NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
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CUP: Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
NASCAR wants to break up the two-car tandems at restrictor-plate tracks...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted January 13, 2012   Daytona Beach, FL
Teammates Clint Bowyer (15) and Mark Martin (55) form a two-car tandem draft during last month's Daytona test. (Photo: Getty Images)
NASCAR is serious about doing away with the two-car tango.

And the racers are equally serious about using it as much as they can, which is why the sanctioning body is tweaking its rules yet again.

After introducing a new rules package that included a bigger restrictor plate, smaller rear spoiler and greatly reduced cooling capabilities, NASCAR is making additional rules changes following the first of three days of testing at Daytona International Speedway.

Thursday afternoon at Daytona, Sprint Cup crew chiefs were told by NASCAR that the restrictor plates will be increased again, from 29/32nds of an inch to 15/16ths of an inch, which should add about 25 horsepower. The size of the grille outlets will also be reduced, making the cars more prone to overheating.

Both moves are specifically aimed at prevented packs of two cars running nose-to-tail for prolonged distances.

Beyond the change to fuel injection for 2012, “what we've been dialing in on and really working hard on is the cooling systems, and it's not there to give anybody a written guarantee that there won't be a two-car push because there will,” said NASCAR Sprint Cup director John Darby. “There's speed there. Once a driver learns that, they're not going to forget about it. But our objective is to more control the duration of that push, which we've already seen is becoming a little more effective.”

Because of complaints from fans, NASCAR wants to break up the tandem drafting prevalent over the last two seasons at Daytona and Talladega.

“I think that small doses of the two-car push are okay,” said NASCAR vice president of competition Robin Pemberton. “It's a tool. You know, it's like anything we do. When the competitors learn something, they'll use it when they can, to their advantage, and they're supposed to do that.

“What we have to do, and we're here to regulate the sport so everybody has the same opportunity to do that, and we're here to regulate, hopefully naturally, how long you can have that push, you know, what's too long? I don't know, five laps may not be too long. Five laps may be way too long. We don't know that.”

Pemberton said he expects Friday’s practice, when teams will lap in bigger packs, to provide more direction on the rules.

“What we do know is tomorrow when we have more cars out there, and John (Darby) encourages them all to run and they're drafting in groups, we'll have more answers then,” said Pemberton.

That said, the racers still will be trying to tandem draft as much as they can.

“Today was a good example that you can’t unlearn things that you learned in the past,” said Dave Rogers, crew chief for Kyle Busch and the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, the fastest car in Thursday afternoon’s drafting practice. “Everyone in the garage area learned that the fastest way around here is to have two cars hooked up bumper-to-bumper and go. We’re never going to forget that. I know NASCAR is working really hard at making some new rules to bunch us back up, but as racers we’re going to take whatever route is the fastest — that’s the name of the game.”

Rogers said he expects the new rules will have an impact.

“Cars can’t hook up as long, they can’t stay nose-to-tail as long as they used to and when they do stay nose-to-tail for a longer time then the guy in the back has to pull further to the outside of the guy leading,” he said. “You will see a different style race in February based on the rule changes, but you’re still going to see a bunch of racers try to hook up nose-to-tail.”

Kasey Kahne, the new driver at Hendrick Motorsports, said he expects to know more after the remaining practice sessions.

“To me if the draft is fast enough and everybody can run together and you don't have to be pushing each other, then when you do have to change from one car to the other because your engine gets hot, you're going to lose way more than what you gain, depending on how close the draft is to the two-car speed,” said Kahne. “So until we do that, it's just kind of an unknown of how fast that draft will be. I mean, you have to have 20 to 30 cars in that draft to see where it'll really stand up, stack up against maybe the tandem or a couple cars in line tandeming together. I think tomorrow we'll learn more about it and Saturday, as well.”

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100.

DAYTONA PRESEASON THUNDER TESTING: During the Jan. 12-14 test sessions at Daytona International Speedway, fans can submit questions and comments through Twitter @SPEED (http://www.twitter.com/speed) using the #daytonatesting hashtag.
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