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Sprint Cup
CUP: NASCAR Continues To Target Tandem Drafting
Official says vast majority of NASCAR fans dislike double-up drafting technique…
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series director John Darby says fans have voiced their opposition to tandem drafting. (Photo: Getty Images)
John Darby made it clear that the concept of tandem drafting is enemy No. 1 in the eyes of a dramatic majority of NASCAR fans.
In a preseason briefing with news media representatives Monday at the NASCAR Research and Development Center, Darby, the Sprint Cup Series director and a key architect of how NASCAR garage operations work, said surveys indicate that racing fans dislike the tandem draft by a 4-1 margin.
Darby said fan response has shown that about 40 percent of respondents do not approve of the two-car drafts that have become familiar at Daytona and Talladega and that another 40 percent would prefer to see some mix of traditional “pack” drafting and the double-up draft.
The surveys aren’t scientific, but, said Darby, fans also are voting with their pockets by not buying tickets. And that’s a recipe for change.
Numerous rules changes – from spoiler adjustments to restrictor-plate modifications to front-end grille placement – have been made with the idea of breaking up the two-car drafts (or at least discouraging them) with a plan to make the season-opening Daytona 500 more of a “traditional” Daytona event.
“What our goal was was to not eliminate pushing somebody because bump-drafting and two cars pushing one another at Talladega and Daytona has been going on since the places were built,” Darby said. “The reason Cale [Yarborough] and Donnie [Allison] wrecked (in the 1979 Daytona 500) was that they were pushing each other and one hit too hard and got them sideways.
“Our goal is to change the look of the racing back to more conventional drafting styles. We’ve heard loud and clear from fans that that’s what they like, but not to take away the tool of bump drafting or having two cars together.
“Now, instead of the two-car push being the norm with a little [pack] drafting being exceptional, we want to flip-flop that. I think we’re very, very, very close to having a rules package that will help with that.”
After some alterations, officials say they think they had the right package to go into the stock-car portion of Speedweeks next week, but they’re not ruling out the possibility of more changes. Modifications could come after the twin 150-mile qualifying races scheduled Thursday, Feb. 23.
Darby said if more changes are necessary they probably would be made in the air-inlet areas on the front of the cars as a move to overheat engines quickly and thus discourage two-car drafts.
“It’s not an aerodynamic situation for the most part,” he said. “The cooling area seems to be the most effective to change because it doesn’t disturb other components.”
In previewing NASCAR’s move from carburetors to fuel injection this year, Darby said fans will be “very hard-pressed to know the difference” and that NASCAR “doesn’t anticipate any catastrophic problem.”
He said the system’s electronic control units, manufactured by McLaren, have never failed in competition.
Darby said team members will have the ability to view information generated by the fuel injection systems on garage-area computers but that the numbers won’t be available in the cars or on pit road during competition.
“We’ve got to keep our athletes involved in the sport to preserve the excitement we have,” he said. “We don’t have telemetry on the race cars because we want the driver’s ass to tell him what’s happening with the car.”
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
In a preseason briefing with news media representatives Monday at the NASCAR Research and Development Center, Darby, the Sprint Cup Series director and a key architect of how NASCAR garage operations work, said surveys indicate that racing fans dislike the tandem draft by a 4-1 margin.
Darby said fan response has shown that about 40 percent of respondents do not approve of the two-car drafts that have become familiar at Daytona and Talladega and that another 40 percent would prefer to see some mix of traditional “pack” drafting and the double-up draft.
The surveys aren’t scientific, but, said Darby, fans also are voting with their pockets by not buying tickets. And that’s a recipe for change.
Numerous rules changes – from spoiler adjustments to restrictor-plate modifications to front-end grille placement – have been made with the idea of breaking up the two-car drafts (or at least discouraging them) with a plan to make the season-opening Daytona 500 more of a “traditional” Daytona event.
“What our goal was was to not eliminate pushing somebody because bump-drafting and two cars pushing one another at Talladega and Daytona has been going on since the places were built,” Darby said. “The reason Cale [Yarborough] and Donnie [Allison] wrecked (in the 1979 Daytona 500) was that they were pushing each other and one hit too hard and got them sideways.
“Our goal is to change the look of the racing back to more conventional drafting styles. We’ve heard loud and clear from fans that that’s what they like, but not to take away the tool of bump drafting or having two cars together.
“Now, instead of the two-car push being the norm with a little [pack] drafting being exceptional, we want to flip-flop that. I think we’re very, very, very close to having a rules package that will help with that.”
After some alterations, officials say they think they had the right package to go into the stock-car portion of Speedweeks next week, but they’re not ruling out the possibility of more changes. Modifications could come after the twin 150-mile qualifying races scheduled Thursday, Feb. 23.
Darby said if more changes are necessary they probably would be made in the air-inlet areas on the front of the cars as a move to overheat engines quickly and thus discourage two-car drafts.
“It’s not an aerodynamic situation for the most part,” he said. “The cooling area seems to be the most effective to change because it doesn’t disturb other components.”
In previewing NASCAR’s move from carburetors to fuel injection this year, Darby said fans will be “very hard-pressed to know the difference” and that NASCAR “doesn’t anticipate any catastrophic problem.”
He said the system’s electronic control units, manufactured by McLaren, have never failed in competition.
Darby said team members will have the ability to view information generated by the fuel injection systems on garage-area computers but that the numbers won’t be available in the cars or on pit road during competition.
“We’ve got to keep our athletes involved in the sport to preserve the excitement we have,” he said. “We don’t have telemetry on the race cars because we want the driver’s ass to tell him what’s happening with the car.”
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
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