Night race, at prime time...gotta love it !

JJ loves it so much he's won 4 of the last 5 races here...wow !

ya gotta believe that Sadler is going to put one of these together... Tony is starting close to the front, Rusty has been lucky, Newman & Edwards are my top five...

no shaving , no brushing.... its a night race ! lets go racing !

posted 10-15-2005 03:11 PM         

AC's picks:

1. Kurt Busch - I don't like him personally,,,,but he will bang his way to victory!
2. Carl Edwards - on a roll now!
3. Smoke Stewart - smells the title,,,or is that Halicat's butt in the lazy boy?
4. Mark Martin - won't drive dirty to win
5. Newman's Dodge - Lethia said so, lol.
6. My guy Biffel - starting way back, charges forward, but not enough today

Darkhorse pick: JJ - but too many hate him,,,,,,somebody will shove him up into the wall

posted 10-15-2005 08:04 PM         

Would be better if they put the technical know how of the open wheel cars into these. They would be able to adjust suspension on the fly, distribute weight, all sorts of good stuff.

As it is now, it's almost who is who is lucky, not how good of driver or car is.

posted 10-15-2005 11:16 PM         

My pick for #1 was 2nd

My guy Biffel gave it hell to finish 3rd great job from where he started the race

JD's right...tires shouldn't be an issue... 20 laps of green, then a flat.... 20 more laps then another flat....and on and on...

one of the least entertaining races of the year in my opinion...

Nascar is the most watched motorsport in Canada ...

posted 10-17-2005 09:17 AM         

It's NASCAR's "car of tomorrow," the product of five years of testing and tinkering by the engineers at NASCAR's research and development center just down the road from Lowe's Motor Speedway.

The car, which was started the summer before Dale Earnhardt Sr. died at Daytona and likely will debut at Talladega next fall, is expected to become the standard vehicle for at least half of the races in the 2007 season.

A bigger driving compartment makes room for many of the driver protection devices that have been invented or perfected since Earnhardt's death. But from an aerodynamic standpoint, it's a trip back to a time when the drivers and crew chiefs meant more than air flow and engineering tricks.

The car of tomorrow also is designed so that NASCAR can better control the subtle but highly effective changes teams make when they build their cars. By tightening the rules and improving inspection procedures, NASCAR hopes to eliminate the need for teams to have fleets of cars, each designed for a certain type of track.

With so many advances in safety equipment and so many other desired changes, NASCAR officials realized early on that a piecemeal approach wouldn't work.

"You basically have to start over from scratch," NASCAR president Mike Helton said.

Five years into the project, NASCAR is in the final stages of testing the new car. Three drivers ran the cars at Talladega two weeks ago, and most race teams have built their own cars that conform to NASCAR's specifications.

The next big test will come at Atlanta Motor Speedway on the Monday after the Oct. 30 Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500, when seven or more cars will run on the track together in somewhat of a mock race.

Safety is largest gain

Most everyone in the sport agrees that the biggest gains with the car of tomorrow are on the safety front, where a taller and broader passenger compartment easily accommodates the HANS devices, improved seats, belts and webbing that have come into common use since Earnhardt's death. The new car also allows the driver's seat to be moved from four to six inches closer to the center of the car, depending on the driver's size. That puts the driver farther away from the left door and in a less vulnerable position from impact on the left side.

Bigger windows will make it easier for drivers to get in and out of their cars and easier for rescue workers to assist them after crashes.

Not surprisingly, drivers applaud NASCAR's effort.

"It's all going to be safer for the drivers," said Bill Elliott, adding that taking away the downforce that teams have achieved will make the racing far better for fans and drivers.

Plans call for the new car to carry a larger restrictor plate at Daytona and Talladega, giving drivers the throttle response they've longed for since the speed-reducing plates were first put into use.

"We need to look at what we once had," Elliott said.

Some team owners have been slow to embrace the new car, saying they can cram the newer safety features into existing cars instead of shelling out the money needed to build a whole new fleet.

But NASCAR officials are moving ahead, saying the new car solves many of problems now facing the sport. While some owners are pushing for a phased introduction, NASCAR officials hope it will be on the circuit full time in 2007.

Helton said driver safety and more competitive racing are the primary goals of the project, but it also is part of the sanctioning body's effort to help the smaller teams like Bill Davis Racing and the Wood Brothers compete with the mega-teams --- Roush Racing and Hendrick Motorsports.

Helton said the car of tomorrow "minimizes, if not eliminates," the dependency on incredible amounts of engineering and aerodynamics engineering that the mega-teams have developed.

Bill Davis, who owns the No. 22 driven by Scott Wimmer, said he supports the project as long as NASCAR sticks to its promise to strictly enforce the limitations on tinkering with the cars as they're being built.

"There are a lot of things that are built into the [car of tomorrow] that add a lot of safety for the driver, and that's a great thing," Davis said. "If they hold the body location, the frame height, the offset and all that like they say they're going to, ultimately it will save us some money."

But Davis said the change will be expensive.

"We can have a smaller inventory of cars eventually, but it's going to cost us a fortune to obsolete all our cars and build brand new ones," he said. "There won't be any market for those old cars."

Field could be leveled

Richard Petty, who owns the No. 45 Dodge driven by his son, Kyle, and the No. 43 of Jeff Green, said the new car will help his company compete with Roush and Hendrick, at least at first.

"They're going in the right direction," Petty said. "They've got a good chance right now to get ahold of the rules. They can make a box and make everybody stay in that box, and it'll be OK.

"We used to have a box, but they let you do something here, something there, and the first thing you know you're out of the box."

NASCAR chairman Brian France said the sanctioning body will step up its efforts to stop teams from using technology to make the cars go faster.

"There are something like 80 templates for all of the cars today," he said. "There will be one big template that fits snug and tight, or there might be infrared or digital measurements we could take. We're looking at how we can use technology to be more specific and clear with the teams."

He said that will lead to an increased level of competition on the track.

"More teams should have the opportunity to show their stuff and not be victims of how much money [big teams] have," France said.

Petty said that will be true but likely will change over time as it has in the past.

"[Roush and Hendrick] will get out of the gate quicker than we do, but right now they're completely out of the gate and we're still in the gate," he said. "Eventually the cream always comes to the top."

In the meantime, Petty said, racing will be safer for drivers and more interesting for fans.

"The cars will be slower, [but] they'll be able to draft better and the cars will handle better because they're not running quite as fast," he said. "The cars are so slick now, there's nothing there."

Carl Edwards, who drove the new car at Talladega two weeks ago with Kyle Petty and Brett Bodine, said he likes the feel of the new vehicle. He also noticed that his field of vision was improved in the new car.

"It felt a lot like a [Craftsman Truck Series] truck," he said. "In that format I don't know if there will be less wrecks, but at least the guys will be safer.

"It might even be a little bit more exciting --- and we currently have exciting races --- so that would be pretty wild."

NASCAR'S CAR OF THE FUTURE
1. The quarter panels are larger and catch more air, making the cars more stable to drive.
2. The exhaust pipes come out the right side of the car through the frame rails. This takes heat away from the driver and reduces the potential for fires when teams are refueling.
3. The window openings are bigger, which makes it easier for drivers to enter and exit the cars, and it gives rescue workers better access to injured drivers.
4. The greenhouse (cabin from windows up) is bigger by about two inches. This raises drag and makes more room for driver safety equipment. The car is wider, allowing the seat be moved closer to the center, safer than the location next to the left door bars.
5. The front bumper has been raised about two inches, and there's a recessed area at the bottom. That increases drag, taking away aerodynamic issues with today's cars that make passing difficult. The closure rate, how quickly a trailing car can close the gap on the leader, is improved. The new bumper is backed by energy-absorbing materials.
6. A splitter has been attached to the front of the car to add back downforce taken away by other changes to the car. The splitter also keeps teams from running the fronts of their cars too low because if the splitter is ground off from contact with the track it won't work.