What does that new track bar mean for performance? (No, that is not a new pit row Hooters; it is a legitimate piece of racing equipment).
How about NASCAR’s new rule package designed to reduce horsepower and downforce, unveiled for the first time at Atlanta Sunday? What does it all mean?
These were the technical questions around Sunday’s race. No definitive answers were offered.
A couple of opinions, anyway:
If you listen to Dale Earnhardt Jr., you’d get the idea that the track bar — which the driver can adjust during the course of a race to tweak handling — is as much a nuisance as a benefit. The hope was that it would create more passing, but Junior wasn’t buying.
“I don’t think that thing is going to be that big of a deal anyways,” said Earnhardt, whose track bar malfunctioned Sunday. “I haven’t found it to be anything that sets the world on fire.
“I think it will help you a lot when your car is way, way out to lunch. It will be a Band-Aid until you can get it to pit road and work on it. I don’t think it’s going to be much of a story after a few races.”
And if you listen to Jimmie Johnson’s crew chief, the new package is custom-made for his guy. The result Sunday certainly didn’t counter that.
“We did hit on some things last year we thought would benefit us this year,” Chad Knaus said. “I think this type of package will help Jimmie. It will (due to his driving talent) benefit him with the lack of grip.
Hitting the wall. Once more the issue of Soft Wall barriers — or lack of them — came to the fore. Last week, Kyle Busch hit an unprotected section of wall at Daytona and suffered a shattered leg. Sunday, Jeff Gordon was far more fortunate, walking away from a crash that ended up against a bare concrete interior wall.
“I can’t believe it,” Gordon said. “That’s amazing to me. Hopefully soon that will get fixed. It was a pretty big impact.”
Said Gordon’s teammate and race winner Johnson: “It’s unfortunate, we’re so many years removed from the inception of the SAFER barrier. I think we’re on the right track to have it everywhere it needs to be.
“We just need to send Jeff out on the track and find the places to put them. That guy will find the openings.”
The Daytona kid: Daytona 500 winner Joey Logano looked to be sailing to consecutive victories, owning the first third of the race. In all, he led 84 of 325 laps. He finished fourth for a still-impressive follow-up to his work in Florida.
Logano, who cut his teeth running Legends cars at Atlanta Motor Speedway, had few complaints about the outcome. “I don’t know what’s going on lately,” he said. “Everything is going well and we’re just trying to keep the old train rolling here.
“It’s kind of frustrating when your car drives good and they’re still faster. We’ve still got a little bit of work to do to figure out this package, but I think we’re close.”
Misc.: The adage of "It's not where you start, it's where you finish" was proven out in force Sunday. Because of qualifying issues, the top two finishers, Johnson and Harvick, were 37th and 40th on the starting grid…In fact, it was a gas starting back there. "A lot of fun to be honest with you," Harvick said. "You know you can pass people here. There's a lot of places you go to you're going to get stuck."…The new pit row monitoring system that caught 29 infractions last week was even more unblinking Sunday. The total was 38 for the season's second race…Danica Patrick was smoking. No really, when an electrical problem sent smoke through her car early in the race. She overcame that and finished 16th Sunday. Atlanta was the scene last year of Patrick's best-ever Sprint Cup finish (6th).The newly designed trophy presented Johnson certainly hit on all the high points of the NASCAR culture. Guns (a representation of the barrels of a M61 Vulcan cannon). Country (a folded U.S. flag). And religion (a verse from John).
