2014 Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway Weekend Discussion

[labontefanboy]

Good point there RP. We can all bash Brian France and NASCAR, but at the end of the day, how many professional sports organizations constantly change things with the fans and spectators as the first priority?

I do have one question though. If greater speed means greater aero effects and therefore a larger disparity between clean and dirty air, how come the racing has been so entertaining this year? I would argue that the cars are going the fastest they ever have (or close to it) with the Gen6, but this year in particular we've seen some really good action. Is it just a matter of circumstances helped by teams pushing the limits with their setups that causes cautions for tires (e.g. Auto Club and Richmond), or is it the changes that you mentioned about added downforce and rear camber?

 

[RP Motorsports]

Good point there RP. We can all bash Brian France and NASCAR, but at the end of the day, how many professional sports organizations constantly change things with the fans and spectators as the first priority?

Exactly. Does anyone think that Gary Bettman or Bud Selig really give a sh*t what the fans want? Certainly not to the extent of having the willingness to make drastic changes when called for. They know they don't really have to care, for that matter. Those sports are already so well established, and pull in a significantly larger "casual" fan base. Not to mention, the sponsorship needed to make the racing world go around is on a whole different level compared to those sports. They can more-or-less stand pat from now until the end of time.

Also, I think its important to note that Brian France is not the almighty dictator that his father or grand-father was. Not even close. Significant changes that happen within the sport are not a result of France saying "Lets do this, that, and this - done". Theres a lot of moving parts within the sanctioning body in this day and age, and the way it operates is nothing like the "Big Bill" era. It starts with people like Mike Helton, Robin Pemberton, John Darby, Kerry Tharp, Wayne Auton, etc..., and goes on down the line quite a ways.

I do have one question though. If greater speed means greater aero effects and therefore a larger disparity between clean and dirty air, how come the racing has been so entertaining this year? I would argue that the cars are going the fastest they ever have (or close to it) with the Gen6, but this year in particular we've seen some really good action. Is it just a matter of circumstances helped by teams pushing the limits with their setups that causes cautions for tires (e.g. Auto Club and Richmond), or is it the changes that you mentioned about added downforce and rear camber?

Yea, thats basically it. The reason the racing has been so good this year, despite the fast speeds, is all the significant changes NASCAR has made to the cars over the last year to keep up with it. The Gen6 was already a very different car compared to the COT, both in aero and mechanical grip. Then coming into this season, NASCAR made even more drastic changes in anticipation of the increased speeds. These cars now have between 400 and 500 more pounds of downforce, another degree-and-a-half of rear camber tolerance, and about 75 pounds of weight bias moved out of the right side of the car. And then they also went to the "coil-under" spring/shock setup in the front (replacing the need for bump-stop shims). Those are HUGE and drastic changes. And without them, the racing would've been considerably different this year (not in a good way).

The problem is theres still work to be done. As I mentioned before, the taller spoilers provided the added downforce they were trying to achieve, but also created some unfavorable aero effects with the huge wake they produce. Those effects may not be as noticeable right now, but its only a matter of time. The teams' notebooks on these cars are still very small (one Gen6 season in the books, and only nine races with this package) . As the progression of R&D and innovation happens, the racing naturally changes, AND the speeds continue to increase. We're getting close to that threshold of the speeds being too fast and needing too much downforce to compensate for it (to maintain competitive/exciting racing). Which is why the next step is to dial back the power. And not just because we're getting close to that threshold, but also because of what I mentioned before (or O'Donnell mentioned and I reiterated) about it giving the drivers a little more maneuverability in the turns.

What a lot of people dont realize is that dialing back the power is actually a win-win scenario. Its going to essentially "kill two birds with one stone". A lot of people don't realize it, and the natural reaction becomes "why would NASCAR change anything at this point, especially reducing the power?". Whats important to understand, this is a part of NASCAR staying ahead of the curve - just like they did with the 2014 package. This is whats needed to maintain the incredible racing from now into the future.

For what its worth, I had a good two-hour conversation with a buddy the other night who works in R&D for RFR, and he was telling me all about how pro-active NASCAR is being with the Gen6 car. They've taken a whole new direction with their R&D and competition departments (working a lot more closely with the teams as well) to try to stay ahead of the curve and continue making the best competition package decisions, and without taking any real big shots in the dark. They have a lot of cool stuff in the works for the 2015 package, and theres a whole lot of optimism that the racing next year is easily going to be twice as good as this year.

As far as the tire issues, they're mostly a result of the changes made to the car this year. The increased downforce and camber tolerances result in increased tire wear and abuse. Its basically as simple as that. The teams are not doing anything different, in the sense that they've always pushed the limits and always will (meaning they're not pushing the limits more so than they have in the past). If Goodyear recommends a minimum pressure of 20 psi on right sides, teams will run them at 15 psi. So in some cases, the teams pushing pressure limits can contribute to it, and in others, its just a result of the increased wear coming from the increased downforce and camber changes. In other words, the variable in all of this is the package changes.

In addition to that, by the time NASCAR finalized the competition package for this year, it was too late in the game for Goodyear to develop/experiment with different compounds, produce the test tires, go do all the testing, then mass-produce the tires needed, all before running these races. And thats going to be another part of next years changes and package. NASCAR is going to have it finalized well in advance so Goodyear has plenty of time to test and develop exactly what NASCAR is looking for, which is going to be a softer tire with considerable wear, but not to the extent of cording and blowing out.

All in all, NASCAR is really getting all their "ducks in a row" for next year. Probably more so than they ever have in the past.