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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
SPENCER: Tip The Scales
Rick Hendrick's teams finished 1-2-3 in the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season-ending point standings...
Jimmy Spencer  |  Posted December 04, 2009   Charlotte, NC
Jimmy Spencer calls it like he sees it on SPEED. (Photo: SPEED)
Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports, will take his seat at the head table at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Awards Ceremony tonight (9 pm ET on SPEED) for the ninth time. His teams finished 1-2-3 in the 2009 season-ending point standings and his driver Jimmie Johnson just collected an unprecedented fourth consecutive championship.

Hendrick Motorsports is the untouchable king of NASCAR right now but their clear dominance isn’t exactly good for the future of the sport. Therefore, I’d like to see NASCAR do something to level the playing field a bit. By no means do I suggest the sanctioning body penalize Hendrick for their diligent work by taking anything away from them. However, I urge NASCAR to allow Cup teams a few test sessions in the interest of making minor tweaks to the new car to create more adjustability within it.

I don’t think the testing ban has benefited anyone or saved all that much money because teams still are testing elsewhere. In fact, I think the policy has made the races a little less competitive. In speaking with Greg Biffle on “This Week in NASCAR,” he told me Roush Fenway Racing typically was off only one-tenth of a second per lap, but they can’t get it figured out. Biffle said that in the allotted two hours of practice each weekend, when the team makes a change, hits the track and then needs to swap it back, half of the practice session is lost on that one detail. I don’t think teams truly can test their setups under those conditions. They need a few more test sessions – a semi-rescinding of the testing ban.

I’ve said all year that this car doesn’t have enough flexibility and adjustability for the crew chiefs to properly do their jobs. It’s like a light switch – either you’re on or you’re off and there is no in between. If one guy hits on the right setup and others are off even a smidgen, he can check out on the rest of the field. That does not bode well for the spirit of competition.

How many times have we seen teams suffer a bad pit stop, get mired back in traffic and fail to make their way back to the front? That’s because the car has some aerodynamic and adjustability issues. NASCAR has placed teams inside a very small box of tolerances with limited adjustability, a situation easily remedied by taking several teams to a few race tracks with the task of testing minor, inexpensive alterations to the cars.

Knowing the razor’s edge they’re teetering on with chassis adjustments, drivers are scared to make changes during a race. I’ve never heard such timidity and hesitation over the radio regarding how to improve their car’s handling. Superstars like Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth and Kasey Kahne are hesitant to touch the car during pit stops, saying they’re so close that they don’t want to push it over the edge just to improve it a tick or two. But back when I raced against Darrell Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt and Rusty Wallace, the margin of error was closer to six feet in the car’s adjustability as opposed to today’s roughly six inches.

During the post-race winner’s interview with Kahne on “NASCAR Victory Lane” one night, I commented that his team didn’t make many adjustments that day. He responded that they made one change that relegated them from third to 15th, but they luckily were able to revert to the previous setup soon thereafter. While the car wasn’t performing to Kahne’s liking, he counted himself fortunate to hang onto it for the win.

What happened to the days when teams could throw things at their cars and not end up on the wrong end of the spectrum? Drivers and crew chiefs shouldn’t be afraid to manipulate setups but should have confidence that incremental improvements won’t push their cars over the cliff and out of contention.

Remember when Jack Roush put all five of his cars in the 2005 Chase and critics demanded NASCAR do something to his organization to level the playing field? NASCAR, rightly so, did not act against Roush and the competition eventually caught up on its own. I think we’ll see the same scenario with the rest of the Cup Series rising to Hendrick’s level but only if they are allowed to test periodically in conjunction with NASCAR to search for opportunities for more adjustability.

While the 2009 season featured some good races, not necessarily always at the front of the field but often further back, I think we can improve the on-track product at a minimal cost to the owners. This is not a pricey fix but one that needs to be implemented before we roll into Daytona in February. NASCAR has a few weeks to make minor modifications that could hold major implications and I hope they’ll consider doing so.

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

Jimmy Spencer calls it like he sees it as an analyst on NASCAR RaceDay and NASCAR Victory Lane on SPEED. He retired from driving with two NASCAR Sprint Cup, 12 NASCAR Nationwide and one NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory, putting him in an elite group of drivers who have logged wins in all three of NASCAR’s premier divisions. In 478 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts, Spencer amassed 28 top-five and 80 top-10 finishes. He won back-to-back NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championships in 1986 and 1987 on the heels of 15 victories, becoming the first driver ever to earn consecutive titles in the series. He earned the nickname “Mr. Excitement” for his flamboyant and aggressive driving style early in his racing career.
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