– The goal going forward, not just for 2019, is closer racing and more entertaining racing for the fans.
– I think the baseline we do have is, in fact, the all-star race. But we should point out the differences here. When we were racing prior to the Coke 600 back in May, the all-Star event, 400 horsepower. Now when we go to tracks longer than a mile– so those mile and a halfs will be included in that– 550 horsepower. So we get to Atlanta, Las Vegas Auto Club, what do you anticipate as a driver, Brad?
– Well, I think what you’re going to see is the cars will be on the verge of running wide open. And so they straightaway speed will be slower, but with all the downforce added to the cars, guys, the corner speed will actually be faster than ever before. And that’s one of the things that I think might be lost in this mix is the cars will be a little slower down the straight way for sure, in fact, probably a lot slower down the straight away.
But they’ll actually be faster through the corner. And then I look at this, and one thing that I think might be getting overlooked as well, the short tracks for next year will have the same engine we’re running in 2018, same spec on it, the tapered spacer and so forth. But the cars will have a lot more downforce.
– That’s what I was going to ask you on the competition side, Andy. We’re going to talk so much about the 550 horsepower tracks, where it’s similar to what we saw in the all-star race. But what about the short tracks? What’s the impact for the team there?
– Well, they’re just going to have more downforce, just like you said. So they’re going to stick a lot better. We’re going to have higher corner speeds. Goodyear’s probably going to have to adjust a little bit on the tire combination that we run there.
But let’s don’t get too wound up in the tapered spacer thing. We run in one now. We’ve run a tapered spacer on the cars now. We’re just talking about little different size for some of these tracks to make it smaller, to bring that entry, that corner entry speed down to a more manageable level.
And that is going to promote closer racing, because they’ll be able to kind of close up each other before they get to the corner. The way it is now this low drag, high horsepower package that we race is that they kind of get spread out on the straight away and they come together in the corners. This, I think, will promote cars to start racing a little bit before we get to the corner. And I think that’s what we’re looking for is just a better show.
– Yeah, I’d go back to the all-star race. I went up in a booth to watch the very first practice. In 10 minutes into that practice I liked what I saw, initially. But my first thought was, well I believe they need a little more power. Well, that’s exactly for the most part what they’ve done. We’re essentially gonna go– when we go to Charlotte in May, we’ll go from basically 450 horsepower to 550 horsepower, about 100 more.
MIKE JOY: Well, one of the goals, NASCAR said– Steve O’Donnell said– in this package was reducing corner entry speed. How does that change your job?
BRAD KESELOWSKI: Well, it does change my job a lot, because the car will have a little bit more stability. Right now you enter the corners, and you are really on the edge. And that’s part of it. With the reduction of corner entry speed, the car should be a little bit more stable.
– Brad, you know, we’re going to see this, the first race after the Daytona 500. We’ll stick with the regular package this year for that race. What’s the learning curve going to be like for you guys on the racetrack? And then Andy, you can weigh in as well, for the teams kind of adjusting to this new package?
– I think the biggest learning curve is going to be for the engine makers, the engine builders, the guys who are out there designing the cylinder heads and all the parts that make those engines have peak power, because the air flows in the engines are going to be different. And we’re going to have the best engine. Every one of us drivers are going to be saying I need more power! And we’re going to really test our engine, guys.
– Yeah, I think it’s going to put a little more emphasis on the engine. When you start talking about how we’re going to be drag limited, and the cars are going to reach a terminal velocity before they get to the corner, it’s going to put more emphasis on the development of the engine, kind of like we do aero now. We put a ton of emphasis on finding that one two pounds of downforce.
And we don’t really– I’m not saying we do we don’t pay attention to power. We do. But the power is not as important right now as downforce because we’re so downforce limited. So I think it’s going to change a little bit next year. So we’ll see probably some reallocation of resources on what we’re working on.
– It’s great there’s only two engine packages. And that will save some money.
– And the first time we’ll see this in place, tomorrow in Phoenix, there will be a test. And then later in the fall, Las Vegas, Charlotte, and Atlanta. So teams will have a chance. Goodyear going to have an opportunity to go through the paces before we get to 2019.
Be the first to comment