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By Lee Montgomery, Turner Sports Interactive
January 17, 2004
6:59 PM EST (2359 GMT)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- NASCAR Busch Series teams are considerably slower than their Nextel Cup brethren during Preseason Thunder testing, but there's a good reason.
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| Bobby Hamilton Jr. thinks the new aerodynamic package will make for a more competitive race. Credit: Autostock |
Busch Series teams are using an aerodynamic rules package similar to what Cup teams used in 2000-2001 at the two restrictor-plate tracks: all cars use a roof strip and a wickerbill on the rear spoiler.
The idea is to have the cars create a larger hole in the air, which bunches up the field and should make it easier to pass. It has slowed the cars, but drivers seem to like the new package.
"You can actually pass now," Bobby Hamilton Jr. said. "You don't have to run in line wide open all day. ... The way that the packages are, there is a lot of throttle response, so hopefully the wrecks have gone out of the situation because you can back out (of the throttle) and not lose positions."
The new package calls for roof strips that are a half-inch tall in the middle of the roof and 1.5 inches tall on the sides. The strip is placed toward the front of the roof. The wicker, a metal strip that is perpendicular on the rear spoiler is 1.5 inches.
The rules are the same for all makes of cars, except the 2002 Pontiac. That spoiler has to be 7.25 inches high at 70 degrees, while all other makes are 6.5 inches at 70 degrees. Hermie Sadler has an '02 Pontiac that is struggling to get speed because of the taller spoiler.
Joe Nemechek won the pole for last February's race at 186.050 mph, but no one broke the 180 mph mark Saturday morning.
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| David Green says the adjustment will make Daytona more similar to other races on the schedule. Credit: Autostock |
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"The thing that is the most aggravating about the Busch Series race here is you get up in those packs, and you literally have to stay in there and sweat it out," David Green said.
"If you put yourself in a position to take a breath and relax for a minute, you can lose the draft, and you can be done. You're on pins and needles the whole race."
But the new rules should make Daytona more like other races, Green said.
"To me, it's no different than anywhere else," Green said. "You have the ability to go up and catch cars and pass cars. This new rules package will be very good, very forgiving. The only thing you've got to watch, though, is the closing rate with the young guys, the inexperienced guys."
NASCAR took a handful of cars to Talladega last month to test several aerodynamic packages.
"I was always afraid that they didn't trust us enough to do it, but now they have, and they went and saw the test and enjoyed what they saw, and we enjoyed being part of it," Hamilton Jr. said.
"It was like, 'Keep doing more, keep doing more' until they got to the point where we were 14-wide and hardly had to be in the throttle, and they had to bring it back a little bit."
Green is driving a Pontiac this week, even though Pontiac has pulled out of NASCAR. Green's Brewco Motorsports team is building a new Chevrolet that isn't quite done yet, but the Pontiac down here is a new car.
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Green said the team built a Grand Prix last year and took it to a wind tunnel about a week before General Motors announced that Pontiac wouldn't support any NASCAR teams after 2003. But GM let Brewco run a Pontiac while it changes its fleet of cars over to Chevrolets.
"They said, 'We know it takes time for the Busch Series. You can't just snap your fingers and change bodies,'" Green said. "Our main goal is to learn what we can this weekend with this car, and more than likely, come back with a Monte Carlo. We will run some Pontiacs sparingly here at the beginning of the year, but Chevrolet has given us the luxury that we can grandfather those out and bring on our new Monte Carlo."
Green and Brewco teammate Johnny Sauter are in Pontiacs, as is Sadler. Joe Nemechek has a Pontiac and a Chevrolet.
Green is curious as to where Sauter will turn after the young driver competes in Busch Series races. Will Sauter head to a Richard Childress Racing trailer? Or will Sauter go talk to Green, his Busch Series teammate?
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| Johnny Sauter will run full-time in both the Busch and Nextel Cup Series this year. |
Sauter is driving full-time in both series, driving for RCR in Cup and Brewco in Busch.
"RCR has got two cars in the Busch Series, and two cars they expect to win the owners' championship with and the drivers' championship with," Green said. "The jury's still out. We'll see how Johnny handles all that, but that's going to be something he has to work through.
"I'm glad I'm not in his shoes because there's going to be two teams pulling him for information."
Green said RCR will probably "strong-arm us guys at Brewco."
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| Mike Wallace will not run in the Daytona 500 next month. |
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Mike Wallace would have driven in all three NASCAR series during Speedweeks next month, but a deal to compete in the Daytona 500 didn't come through. He'll still drive in the Busch Series (with the Biagi Brothers) and the Craftsman Truck Series races, however.
"I'm going to drive Kenny Schrader's truck again," Wallace said. "I'm really disappointed. I thought I was going to drive in the Daytona 500. It kind of fell apart last Saturday afternoon. We'll just make the best of it. We'll try to wun us a truck race and a Busch race."
Hamilton Jr. would love to win the season-opening Hershey's Kisses 300, but he knows it's a long shot with the way the Chance 2 cars are running. Dale Earnhardt Jr. swept both races here last year, leading every lap in the July race.
His Chance 2 teammate, Martin Truex Jr., led the Saturday morning session, with Earnhardt Jr. right behind. They were more than two-tenths of a second faster than the rest of the field.
"That would be really great (to win), but as long as that 8 car is here, that ain't going to happen," Hamilton Jr. said. "Today, he's out there just playing around. You can just see it. They're not even working, and they pick up two-tenths every time they run."
Randy LaJoie's FitzBradshaw Racing team has signed a sponsor for three races next season. LaJoie will drive the No. 82 Chevrolet at California on May 1, Nazareth on May 23 and Charlotte on Oct. 15 as a teammate to Casey Atwood and Tim Fedewa.
Goulds Pumps will be the major sponsor of LaJoie's car in those events and will also be an associate on FitzBradshaw's other cars all season.
While most Busch Series teams are in Daytona on Saturday and Sunday and then Tuesday and Wednesday, Roush Racing's No. 17 team will test at Atlanta Motor Speedway next week.
Craftsman Truck Series drivers Carl Edwards and Jon Wood will test the car Tuesday and Wednesday at AMS.
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"If we can carry a racecar up there and sign autographs for two or three hours and get to blow stuff up and shoot weapons, I'm all for it," Hamilton Jr. on visiting Marine Corps camps.
"It's a huge race to win, and it's all about what NASCAR is. But it's a booger to win," Green on the Hershey's Kisses 300.
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