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Posted on March
7, 2008
The COT
Needs ‘Loose Lids’ for Better Racing
Teams are getting penalized for
allegedly leaving the lids from the oil
tank boxes loose or altered. The
supposed benefit is that it allows the
air that packs under the car to more
easily escape up through the cockpit
thus improving the down force and making
the car faster.
After the way that Edward’s car ran
during Sunday’s race at Vegas versus the
other cars, maybe NASCAR should be
penalized for not letting the
teams do it across the board.
Obviously it doesn’t need to be such a
primitive and unsafe modification to
accomplish the same “advantage” and
could be similarly achieved with some
strategically placed ducting allowed by
NASCAR.
If the teams are complaining about
handling issues and such a simple
modification can make such a drastic
difference then why not implement it?
Possibly the COT was discovered to be an
ill-handling design and was left that
way on purpose to see if it improved the
racing on the track. It doesn’t take
more than a couple of races to come up
with the answer of no.
The approach going forward should maybe
be to allow the teams to share the
tricks that they have hit on that make
the cars handle better and go faster and
appeal the ideas for implementation of
the design to the governing body.
This of course would take NASCAR’s
cooperation and an open mind. As
thorough as they have been in the
development of the new style car, there
is no way that NASCAR can match the
minds of all of the personnel, crew
chiefs and engineers that work for the
teams all combined. That’s it, open book
tinkering!
No seriously, in addressing the
complaints associated with the handling
issues, what could be a better idea then
to let the teams have input on what’s
working? Their incentive to share, keep
fining the hell out of them if they
don’t.
I am not suggesting that NASCAR should
lax all rules associated with the car
and let it get out of control, but in
it’s developmental stages to simply
allow the teams to suggest certain
modifications to the design that every
team could follow to make the cars
handle better.
The COT was tested during last season
only at the short tracks, road courses
and Talladega, none of which want or
need down force. Since a large majority
of the tracks on the schedule are 1.5
mile aero-dependant tracks then this
should be seriously considered. In
addition, if all of the teams are
allowed to make the same modifications
then there is no way that it could be
called an “unfair advantage”. Who knows,
it might even make the racing better if
everyone on the track had the same grip
and handling characteristics.
It sure beats the alternative of the
teams trying to gain grip with
aggressive camber or caster set-ups that
eat up tires and sends them head on into
the wall or having them snap loose and
send them backing into the wall.
It also would be an improvement over
having half of the cars in the field
running a second a lap off of the pace
from the leader. No one wants that.
If you are listening NASCAR, maybe the
teams have hit on something worthwhile
here. Take a look at it please for the
sake of the competition and not just
penalize for it.
You can
contact Gregg at
feedback@racefanvote.com
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