Several NASCAR drivers, including Denny Hamlin and reigning champion Brad Keselowski, in Sunday's Sprint Cup Series race at Phoenix expressed frustration with the difficulty in passing.
After the race, Keselowski was asked how important 'clean air' was with the new model Cup car. His answer sounded strangely familiar.
"I think it’s probably more important than ever. I think these cars probably drive easier than any race car I’ve ever driven in my life by themselves, and probably the hardest to drive of any race car I’ve ever driven in traffic," he said. "I think we can get that a little bit better and probably make them a little more difficult to drive by yourself, but a little easier to drive in traffic, we could have even better races than what we had today."
After the race, Keselowski was asked how important 'clean air' was with the new model Cup car. His answer sounded strangely familiar.
"I think it’s probably more important than ever. I think these cars probably drive easier than any race car I’ve ever driven in my life by themselves, and probably the hardest to drive of any race car I’ve ever driven in traffic," he said. "I think we can get that a little bit better and probably make them a little more difficult to drive by yourself, but a little easier to drive in traffic, we could have even better races than what we had today."
Did anyone seriously think this Gen-6 car was going to solve any of NASCAR's competition problems?
ReplyDeleteCutting downforce has been an obsession of NASCAR and of John Darby specifically for over a decade and they refuse to see this approach has ALWAYS failed, from the aborted 1993 5-5-51 Rule, to 1998's 5 & 5 Rule, to Darby's serial campaign against downforce starting in 2004, to the COT, to this Gen-6 car.
Clean air will always be important until NASCAR figures out how to change dirty air back from aeropush to the drafting effect that once was common to the sport.