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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
HEMBREE: Daytona Juggling – The Next Chapter
NASCAR continues to work on a solution to tandem drafting in preseason testing…
Mike Hembree  |  Posted January 13, 2012   Daytona Beach, FL
SPEED.com NASCAR Editor Mike Hembree is a veteran, award-winning motorsports journalist. (File Photo)
They’re juggling restrictor plates and various other racing parts again at Daytona International Speedway.

This comes as no surprise.

Sprint Cup teams gathered at DIS Thursday for the first of three days of preseason testing, carrying with them NASCAR’s latest blueprint for a car design that might solve the dilemma of the moment – that being the fact that the absolute fastest way around the facility’s 2.5 miles is with two cars locked together like spaniels in heat.

Then drivers twirled onto the high banks Thursday afternoon and burned laps at better than 202 miles per hour. Not good. The 200 barrier is a sensitive one for NASCAR officials, who have seen rocketships disguised as race cars lift into the atmosphere – and almost into the stands.

So the shuffling continues. By the time teams return to Daytona in mid-February for Speedweeks, it won’t be surprising if the cars are quite different.

This is one of the wacky idiosyncrasies about Daytona.

When drivers first arrived at the monstrous new track in 1959, there was more than a little fear in their eyes. And those guys were mostly fearless. But this was uncharted territory for drivers used to racing mostly on half-miles and mostly on dirt. The track stretched seemingly forever before you reached the first turn.

When cars hit the racing surface, their speed, combined with the wind and draft whipping around the track, caused the front ends of their cars to lift, an experience none of them had encountered.

It tested the nerves.

But drivers soon adjusted. Remarkably, the first Daytona 500 was run without a caution flag.

Each trip to Daytona became easier. Soon, drivers were saying the track was so easy to drive that a monkey could do it (although none wanted to give up their rides to a lesser primate). It became simply a matter of putting one’s right foot to the floor and guiding the missile.

But the evolving nature of the draft made the Daytona challenge tougher over the years.

The slingshot pass ruled the track for a period, with drivers seeking to be second on the final lap so they could use the draft to whip around the first-place car and win the race (a practice mastered by David Pearson and Richard Petty).

Teammates Clint Bowyer (15) and Mark Martin (55) form a two-car tandem draft during last month's Daytona test. (Photo: Getty Images)
Then pack racing took over, and success became a matter of picking the right drafting lines and settling into the right position for the final 10 laps. Dale Earnhardt Sr. was the acknowledged master of the period.

Then came the track repaving and the arrival of the two-car drafting style that dominated the sport’s two monster speedways last season. With the notable exception of some dynamite closing laps, the concept has been a big bore for fans, who have been vocal in demanding a change.

And NASCAR has done everything in the off-season within reason to discourage the tandem draft, even making dramatic changes in radiator size and placement.

The changes will make the two-car draft more difficult, they hope, and return Daytona to at least a hint of the pack racing that prevailed before the repave.

It all continues the Daytona dilemma – for such an easy track to drive, it can be hard.

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.

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.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
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