Getting Acquainted With The "New Car"

December 23, 2007
By Kim Roberson

Kim Roberson

Happy Holidays!

Where has the year gone? We are just 8 days until the end of 2007. I thought the NASCAR season went by fast; the off season is going by a whole lot faster. I can imagine if it feels like that to me, it must feel like a time warp to the guys who are trying to get the new cars (I guess they aren’t Cars of Tomorrow anymore, are they?) up and running for testing in two weeks.

Two weeks? Yikes! The shortest off-season in professional sports strikes again. Teams who usually work through the holiday season have twice as much to do in the scant seven weeks between Homestead and testing this year as they get the new cars up and ready to race full time.

I spent Thursday and Friday car shopping.

It was time to replace the 1995 Isuzu Rodeo with 154k miles with something a little newer and more reliable. I downsized to a 2 year old car, and as I was driving in the traffic from the car dealership in Fredericksburg, VA, to my parents home in Gordonsville, VA, I found myself gripping the wheel tightly and thinking about what NASCAR drivers must feel when they get into a new car for the first time.

I was driving in holiday traffic, some cars thinking they were driving in NASCAR as they sped past in excess of 100 mph weaving in and out between cars and Semi’s, and all I could focus on was getting the feel of the new car vs my former SUV. I went from a non 4-wheel drive rear wheel drive to a traction control front wheel drive. The handling on the road was good, and as I drove behind and between the 18-wheelers, feeling the air buffet me, I thought of the cars in the draft at Daytona or Talladega.

When a Cup driver gets into the new car, do they feel as nervous as I did Friday? I found myself holding the steering wheel in a virtual death grip for the first 50 miles or so, my fingers aching from being wrapped so securely around the wheel. Do the Cup guys do the same thing when they take the new car out for the first few laps?

I know they have a few races under their belts from last season, but this new car is a whole new beast. The rookies this season will have no experience in them other than what they get at testing next month. When a driver moves to a new car, do they grab the wheel and just go, or is there an element of nervousness (maybe even fear?) as they get in and take it out for the first few laps? Will drivers be a little more cautious when they get to Daytona in the new car for the first time? Sure, they have testing, but that is only half the field at a time, and on the track you might have half of the half. Going out in packs of 12 or so for a few laps is much different than going 195 in a pack of 43 six inches apart for four hours.

This is not to say I expect Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart to go out and cruise at 100 mph or so for the first day as they get the feel for the car. They’ll go out and mash the gas and get the car up to speed. I do wonder about drivers like Jacques Villeneuve, Patrick Carpentier, Sam Hornish Jr., Dario Franchitti and Regan Smith. With the exception of Smith, the other four are all former open wheel drivers who are used to lighter, higher-performance cars. About the only thing that will be the same about the car they are getting into this year is the spoiler on the back.

If someone like Tony Stewart calls the new car a “flying brick”, imagine what it will feel like for those guys. All of the rookies have spent time in the old car, and all have been like me in my new car: Go out, get a feel for it, and stay on the road and out of trouble.

Now, it is time to race for the full season, and that means caution loses out to speed. But I have to wonder, will they go out at Daytona, grip the wheel of this new “flying brick” like it is their lifeline, and spend the day hoping desperately that they will just make it to the end of the day with car and driver in one piece?

Two weeks from tomorrow, the new cars hit the track at Daytona for testing. No more flipping back and forth between two different cars: the “Car of Tomorrow” is the car of now. The slate is clean, and the drivers will be getting into the car and taking it out on the track at Daytona, not for the first time, but knowing this time, it is for keeps.

As I watch them hit the track, I’ll be watching and wondering if their fingers ache from the death grip they have on their steering wheel.

Happy holidays to all my fellow NASCAR fans. Be safe, be merry, and enjoy the time with friends and family.

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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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