a fuel run. The car will field way better with new rubber, but if you are in the top 5 or 10 late in the race, I think you have to stay out and try to ride it out. Too many times, the end of the race gets three wide all the way through the field and there is no room to pass people. Obviously McMurray probably got too far out in front on that last lap to win, but if they wrecked behind him, the victory would have been his.
Alot of times with RG will want to take tires at the end of the race because he likes passing people. It's more comfortable to race on the front foot when you have the comfort of the added grip on new tires. One time at Atlanta he pitted from 16th for tires with 2 laps to go and ended up 12th. So it worked out. I hope they think twice about that move after last nights race.
I know the qualifying lap was nothing to write home about for the 7 car. The crew guys will extatic about getting an early draw and getting to leave the track early, so atleast they have that going for them. They are smart enough to know that Rob will most likely hang out at the end of pack in the 500 and that qualifying does not matter at all for this race.
It is still a long week. You need to have a clean drafting practice on Wednesday, and hopefully stay out of the wrecks in the 150's on Thursday. Being locked into the field gives Rob the luxury to protect his equipment, and expect him to stay out of the funny buisness until 30 to go nexy Sunday.
I think the savvy racefan and all of the Cup crew chiefs last night will have learned a good bit from the Shootout, even if they were not in it. One lesson was stay away from Logano and Stremme. However, the biggest lesson was that taking tires late in the race is death sentence. Vickers relinquished the lead and took 4 tires with 7 laps to go. He restarted in 13th or 14th and just did not have enough room or time to use the extra grip to his advantage. The 83 crew chief tripped on his dick for sure. The Daytona tire is total junk, and you can see how dicey it starts to get after about 15 or 20 laps, and that is only half of a fuel run. The car will field way better with new rubber, but if you are in the top 5 or 10 late in the race, I think you have to stay out and try to ride it out. Too many times, the end of the race gets three wide all the way through the field and there is no room to pass people. Obviously McMurray probably got too far out in front on that last lap to win, but if they wrecked behind him, the victory would have been his.
Alot of times with RG will want to take tires at the end of the race because he likes passing people. It's more comfortable to race on the front foot when you have the comfort of the added grip on new tires. One time at Atlanta he pitted from 16th for tires with 2 laps to go and ended up 12th. So it worked out. I hope they think twice about that move after last nights race.
I know the qualifying lap was nothing to write home about for the 7 car. The crew guys will extatic about getting an early draw and getting to leave the track early, so atleast they have that going for them. They are smart enough to know that Rob will most likely hang out at the end of pack in the 500 and that qualifying does not matter at all for this race.
It is still a long week. You need to have a clean drafting practice on Wednesday, and hopefully stay out of the wrecks in the 150's on Thursday. Being locked into the field gives Rob the luxury to protect his equipment, and expect him to stay out of the funny buisness until 30 to go nexy Sunday.
Monday, February 2, 2009
RG is a Genious
After the Homestead race, Carl got out of his car and said he wished that Daytona started the next day. Well, Daytona is upon us my friends. Qualifying is on Sunday (boooooring), and the shootout (definitively not boring) is on Saturday. The trucks are leaving in the next couple of days and we will be off and running.
Speaking of the shootout, Robby Gordon might just be a genious. Unless you have totally tuned out to all of the comings and goings in the Cup world in the last bunch of months, you will know that RG is running a Dodge in the shootout, before switching noses and motors for the 4th time in 4 years to Toyota for the 500. With the new shootout rules and all of the teams that have folded in the offseason, RG was the 6th best Dodge in 2008 and thus qualifies for a spot in the shootout as a Dodge. Not since the old school days when the King used to win 30 races a year has a team run different makes in the same year. It is for sure a bold move, and with $1 million on the line who wouldn't take the chance.
As far as the team is concerned, running 2 makes won't really cause too many problems. RG was brilliant at superspeedways last year, and I know they had two really good Dodge bodied cars that were in perfect shape and ready to go since the Talladega race last October. They should have needed just a little bit of fluffing and buffing and maybe a few small fixes. All they would have had to do is to prep 2 new Toyota nosed superspeedway cars. Historically, you would prep 3 cars for Daytona. A primary and a backup that would go to the track, and a third car that would stay home unless you got wrecked in one of the drafting practice session or in the 150 the Thursday before the race. I would expect RG to take it easy in the drafting practice with the Toyota, as I doubt they would prep 3 Toyota's and 2 Dodges for one race, but who knows.
No matter how you slice it, it is a bit weird, but perhaps with the recession, and the new look of NASCAR, being manufacturer independent may put you a little ahead of the curve. Especially with the American car makers in dire straights. With no points on the line I am excited to see how RG runs the shootout. When we used to go to the points races, he would take a very conservative approach until the end. Now it doesn't matter, so it could be quite interesting.
My predictions for qualifying are that I don't care, because it is completely meaningless. My predictions for the 7 spots left for the out of the top 35 cars are Boris, Keselowski, Bowyer, Riggs, Regan Smith, Scott Riggs, and Terry Labonte...For the shootout I will go for Jeff Gordon...He will have a breakout year I think, and it will start this weekend.
Speaking of the shootout, Robby Gordon might just be a genious. Unless you have totally tuned out to all of the comings and goings in the Cup world in the last bunch of months, you will know that RG is running a Dodge in the shootout, before switching noses and motors for the 4th time in 4 years to Toyota for the 500. With the new shootout rules and all of the teams that have folded in the offseason, RG was the 6th best Dodge in 2008 and thus qualifies for a spot in the shootout as a Dodge. Not since the old school days when the King used to win 30 races a year has a team run different makes in the same year. It is for sure a bold move, and with $1 million on the line who wouldn't take the chance.
As far as the team is concerned, running 2 makes won't really cause too many problems. RG was brilliant at superspeedways last year, and I know they had two really good Dodge bodied cars that were in perfect shape and ready to go since the Talladega race last October. They should have needed just a little bit of fluffing and buffing and maybe a few small fixes. All they would have had to do is to prep 2 new Toyota nosed superspeedway cars. Historically, you would prep 3 cars for Daytona. A primary and a backup that would go to the track, and a third car that would stay home unless you got wrecked in one of the drafting practice session or in the 150 the Thursday before the race. I would expect RG to take it easy in the drafting practice with the Toyota, as I doubt they would prep 3 Toyota's and 2 Dodges for one race, but who knows.
No matter how you slice it, it is a bit weird, but perhaps with the recession, and the new look of NASCAR, being manufacturer independent may put you a little ahead of the curve. Especially with the American car makers in dire straights. With no points on the line I am excited to see how RG runs the shootout. When we used to go to the points races, he would take a very conservative approach until the end. Now it doesn't matter, so it could be quite interesting.
My predictions for qualifying are that I don't care, because it is completely meaningless. My predictions for the 7 spots left for the out of the top 35 cars are Boris, Keselowski, Bowyer, Riggs, Regan Smith, Scott Riggs, and Terry Labonte...For the shootout I will go for Jeff Gordon...He will have a breakout year I think, and it will start this weekend.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Winter Vibrations
Congrats to TOG for all of the great Dakar coverage this year. I know he works tirelessly to bring the story to the RG fans and it was very comprehensive. Welcome all of you who have signed up for the planet in droves in the last couple of months. Obviously the shout out from Jayski has brought a lot of you here, and I welcome you all to the discussion.
I just wanted to reintroduce myself for those who do not know who I am or why my blog is featured on the planet. I used to be an engineer for RGM from 2006 until I got fired last summer. I went to a bunch of races, lived the dream, and learned a lot about racing and the silliness of the buisness. I now work for Toyota running a 7 post machine as support for Toyota's NASCAR operations. I write the blog to give a little bit of insight into the technical side of the sport and some of the interesting cercumstances that arise when 200 (mostly guys) get together every week to race a bunch of taxi cabs.
There is a weird vibe in the NASCAR world just at the moment. Normally this is the weekend between the two Daytona tests. You used to come back from xmas break and scramble like crazy to put the finishing touches on the two test cars. The finish fab people would be hastily epoxying the windshields and making the quarter window braces. The body people would be staying late and working wierd hours to bondo the underside of the cars just right, and the engineers would be scrambling to get the data systems tuned up and calibrated. The payoff was always this cathartic moment when the first test car was pushed outside the shop and the metallic grinding of the starter provided a momentary preamble to the first engine of the year turning over and rumbling to life. There is something a bit sweet about the toxic exhaust scent that makes all the hours seem worth while when it finally hits your nose.
However, the NASCAR community is just a bit lost with the upset in the normal ruitine. There is a little bit of relief just because the tests were so boring. But there is also a little bit of panic that the first run of the year for a lot of drivers, or driver crew chief combinations is going to be at the big show. Everyone wants the season to start well, and the Daytona test allowed you to make some stupid mistakes before the curtain goes up at the 500.
Don't let the media fool you. Teams are still testing. But it will not feel real until they drive through the turn 4 tunnel and into the shadows of Lake Lloyd in just 3 short weeks.
I just wanted to reintroduce myself for those who do not know who I am or why my blog is featured on the planet. I used to be an engineer for RGM from 2006 until I got fired last summer. I went to a bunch of races, lived the dream, and learned a lot about racing and the silliness of the buisness. I now work for Toyota running a 7 post machine as support for Toyota's NASCAR operations. I write the blog to give a little bit of insight into the technical side of the sport and some of the interesting cercumstances that arise when 200 (mostly guys) get together every week to race a bunch of taxi cabs.
There is a weird vibe in the NASCAR world just at the moment. Normally this is the weekend between the two Daytona tests. You used to come back from xmas break and scramble like crazy to put the finishing touches on the two test cars. The finish fab people would be hastily epoxying the windshields and making the quarter window braces. The body people would be staying late and working wierd hours to bondo the underside of the cars just right, and the engineers would be scrambling to get the data systems tuned up and calibrated. The payoff was always this cathartic moment when the first test car was pushed outside the shop and the metallic grinding of the starter provided a momentary preamble to the first engine of the year turning over and rumbling to life. There is something a bit sweet about the toxic exhaust scent that makes all the hours seem worth while when it finally hits your nose.
However, the NASCAR community is just a bit lost with the upset in the normal ruitine. There is a little bit of relief just because the tests were so boring. But there is also a little bit of panic that the first run of the year for a lot of drivers, or driver crew chief combinations is going to be at the big show. Everyone wants the season to start well, and the Daytona test allowed you to make some stupid mistakes before the curtain goes up at the 500.
Don't let the media fool you. Teams are still testing. But it will not feel real until they drive through the turn 4 tunnel and into the shadows of Lake Lloyd in just 3 short weeks.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Testing is soooo 2008
I was having some dinner at Outback last night and I saw the first commercials of the year for the Daytona 500. I pointed them out to my friends and they laughed at me and told me that had been on for atleast a week. Even so, it is getting close enough that you can almost smell it, can't you. Apparently there is still going to be a Pre-Season thunder event at Daytona this year, but no fan that is interested in the racing more than the soap opera will go (I hope). With no testing going on, it will merely be a an autograph session. Meanwhile the teams will still be scrambling in NC and Denver, CO (the 78 car) to make preparations for the race, even if they cannot test on the beach.
I went to two years of Daytona testing and it was one of the most boring experiences you can imagine. It was a 3 day test. Normally, the first day was all single car runs, then the next 2 days were single car runs in the AM and drafting in the PM. During the single car sessions they would only let 3 cars on the track at one time. So you would go out and make a run, come in, make a change, the car would go out again and you would wait on the pit road for half an hour until the 20 cars ahead of you in line made a run. During the drafting sessions you were on pins and needles that there would not be a wreck.
From an engineering/data perspective, it was sortof a mind fuck. You put all this instrumentation on the car, but most of the time you were looking at the pitot tube trace (wind speed sensor...basically) to see if the lap time change was due to the wind or something you actually changed on the car. The wind is so brutal there sometimes that the car would exit turn 2 and the RPM would stay the same the whole way down the backstretch due to the headwind.
Before the test you spend a bunch of time in the wind tunnel testing body panels, and then you would bring the best of the bunch and try to run them on the track to see if the gains were real, but at times it was really hard to tell.With the old cars and the current Busch cars and trucks, the premium was to get as much rear shock travel as possible to get the spoiler low and out of the air. The COTs still like the rear of the car to travel alot, but the sensitivity is much lower with the wing on the back. Spoilers make downforce (and drag) from slowing the air over the surface of the car, where as a wing speeds up the air on the lower surface of the wing and makes a suction force that acts down on the car. With a wing there is less drag penalty due to its small profile. All of the manufacturers run ride height windtunnel and simulation tests to find the shock travel that results in the lowest drag, and the crew chief would try to figure out how to achieve that with springs and bar and whatever.
The other thing that always seems to be a gain with the COT is running it as loose as you can. Running a loose setup will require the driver to turn the wheel less and the tires will not scrub as much in the corners and there will be less speed loss. Daytona is all about eliminating drag in everything from the engine and drive to the tires. Of course the cars that are locked into the feild will be more worried about having a stable car that stays consistent late in a run...But that will more difficult to achieve without testing.
I went to two years of Daytona testing and it was one of the most boring experiences you can imagine. It was a 3 day test. Normally, the first day was all single car runs, then the next 2 days were single car runs in the AM and drafting in the PM. During the single car sessions they would only let 3 cars on the track at one time. So you would go out and make a run, come in, make a change, the car would go out again and you would wait on the pit road for half an hour until the 20 cars ahead of you in line made a run. During the drafting sessions you were on pins and needles that there would not be a wreck.
From an engineering/data perspective, it was sortof a mind fuck. You put all this instrumentation on the car, but most of the time you were looking at the pitot tube trace (wind speed sensor...basically) to see if the lap time change was due to the wind or something you actually changed on the car. The wind is so brutal there sometimes that the car would exit turn 2 and the RPM would stay the same the whole way down the backstretch due to the headwind.
Before the test you spend a bunch of time in the wind tunnel testing body panels, and then you would bring the best of the bunch and try to run them on the track to see if the gains were real, but at times it was really hard to tell.With the old cars and the current Busch cars and trucks, the premium was to get as much rear shock travel as possible to get the spoiler low and out of the air. The COTs still like the rear of the car to travel alot, but the sensitivity is much lower with the wing on the back. Spoilers make downforce (and drag) from slowing the air over the surface of the car, where as a wing speeds up the air on the lower surface of the wing and makes a suction force that acts down on the car. With a wing there is less drag penalty due to its small profile. All of the manufacturers run ride height windtunnel and simulation tests to find the shock travel that results in the lowest drag, and the crew chief would try to figure out how to achieve that with springs and bar and whatever.
The other thing that always seems to be a gain with the COT is running it as loose as you can. Running a loose setup will require the driver to turn the wheel less and the tires will not scrub as much in the corners and there will be less speed loss. Daytona is all about eliminating drag in everything from the engine and drive to the tires. Of course the cars that are locked into the feild will be more worried about having a stable car that stays consistent late in a run...But that will more difficult to achieve without testing.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Seriously? Wood Brothers?
Happy new year to one and all. There is nothing like a change of the year number to breathe a little fresh air into life. New goals, new challenges, and a blank sheet of paper. Obviously 2008 was a bit of a challenge for me in a couple of ways. My career path took a couple of dips and dives. Around Thanks giving of 2007 I was going to leave RGM for Wood Bros., only to have an 11th hour change of heart. (Seriously...Wood Bros.???....What was I smoking???) I was glad that I stayed at Rob's and after "drinking the Kool-Aid" so to speak at the company xmas party, we were set to win 5 races and make the chase. After a torrid beginning of the season, the 5th crew chief of my RGM career started, and he promptly began the task of running RG out of the top 35, and used some bold tactics to get me launched out of RGM in July. It was a bit of a mind fuck for me. I have always been committed to a fault in my life, so I always had some romantic vision of spending my entire NASCAR career at one Cup team. I knew the buisness was not at all stable (NASCAR, not RGM necessarily), and I wanted to live above the bullshit, work tirelessly for one cause, build it the best I could, and leave when the time was right. Although my time was cut shorter than I imagined, I learned a lot, and I have no regrets about any of the decisions I made or any of the hours I worked.
Every end is a new beginning I suppose. After 3 months on the couch I took a job at Toyota Racing Development. But not before I started blogging for the planet, started The Hot Pass store and thehotpass.com with my friend BC, which was the primary reason that got him launched out of RGM too. Funny how that works. Unemployment loves company I guess. Unemployment also got me in trouble with the law, the dramas of which have yet to fully play out. I got a reckless driving ticket for ripping through the Tennessee mountains. I am on probation for that for another 3 months. I also got a speeding ticket visiting friends in New York (86 in a 65). Both of these tickets were in a week of each other. While my parents were in town for xmas I got a letter from NC DMV that my license is suspended as of 1.1.09 unless I requested a hearing since I got a speeding ticket over 75 mph out of state...Blah blah...so I have to defend my honor on the fifteenth....And my dad is wearing me out about speeding ticket.
Anyway...these are all silly problems, and I am a believer that the present is theatre for the future...so it's not all that bad. So horray for 2009. I have some interesting things planned for this year, and my new job hours should allow me to dominate them in the way that they deserve.
NASCAR is obviously pretty quiet just at the moment. There are driver swaps and mergers, but these are well covered in the mainstream media. They are not creating many, if any, new jobs, so they are not that significant around here. The best on track action until Daytona is for sure the Dakar Rally. Hopefully RG can continue to represent America well again in this event and win some stages. In honor of this event, thehotpass.com store is pleased to announce the "10 Stages of Dakar". Each weekday starting on January 5th The Hot Pass will release a different Dakar or Robby Gordon related item with no reserve. (Except for the 1st day, as the stickers will be buy it now only.) The picture below shows the order of items.
Happy New Year...Dominate on 3.
Every end is a new beginning I suppose. After 3 months on the couch I took a job at Toyota Racing Development. But not before I started blogging for the planet, started The Hot Pass store and thehotpass.com with my friend BC, which was the primary reason that got him launched out of RGM too. Funny how that works. Unemployment loves company I guess. Unemployment also got me in trouble with the law, the dramas of which have yet to fully play out. I got a reckless driving ticket for ripping through the Tennessee mountains. I am on probation for that for another 3 months. I also got a speeding ticket visiting friends in New York (86 in a 65). Both of these tickets were in a week of each other. While my parents were in town for xmas I got a letter from NC DMV that my license is suspended as of 1.1.09 unless I requested a hearing since I got a speeding ticket over 75 mph out of state...Blah blah...so I have to defend my honor on the fifteenth....And my dad is wearing me out about speeding ticket.
Anyway...these are all silly problems, and I am a believer that the present is theatre for the future...so it's not all that bad. So horray for 2009. I have some interesting things planned for this year, and my new job hours should allow me to dominate them in the way that they deserve.
NASCAR is obviously pretty quiet just at the moment. There are driver swaps and mergers, but these are well covered in the mainstream media. They are not creating many, if any, new jobs, so they are not that significant around here. The best on track action until Daytona is for sure the Dakar Rally. Hopefully RG can continue to represent America well again in this event and win some stages. In honor of this event, thehotpass.com store is pleased to announce the "10 Stages of Dakar". Each weekday starting on January 5th The Hot Pass will release a different Dakar or Robby Gordon related item with no reserve. (Except for the 1st day, as the stickers will be buy it now only.) The picture below shows the order of items.
Happy New Year...Dominate on 3.
"10 Stages of Dakar"
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