iNSIDE SCOOP: Test for the Future

At Charlotte earlier this week, 30 car/driver combinations took to the track in an effort to find a cure for the raceability of their machines.

It’s also, when you get right down to it, for the future of NASCAR.

If NASCAR can find a way to make it so the speedy production-based cars can pass each other somewhere other than pit road, then the future is bright. If it can’t, then it’s going to be same-old, same-old and not a bright spot in its history.

The Gen-6 car is a pretty machine. It looks fast, is fast and sets the pulse racing when you look at it. For a stock car, that’s impressive. But at the end of the day, the proof is in the passing, and that’s problematic these days.

We know why: aerodynamics is the reason. Pushing air is a barrier that the cars have trouble getting through. The air doesn’t go where it needs to go, which is over and through the cars. It is a solid wall, and that means that the cars behind have to smash through it.

It’s like passing a semi on a windy day. Get out from behind the truck, and all the air the massive machine is blocking is now on you. The car goes sideways and you’re fighting the wheel. Same thing in NASCAR, and that’s why you can’t pass when you feel like it.

NASCAR officials said the first configuration they tried at CMS was a step in the right direction. The car had more downforce on the rear than the front, and that made passing easier, once you got out from behind the car ahead.

That’s a good thing. If you aren’t comfortable racing in line, then the only place to go is to the side. If you can pass, that’s a bonus.

Of course, the tapered spacer wasn’t yet in evidence, but that could help as well. Taking power away from the car is a good way to get the competition up. Horsepower is a good thing, but if you can take HP away and make the racing closer, that’s a bonus.

If they’re going 181 instead of 191, you can’t tell the difference without a stopwatch. It really doesn’t matter all that much on the bottom line. IF you can pull out of line in fifth and race to first on your own, that’s a legacy.

Let’s hope that Gene Stefanyshyn and his boffins at the NASCAR R&D Center can come up with the magic bullet that slays the Aero Push dragon.

It’ll go a long way toward making NASCAR a sport on the rise again.