Nascar: 2010

[Don]

By now, most have seen :

" NASCAR told the teams Friday that it will replace the rear wing with a spoiler at some point during the 2010 Sprint Cup season. More testing is needed in the wind tunnel, which will help determine a size, shape and angle for the spoiler. In addition, NASCAR has slated an open test March 23-24 at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the teams.

The goal is to have similar downforce and balance with the spoiler as NASCAR has had with the wing, according to the NASCAR bulletin. Teams won’t fabricate the spoilers, which will be purchased from an approved vendor. "


http://www.scenedaily.com/news/artic...mentation.html

Not an engineer and it's been many years + since Physics 101, NASCAR may have overlooked that once the car is in the air off the track and/or partially/fully turned the wing originally intended for down force became a wing for lift, with air striking the under portion of the wing, leading to the flight patterns such as Carl Edwards hitting the upper portion of the fence.

This is separate from the visibility issue where the driver behind a car was blocked by the height/position of the wing from seeing thru the back and front window to other cars and action on the track.

Seems the sustained high speeds in NASCAR created a situation that has not caused the same problem with other race series using a wing vs a rear spoiler.

Other opinions ?