January 17, 2012
By Doug Demmons
The two-car tandem is apparently here to stay.
NASCAR officials made it clear during the preseason test at Daytona that they have given up trying to put the toothpaste make into the tube.
Drivers are not going to unlearn the fact that two cars together are faster than the old fashioned 30-car drafting packs. As long as pushing remains possible, it will be the preferred way around Daytona and Talladega.
NASCAR could issue a rule banning the two-car tandem but officials don’t want to do that. They tried that a few years ago at Talladega. Drivers hated it. Fans hated it.
So NASCAR backed off and the two-car tandem took off. But now, the same fans who hated NASCAR telling drivers they would be penalized for pushing through the turns are screaming for NASCAR to end the two-car tandem completely.
But that’s not happening. NASCAR’s plan now is to make the tandem harder to do, hard enough that some cars will return to the old drafting packs of yesteryear.
The vision that Sprint Cup Director John Darby and Robin Pemberton painted at Daytona is of a hybrid form of racing that mixes drafting packs with tandem racing.
Opening up the restrictor plates to allow 200-plus mph racing and restricting the cooling systems to make it impossible for cars to push for a long time without overheating give NASCAR hope this will happen.
Unfortunately, these tweaks haven’t been tested where it really counts -- during a race.
But pretty soon they will be. And we’ll all see what all this tweaking has wrought.
It could be just what Dr. Frankenstein ordered -- enough mechanical changes to bring the big drafting packs back from the dead.
Or it could be a big mess.
Drivers are still going to use the two-car draft because it will still be the quickest way around the track. They will push the cooling systems to the limit and they will use all the extra horsepower that NASCAR is giving them.
And the Daytona 500 could become a carnival of exploding engines spreading oil over the entire 2.5 miles.
Better stock up on the Speedy Dry.
Might set a record for caution laps. Wouldn’t that be fun?
Or it could bring back another fan favorite -- the Big One.
With tandems not being able to push as long, drivers will be changing positions a lot more as pusher becomes pushee. The more that happens around other tandems, the more opportunities there are for disaster.
And with tandem racing now being more challenging, some drivers will figure it out sooner and better than others.
One thing’s for sure -- it won’t be dull.
Doug Demmons is a writer and editor for the Birmingham News ~ he writes daily and weekly auto racing columns ranging from NASCAR to open wheel to Formula One, local tracks and more... you can read Doug's columns online at ALABAMA MOTORSPORTS
Follow Doug on Twitter: @dougdemmons
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.
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