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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Drivers Take Lumps At Daytona
Daytona International Speedway is a one of a kind place to race...
Mike Hembree  |  Posted February 05, 2010   Daytona, FL
Daytona International Speedway is bumpy and tight and every driver wants to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Since the giant Talladega Superspeedway opened in Alabama in 1969, NASCAR followers have had the tendency to pair the track with its older sister, Daytona International Speedway.

Both were conceived and built by Bill France Sr., NASCAR’s founder. Both were meant to be the fastest tracks of their eras. Both are big, bold and intimidating. And, in the easiest pairing for the two, both require the use of engine restrictor plates, the power-sapping device that keeps race cars – most of the time, anyway – from flying out of the tracks.

Both attract some of the biggest crowds of the NASCAR season, and each is known for dramatic finishes.

There, however, most of the comparisons end. Daytona and Talladega are quite different landscapes when the racing starts. Wider and much smoother, Talladega is simply a pedal-to-the-metal track. Drivers race in huge packs for 500 miles, and the track is such a wide-open frontier that the handling characteristics of cars typically aren’t a big issue.

Daytona is different. It is tighter and more demanding, particularly in the turns. Cars can go three and four wide through Talladega’s turns; at Daytona three is pushing the proposition, and four is practically impossible.

So car handling and driver smarts play a much bigger role in success at Daytona. Cars “locked” on the track by superior handling packages will win the races in the turns, as long as the drivers negotiate the course properly. And, at Daytona, that’s much more difficult, in part because of the track’s bumpy nature.

Daytona, which opened in 1959, has been repaved only once – in August 1978. Its surface isn’t subject to the harsh winters that prompt more frequent repaving at some tracks in the North, but it’s evident watching cars on the surface that the lumps and bumps often come into play. Crossing them in the wrong places can cause cars to lose traction momentarily.

The art of bump-drafting, now considered a major weapon with NASCAR loosening its enforcement, also is quite different at Talladega and Daytona.

“The bump-drafting topic is a lot more critical issue at Talladega than it is at Daytona,” said Tony Stewart. “At Daytona, you got handling involved, so you’re not able to just get on somebody’s bumper. Especially as wavy as this track is, it has its own personality and a character that Talladega doesn’t have.

“Talladega, when they repaved that (in 2006), it is so smooth that you can get on a bumper and stay there. It's no big deal. Here you try to get on a guy's bumper through the corner, you got a lot of bumps to go through.

“That's what makes Daytona so cool. You still have a two‑and‑a‑half‑mile track here that is a handling track. You have to make your car drive good. Not everybody is going to be able to have that luxury, just being able to push everybody like everybody is talking about.”

The bumps demand attention, said Jeff Burton.

“The bumps are a bigger problem with this car than the old car,” Burton said. “You can watch the racing, and they’re real visible. You can see it. When you come back here every year, you forget how bad they look. My first time in the car here every year, I’m like, ‘Oh, my God!’ You forget how bad they drive.”

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

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