The Driggs Factor 1/14/10

Hello all, and welcome to another edition of the Driggs Factor. I wanna give a special thank-you to Jerry for covering for me last week. I’ve been super-busy for about the last four weeks working on…well, if you go and check out C2C’s website, it’ll explain everything. I’m not gonna dwell on it though, I never liked being the center of attention and besides, I’ve got a blog to write.

This will be yet another shortened blog entry as I did not have internet access for the last two days. On top of that, I was bolting around like a dog looking for a squirrel, making phone calls and blah, blah, blah – comes with the territory of running a business. It’s fun though. It’s a nice feeling knowing you’ve got plenty to do and you have the means to meet the demand.

This week though I’m going to hit on a couple of things that have happened in the past week or so that may greatly influence the way the 2010 NASCAR Season will go.

The first thing I wanna hit is the strong possibility that the rear wing will be taken off the Cup COT and replaced with the old blade-style spoiler. Now I know most everyone is excited about that – I know I am. I’m not sure what’s prompting NASCAR to change back to the old blade-style spoiler but thanks to that, the cars will have that traditional stock car look.

Aerodynamically speaking I could see how the spoiler would be a wiser choice at the big tracks, but I do believe the wing is a smart choice for the road courses and short tracks. The wing, I imagine, creates more downforce at lower speeds, so it would be a logical choice for the tracks where handling and downforce is more critical than aerodynamics.

But I do have to wonder if maybe NASCAR is downplaying the fact that the wing may have contributed to Ryan Newman’s flip at Talladega this past October. They say it had nothing to do with it, but when one uses a little common sense and wonders about it, have a giant flat surface on the back of a race car, suddenly reversing the direction of aforementioned race car, while it is travelling at close to 200 mph, you gotta admit, the potential that the wing played some kind of role in the flip.

It’s expected that the wing could be off the car in time for the Daytona 500, or it could come off around the spring Bristol race. So NASCAR fans, take heed, the wing is coming off eventually…meaning no more annoying screws in the bottom of your Cup diecasts when you’re taking it out of the box!

On top of that announcement, NASCAR also said they would allow the drivers to bump draft and that there would be no yellow-line rules at ‘Dega and Daytona. Whether or not they keep it this way after the Daytona 500 remains to be seen. But since NASCAR decided to quit swinging the hammer so hard and let the drivers race, the drivers need to keep it in mind as well that the way THEY race will determine whether NASCAR steps in and makes changes.

The drivers really need to take care not to get out of control or put themselves (and fellow drivers) in situations that will cause massive wrecks. Another wreck like Newman’s and NASCAR might just make a ruling that teams have to use spec engines – and if they use spec engines, NASCAR will control how much power the engines will make. If that happens, the power will be strictly limited so the speeds aren’t nearly as fast and the restrictor plates will become unecessary…and you know what that would mean.

Plate races are great because of the high speeds and close racing, but you take the speed out, the plates become unnecessary. When the plates are gone and the speed isn’t there, you get races that are spread out and, unfortunately, boring. If you can flat-foot the corners of Daytona and Talladega, there’s no emphasis on handling. If you’re in clean air by yourself, you’ve got it made.

It could be reasoned that, well, that’s how it was in the “old days.” Perhaps, but remember that the manufacturers often provided the engines to the teams they backed. They strived for having more power than the rest. That was why you saw years where manufacturers dominated the season – they had more power or a better handling car or a smoother car body that gave them an edge. With spec engines, no one has a set advantage.

It could also stand to reason that if there are spec engines, and no one has an advantage in horsepower, and the tracks aren’t ones where handling is a priority, wouldn’t that mean that drafting is still the way to go? Yes it would. And it could stand to reason as well that the racing would be as close as it would be with the plates, but the racing would be slower.

In the grand scheme of things there is no real way of lessening the chance of or evading the Big One. It’s either take the power away from the teams and have boring (but close) racing, still live with the threat of the Big One, or take the tracks off the schedule and be raked across the coals. The best solution is to just let the drivers race, put your trust in God and the safety measures in place, and hope nobody gets hurt.