Have a FaceBook, Twitter, or other social networking account?

Link them to your fanatic account!

Add An Account

TAKE ME TO...
NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Charlotte Spoiler Test Critical
Charlotte Motor Speedway will host two days of testing this week...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted March 22, 2010   Charlotte, NC
Sprint Cup Series Champion Jimmie Johnson shown at Talladega Superspeedway as NASCAR tests the spoiler. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Tuesday and Wednesday will be among the most important days of the entire 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup season.

No, there isn’t any racing on those two days, but there are two full days of testing at Charlotte Motor Speedway to see how Sprint Cup cars behave with a rear blade spoiler instead of a wing at a fast, 1.5-mile track.

Sunday’s Food City 500 was the last race for NASCAR’s controversial rear wing, which had been a staple of the new-generation Sprint Cup cars since they rolled out in March 2007. But the wings never caught on with the fans and so earlier this year, NASCAR decided to revert back to the old-fashioned rear blade spoiler, a staple of stock cars for decades.

The new-generation blade spoilers will be used for the first time Sunday at Martinsville Speedway and remain in use for the foreseeable future.

And with 16 of 36 races on the 2010 Cup scheduled contested at so-called intermediate tracks between 1.3 and 2 miles in length, the Charlotte test will be hugely important.

“It's been quite some time since we've had a test of this magnitude at any race track,” said NASCAR Vice President For Competition Robin Pemberton. “I think the teams will be working hard.”

The teams are curious about the effect of the spoiler and the Charlotte test should give them some insight about what to expect.

“Until we go out there and race, I don’t know,” said four-time Sprint Cup champion Jeff Gordon when asked what he thought the impact of the spoiler would be. “In the wind tunnel it’s not that big of a difference, but it might be huge in the racing aspect of it; I don’t know. We’ve never had a spoiler on this car, so you don’t know if this car is punching a big hole because of the greenhouse and the rear bumper, or just how it moves air over it, or if it’s the wing.”

Gordon’s teammate Jimmie Johnson agreed.

“Until we get out there and really have someone to chase and some lap times and can get in traffic and figure out what's going on, I think we're all on equal ground and hoping we have what we need,” said Johnson, the four-time defending series champ. “But nobody has a clear advantage at this point so it's going to be different. The wing was put on the car to help with downforce for the cars behind. It was less sensitive to the pitch and attitude of the car and made the car more friendly. So with that stuff in mind, I'm assuming the car is going to be a bit more of a handful in certain situations. And we need to put the car in those situations to understand how to get that balance right.”

Kevin Harvick, the current Sprint Cup points leader, said no matter how much testing teams do, they won’t know exactly what they have until they race.

“I think the test is important but you still aren’t going to be racing around people (at the Charlotte test),” said Harvick. “I mean, you are going to be on the track at the same time, but there is just a difference between race conditions and how everything reacts in traffic. I mean, we all think we know how it is going to react, but you never know until they drop the green flag and you are side-by-side and have to pit.

“At Charlotte, are you going to do a 50-lap run? Probably not, I’m not,” Harvick said. “You have to do those things in the race. Are you going to have tire trouble? I don’t know. Do we have too much front down force in traffic? Do we have enough down force? There are just so many questions that have got to be answered.”

The Charlotte Motor Speedway test runs from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. ET on Tuesday, and from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m., on Wednesday, with a noon-1 p.m. lunch break each day.

Fans are welcome to attend, with free admission. The track’s frontstretch grandstands will be open from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. on Tuesday and from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. on Wednesday. Grandstand concessions will be open.

Ticket-holders to any 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway have the opportunity to watch testing from an infield seating area behind pit road. Those fans also may participate in a question-and-answer session with available drivers and NASCAR competition officials, meet Miss Sprint Cup and have photos taken with the Charlotte Motor Speedway show car. For more fan information, visit www.charlottemotorspeedway.com.

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEEDtv.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.

Tunnelheads, Pick Your Starters! Win Weekly! Win Monthly! Win The Championship!
tom_jensen's avatar

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tom Jensen

MORE BY THIS AUTHOR
Advertising | Jobs | Feedback | FAQ | Terms of Use | NEW Privacy Policy | Ad Choices | Site Map
Fox Sports | FUEL TV | FX Network | National Geographic | IGN | AskMen
The Motor Sports Authority, SPEED and associated logos are registered trademarks of Speed Channel Inc.
All Rights Reserved © Speed Channel, Inc. 2012

All external links will open in a new browser window. SPEED.com does not endorse external sites.