Nascar: 2010

[Wayne Maybury]

Ron
23 out of 24 cars in the Bahrain F1 race started on the harder tires. The problem with the softer tire is that while it does give better grip, it wears out more quickly. By starting on the harder tires and of course a full load of fuel, the thinking was that they could continue to run much deeper into the race and have more options as to when they would choose to pit.

By starting on the soft tires, they would have to pit earlier when it may not really be to their advantage. While the pit stop itself only takes 3 seconds, they estimate that the car loses about 20 seconds total time. Pitting early will mean losing several spots but pitting later in the race could possibly mean not losing a spot at all since the cars are more strung out. Finishing on soft tires and a light fuel load would also allow for very fast lap times at the end of the race when it is critical.

Don
Many F1 teams began to use that fin from the airbox inlet to the rear wing last year. The idea in F1 was to keep the air moving smoothly towards the wing by reducing turbulance.

As far as McLaren's new air inlet allowing air to pass through the cockpit before exiting in front of the wing, I heard that the idea was to disrupt the air flow over the wing on high speed straightaways thereby reducing downforce and more importantly, reducing drag at the same time. The airflow would be interupted by the driver pressing on some sort of air bag device with his knee, when downforce was required at lower speeds. Very innovative but the other teams all claim that it is illegal just like they did with Brawn's diffuser setup last year. F1 teams are always pushing the limits.

Wayne

[Don]

.....ought to be interesting for Sunday's race @ Bristol

Brad Keselowski has selected Tom Petty's song " I Won't Back Down " for his introduction.

No mention of Carl Edwards' having chosen a song . Any creative suggestions ?

" Of course, there's nowhere to hide at Bristol. It's a high-banked, half-mile bullring where even the most routine pass often becomes a multitry adventure. It's almost guaranteed that Edwards and Keselowski will find themselves side-by-side or bumper-to-bumper during Saturday's 250 laps and Sunday's 500. And it's almost inevitable that at some point during the weekend, one will try to pass the other, either for position or while overlapping.

And those moments are why the track in eastern Tennessee will attract upwards of 135,000 fans on Sunday afternoon. "

[Don]

Wayne, fyi, a very informative article:

" With the start of the Formula One season upon us, all eyes are on McLaren and its drivers, reigning world champion Jenson Button and former world champion Lewis Hamilton. But the attention isn’t exclusively on the champs. Everyone’s talking about the creative aerodynamics of the MP4-25 cars they’re driving.

Nobody outside the team is sure of specific details, but an ingeniously simple system allows Button and Hamilton to control the amount of downforce generated by the rear wing during the race. The wing has generated howls of protest, but the rulemakers at the Fédération Internationale d l’Automobile have approved it, so the cars are set to race Sunday in Bahrain. "

Complete Article:

McLaren Cribs From Planes, Flutes to Build Faster F1 Cars

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/03/mclaren-rear-wing/

[Wayne Maybury]

Don that is a really interesting article on what McLaren is doing and how it works.

The race at Bristol yesterday turned out to be very clean even when Carl was passing BK. Of course I was surprised to see JJ shoot to the lead with 2 laps to go when he really wasn't a factor all day long. Too bad that Mark Martin got taken out as he had a fast car.

Am I the only one to notice so many empty seats at Bristol? I think that NASCAR is going to be telling the race tracks that they must paint the seats various random colors so that it is not so obvious to the TV viewers that entire sections are empty.

Wayne

[Ron61]

Wayne,

The first thing I looked for when they came on the air was to see if they had a big crowd and the whole back grandstands were almost empty. Even DW commented on the fact there aren't many perople in the back stands but boy look at the crowd in the front ones. NASCAR has already had some of the tracks remove seats and widen the ones left to make it look as if they had a larger crowd than they do. Maybe when the economy picks up there will be more, but I don't think we will ever see NASCAR filling the stands every race again.

As for JJ winning, I wasn't surprised as he took care of his car all day and was fast on short runs. I thought that Bush had the best car on the long runs.

Ron