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 Handling: the Key to a Fast Car |
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A car's handing characteristics must be changed completely after qualifying.
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By David Ifft, Morgan-McClure Motorsports
Handling does come into effect during the race at Daytona. Talladega is not a handling race track -- you don't have to handle that good -- but at Daytona you've got to handle. If you've got to fade out of the throttle a little bit going into the turn because the car is skating a little bit up the race track or it's a little loose going in it takes you a half a lap or three-quarters of a lap to get wound back up again.
You've got to handle here. If you can run on the bottom of the track, or just like Earnhardt, he can turn down right in the middle of the turn to the bottom of the race track. Earnhardt handles and that's how he beats a lot of them. The cars that will handle here will run up front.
To adjust your car at Daytona you kind of go by what the driver tells you and what the watches tell you. And you judge a lot by your tire temperatures. If you're in the draft and you're moving around, which it will a little and you have to tighten it up to make it stable and it slows you down you're gonna be hanging on all day. If your car's stable and you can run wide open and it's still fast you're gonna be in good shape. Some cars will run better around other cars than they will with different cars so it's who you get hooked up with and who your car runs good with that is a big factor in the race.
You've got to make it fast and comfortable for the driver and sometimes you can't hit it all the time. A lot of the times you just keep working at it and working at it until you get it livable. Most of the teams will be changing right up until the qualifying races. After the qualifying races, that will give you a good test to see where your car's at for 50 laps and a pit stop. You'll see a lot of springs and shocks being changed after the qualifying races and you'll see the cars that are and aren't good.
We try to build a lot of adjustment into the car's setup for the race. We know the track's gonna change and we know the car's gonna change. During the race we'll make a lot of changes, in air pressure mostly and also with the track bar, which affects the rear roll center of the car and can alter its handling characteristics in the corners. We might have a spring rubber we can yank out to change the handling, maybe in the right front or the right rear or left rear.
As the race goes on it gets hotter and more and more rubber and oil and everything gets on the track and your car handles a little slicker, it gets a little looser. You just have to play it by ear and judge what your tires do -- how quick your tires drop off. When you put new ones on, do they last 20 laps or does it take 40 laps before you can't drive it? Most of the time you'll change four every time unless you come down to a late caution and you go for two tires to get track position. If it comes down to a caution with 20 or 30 to go you gotta know what kind of air pressure you need.
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