The NFL holds training camp, while Major League Baseball treks to Florida and Arizona for spring training, all in an effort to workout the kinks that accumulate over the offseason.
NASCAR’s version of training camp and spring training is titled “Preseason Thunder” and held on the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway. Starting yesterday and running through Saturday, it gives drivers and teams an opportunity to get reacquainted with one another, and in some instances, to start the feeling out process that goes along with a driver, crew chief or another key crew member of an organization entering their first season with a new team.
However, thanks to a litany of new rules introduced by NASCAR, this year’s open test session is more than just shaking off the rust and gearing up for the season which is just alittle more than a month away.
Among the changes introduced:
• A smaller radiator, reduced from a capacity of five-gallons to two.
• A smaller overflow tank with a maximum capacity of a half-a-gallon.
• The restrictor-plate issued by NASCAR has been made 1/64th of an inch larger than the one used in last year’s Daytona 500.
• A smaller rear spoiler.
• Softer springs.
Combined together, the sanctioning body is hoping these changes will limit, and hopefully prevent altogether, the two-car tandem drafting which was so prevalent last year at Daytona and Talladega.
“It’s important for us to test down here, not only for the teams, but for us,” said NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton. “We’ve had track tests at Daytona and Talladega and we’ve been in the wind tunnel several times. We think we’re making some great strides.
“The test is going pretty good for us. The teams are learning about their equipment and the limits they will be under with water temperatures and things like that. We’ve seen softer springs, a smaller spoiler and a reduction in downforce. We’re pleased with the progress we’ve made so far.”
Judging by what we witnessed yesterday in the first day of practice, NASCAR has more work to do if they want to change style of racing in next month’s Daytona 500.
Throughout both the morning and afternoon sessions, cars again ran in pairs nose-to-tail. Reminiscent of the kind of racing we saw last year at both Daytona and Talladega, and the kind of racing fans decried in masses and that NASCAR vowed to fix.
Which explains why after yesterday’s on track activities had come to a halt, NASCAR again was issuing further changes to teams. Enlarging the restrictor-plate further by 15/16ths of an inch, trimming the front grille by an inch on each side and reducing the cooling pressure by five pounds. And that doesn’t include a ban on drivers communicating with one another via radio, which came down before the green flag waved on yesterday’s morning session.
The intention is that this will make the cars faster, harder to drive and when tucked in behind another car, more likely to overheat faster, thus severely limiting two cars working in tandem for a prolonged period of time. And will hopefully return pack racing to the high-banks of Daytona.
“At the end of the day NASCAR walks a fine line of making the cars hard enough to drive that they are not in a giant dangerous pack and that people aren’t super aggressive with them,” said Carl Edwards. “They have to make them hard enough to drive that we go into the corner and aren’t sure quite what is going to happen. It slides. And they don’t want to make it so hard that the race is one guy running away from the field and it isn’t exciting for the fans.
“Let’s face it, the fans come to Daytona to see an exciting, crazy race. They want a pack of cars or two cars teamed up. It seems to me that is what fans come to see. I am all for higher speeds, less grip and make the cars harder to drive. That is fine with me.”
Whether the collection of new rules will have any consequence is open for debate. 2004 500 champion, Dale Earnhardt Jr., doesn’t think much will change from what fans saw a year ago.
“If I had to guess, I’d guess it’s going to look like last year’s race,” said Earnhardt.
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Photo courtesy of NASCAR Media/Getty Images