Tearing Up The Track: Daytona Edition

Asphalt can be used to caulk boats. The first ever photograph involved asphalt in the printing process. Of course, asphalt can also be used to pave roads… or racetracks. In 1979, asphalt paved Daytona, but it’s gotten in rough shape in the 31 years since. It’s time for a change.

I’m not going to go into a discussion of this history of this particular surface – if you’ve managed to find this blog, I’m sure you already know.

Every driver this weekend lamented over Daytona’s imminent repaving, all of them remarking about the incredible “character” the track has. Instead of purely racing each other, the drivers have had to race the racetrack the past few years as well.

Here’s the thing: it was going to have to be repaved eventually, and the time has come. Asphalt doesn’t last very long – trust me, if you had to drive on an interstate with 31-year-old asphalt, you would try to find a detour.

Daytona’s asphalt was beginning to degrade – eventually, given a little rain, the cracks in the surface would become “weepers,” continually pumping out underground moisture while workers try fruitlessly to dry the surface.

We saw in February the damage that could be done by too many cars bottoming out in one spot. While that spot has been fixed, the track isn’t getting any smoother. NASCAR cannot afford another snafu like that in another Daytona 500 anytime soon. Grand-Am races the 24 Hours of Daytona, not NASCAR (and Grand-Am has racing for the full 24 hours).

The track surface had gotten so worn out that it now has absolutely no grip. That, combined with a bumpy track surface, had drivers absolutely out of control on old tires Saturday night. At the end of a run, TV viewers could see drivers simply lose it with no one around them. At Daytona’s speeds, that is wreckless, and it’s not going to get better with time.

Yes, the track had some great character and it’s a shame it can’t stay like that forever. But, Daytona has to fix it before it develops some serious problems. We’ve seen tracks with serious problems before (Martinsville, Darlington, etc) before, and NASCAR cannot afford to let Daytona get that way.

You know what? The racing on the old surface was great, but a new surface will bring about a style of racing that is also great for the next few years.

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The Tool of the Week

This week’s Tool of the Week is the Jay Robinson Racing crew member in the Nationwide Series that left the lead/tungsten ballast loose in Mark Green’s no. 49 machine.

As Green was entering the track, the ballast flew out of the car directly into Reed Sorenson’s, no. 32, path. The ensuing carnage also collected Steve Wallace, no. 66.

Last week, I wrote about the perils of debuting the new Nationwide Series car at Daytona. Though it wasn’t a big wreck from pack racing that destroyed a good chunk of these team’s limited fleets of new cars… the fact still remains that these teams still have a limited fleet of new cars. The last thing anyone needed to do was run over a chunk of lead.

Look: remove the cover, insert the lead, put the cover back on, and screw it in.

What a tool.

Do you have a better Tool of the Week? Let us know via Twitter or Facebook.

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The Racing Tool Goes to Chicagoland

This Friday and Saturday, the Racing Tool will be in Chicagoland for the Nationwide Series and Sprint Cup Series races.

Follow @racingtool on Twitter and Facebook to see live tweets and pics from the tracks.

-David Dubczak

Introducing the New Nationwide Car at Daytona Very Cool, but a Very Stupid Idea

Next week, the Nationwide Series returns to Daytona, and we will see for the first time its overhauled car take to the track for an actual race. Fans will love this – we will see Ford Mustangs and Dodge Challengers flying around Daytona that actually look like Ford Mustangs and Dodge Challengers. The car is safer, but also bigger and badder.

On top of that, Daytona is NASCAR’s crown jewel, the end result of a dream by NASCAR founder and Hall-of-Famer Bill France Sr. Men like Petty, Pearson, Waltrip, and Earnhardt have all considered a Daytona trophy among their most prized possessions, despite the rest of their illustrious careers.

From a pure aesthetics standpoint, there is no better place to debut the awesome-looking new Nationwide car than under the lights at Daytona.

However, here’s the problem with Daytona: the pack racing. While the new Nationwide cars won’t use restrictor plates; they will have smaller tapered spacers, which function in the same way: limit air to the engine and reduce horsepower. Without the reduction in horsepower, the cars would easily reach speeds that surpass human abilities to drive them.

The restrictor plates and tapered spacers bring about pack racing, the phenomenon we see at Daytona and Talladega where a large group of cars drafts off each other three-wide (or deeper) for several rows back… imagine if your parking lot suddenly took off at 190mph down the highway.

This pack racing creates the big wreck; if someone at the front of the pack makes a mistake, it collects the rest of the pack with him. 20 or 30 car pile-ups are common in pack racing. Nearly every race at Daytona and Talladega is guaranteed at least one big wreck.

And this is why introducing the new car at Daytona is a bad idea. The Nationwide Series is home to some very low-budget teams, whose cars are discount hand-me-downs from bigger teams. Jay Robinson Racing, Bob Keselowski Racing, Morgan-Dollar Racing, and all the other similar small teams will struggle to get their hands on the new car because the big teams don’t have old ones to sell them yet. This means they will have to build their own or buy a new one, neither of which is cheap.

Because of these factors, the small teams may have one or two of the new cars in their fleet… and then they could go to Daytona and destroy it in the big wreck, sending them back to square one.

There is no better way to get TV time and other exposure for the Nationwide Series than by debuting the awesome new car at Daytona. But, if one driver in the front of the pack makes an incorrect split-second calculation, it could be devastating for the small teams characteristic of the Nationwide Series.

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The Racing Tool is Back!

After a more than two month hiatus for personal reasons, the Racing Tool has returned. Once more, you will enjoy weekly commentary on the edge of NASCAR coverage. I hope you all enjoy it.

The Racing Tool is Going to Chicagoland

In two weeks, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and the Nationwide Series head to the midwest for a few great shows at the Chicagoland Speedway. Make sure to follow @racingtool on Twitter and Facebook for all the live updates as we are able.

New Feature: The Tool of the Week

No, not an actual tool, as in Craftsman or Kobalt. No, we're talking about a tool as in a person who does something incredibly... for lack of a better word... dumb. Perhaps a power saw removed his brain for the week, or a pair of pliers is cutting off blood flow to his frontal lobe. For whatever reason... said driver/crewman/official/random person will receive the negatively-esteemed award as "The Tool of the Week."

So, with no further adieu...

The Tool of the Week

Reed Sorenson.

He's probably wishing Red Bull gave him actual wings because I'm sure he couldn't flee NHMS fast enough following his incident with Juan Pablo Montoya. The lapped driver pushed into the lead-lap and competitive Montoya, spinning him out.

Now, not that Montoya could have won anyway... that's not why he's the Tool of the Week. The reason he gets the nomination is because he caused the second-to-last caution, ending Jeff Burton's chance at a win and essentially handing it to Jimmie Johnson, something no fan at NHMS wanted to see.

Burton had a huge lead, but was stuck on old tires when the entire field pitted behind him under caution. Had Burton indeed pitted, the rest of the field would have stayed out and put him deep in the pack with 15 to go. It was lose-lose for the Burton gang when Reed spun JP.

What a tool.

Do you have a better tool? Let us know via Twitter or Facebook.

-David Dubczak