Explaining the situation
I'm intrigued by all the to-do over the suspensions of the Evernham 3 and Matt Kenseth's crew chiefs. (Dustin's story from today's paper is here.)
My biggest unanswered question so far has been, how does this all work? Not many of the reporters in the garage are gearheads, but Bram is, so I asked him to take a whack at explaining what was going on.
The short version -- it's all about downforce:
Here's what the holes do.. they leak air.. they lessen the air cushion that the car rides on, ever so slightly.. result? less air under the car means increased downforce pressure.. and the car is faster.. maybe by thousandths of a second.. but in a world where enough thousandths of a second can translate into a position or two on the track... and more money for winning or placing better..etc. or maybe a better starting position.
Go read the whole thing here. It's only four paragraphs, but it'll give you an idea of the physics involved.
Dustin tole me today that the holes in question are less than a quarter inch in diameter.
P.S. Michael Waltrip's crew chief apparently has gotten the dreaded indefinite suspension. My original thought that this wouldn'nt be such a big deal ... let's just say I was really, really wrong about that.
Comments (1)
To report abuse of the comment feature on this site, please use the feedback form at the bottom of any page.
My thinking is that the fallout is not done yet. I would not be surprized if Bobby Kennedy and David Hyder were let go as well. Lee White the V.P. at Toyota Racing has pretty much stated that the relationship with Waltrip would require further discussion...hmmm, what do you think that means?
Posted on February 14, 2007 11:40 PM