Was The Busch Race Indication Of What’s To Come In The 600?
Sunday, May 28th, 2006 11:09am CDT
By Luke, Thunder Lounge
Published on Thunder Lounge.
[thumb:236:l:s=1:l=x]In a race that saw 11 cautions last year, this year there were 12. Was it the tire, the track, the driver’s, the set-up? While each accident was unique, a few had a common theme. More importantly, is this an indication of what’s to come in the 600?
From the outside, and just looking at the numbers, one could easily assume that the efforts since last fall at Lowe’s Motor Speedway may have been in vein. At least initially. However, not all of the cautions in last night’s Busch race can be pinned down as a result of the track or the tires. Then again, not all of the cautions last year in either series could either.
One theme was cut tires. However, it’s how they were cut that makes the difference. Stewart cut a left rear on lap 10, and went spinning into the fence. It was a hard hit, and he said it knocked the wind out of him. He was also taken in for an X-ray of his right shoulder to be safe. He came out fine, and came back to the track. Jamie McMurray also cut a tire and smacked the fence, only a couple laps into the event. And there were a few others as well that had rear tire trouble.
However it seems that this was all from tires being cut, and not from tire’s blowing apart. So far, this is a good thing. One thing that all the rear tire issues have in common last night is that it appears they were mostly cut because of the trackbar. What is interesting in this, is that it normally isn’t a problem.
As a whole, teams are running the trackbar about 8 inches or so from the ground. This height is when the car is just sitting there. To put this into perspective think of the front valence and how it’s a few inches off the ground when the car is sitting there, but how it’s sucked down to the track when the car is up to speed. In a similar manner, the rear of the car also has down-force applied to it when it’s up to speed. Since the trackbar is a part of the back-end, naturally it also becomes lower as the back-end is forced down.
Normally, this isn’t a problem. It’s not like the trackbar drags the ground or anything. But, what we’re talking about here is that at times it’s closer to the ground than when the car is just sitting there.
Now, we’ll factor in that these types of accidents all seemed to happen within a few laps of taking the green flag, when the tire pressures are still very low. Also we need to remember that driver’s have mentioned that since the new tire builds up so much pressure, that in order to compensate they have had to lower the starting pressures more so than normal.
Is anybody seeing a possible problem?
Lower tire pressures starting out, plus a trackbar that’s low and moving around. Usually, the tire pressure is sufficient enough to keep the trackbar away from the tire. Now, add in that the tire take a little longer to get the heat built up, and increase the pressure initially, and the trackbar is a lot closer to the tire than normal. Put some strong down-force on it, and it appears you have a small recipe for a cut tire. This was illustrated with the cut-away car last night, for reference. With the tire pressures starting out lower, the tire isn’t exactly in the same shape as when the pressure builds up from heat. Think about the tires on your vehicle for a moment, and how it looks when the pressure is a little low. It’s not flat, but there is the bulge there. This would appear to be the problem here. Where under normal circumstances the trackbar wouldn’t contact the tire, now for a short while the side-wall of the tire and the end of the track bar are fighting for the same space on occasion. Such as in a turn where the down-force and G-forces are highest. Without going into how when air, a gas, expands when heated and contracts when cooled, the thing here is the amount of time it’s taking for this tire to get heat in it because it’s so hard, and therefore building up sufficient pressures initially. So, as you can see, this appears to be one possible recipe that could be the underlying factor in a few of those cautions last night.
Granted not everyone had issues, and forcing a mandatory pressure in the tires isn’t an answer. However, it’s a pretty safe bet that a lot of teams learned something last night. I say a mandatory tire pressure isn’t an answer because most teams didn’t have the problem. So you would be forcing the majority to screw up their setup’s that are working fine, to compensate for the few that took a risk or had a miscalculation. Similar to the event last fall, where some teams were on the edge, and the tire wouldn’t hold up. What we’re saying here, is that is falls on the individual team. Also though, this doesn’t seem to be of the same magnitude as the right front issues last fall either.
The question is though, with the heavier cup cars, could we possibly see this issue rear it’s head a little more? It’s possible, but we’ll have to wait for the 600 to find out.
These tires are impressive, in the fact of the punishment they are taking though. The reported difference between lap times on new and used rubber was about .3 of a second. This is about a tenth of the usual, which had been in the 3 second neighborhood in past years. Granted, .3 of a second is still a lot to give up when everyone else has new tires and you don’t. With what some crew chiefs are expecting to be anywhere from 15-20 pit stops in the 600, I for one am glad I’m not paying their tire bill.
Filed Under: Busch Series, Nascar, Nextel Cup, Tracks
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