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.

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.

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.

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.