John Shiels

I see NASCAR is testing rain tires which should be interesting. They had them at the Glen but didn't use them. They said they tried them in the lower series. Anyone hear any more details?

joemoia

They ran rain tires last year(?) in the Nationwide race in Montreal, Ron Fellows won the race

youtube clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXzpeK2FPWo

WYCKD 1

They should have used them today at the Glen. Several of the drivers interviewed were more than willing to run. And Montreal last year proved that it can be done.

I know there was lightening when it first started raining and they had to consider the crowds but after that storm passed, they could have been good to go.

Oh well, hopefully Monday will be a better day for the race.


lauri

Everett Ogilvie

They will never use them on the CUP cars and the experienced CUP drivers don't want to use them. The cars are too heavy, too top heavy, and handle waaaaaaaaaayy too poorly. They occasionally use them on the (lower) Nationwide series and that is why they had them at the track this weekend, in case they were needed.

John Shiels

You can drive anything in the rain if you have talent and it is wet for all drivers. I see the road racers want them and the oval NASCAR guys don't when interviewed.

Not sure on handling poorly after seeing what they do in turn 1 at Pocono I think most are afraid because they never raced in the rain like Fellows or Said.

Zoxxo

I watched them interview the drivers about this tonight on SpeedTV and (as you said) the road racers all said "Let's do it!" while the oval guys poured forth all sorts of BS excuses why it couldn't/shouldn't be done (the best of which I thought was "these cars have too much power" ) Yeah, those 1000+ hp instant-on-turbo-boost F1 cars of the 1980s were cake to drive in the rain compared to a Cup car

Z//

BrianCunningham

I bet you'll see it on a road course.

Everett Ogilvie

Mike Helton (president of Nascar) has publicly stated numerous times that they won't do it. He, like the experienced CUP drivers said yesterday, has stated that they don't want to put on a race where the speeds are so low and there are so many cautions that the fans don't see a "good" race. You can talk about road course drivers from other series all you want - those are light, great handling cars that can actually do 80% of their dry performance in the wet. The wet races they have tried with the Nationwide cars have been marginal (meaning they are considering not even doing it there any more) and those cars actually make downforce and have low CGs relatively speaking. I follow Nascar closely enough that I would be VERY surprised to ever see it with the current CUP cars, and I take Helton at his word when he says they won't do it.

BrianCunningham

OUCH!

Talk about a BIG HIT

video

http://www.nascar.com/video/cup/2009...h.five.nascar/

Everett Ogilvie

Same exact place Jason Leffler went off track and cartwheeled back on the track in practice a few days ago. I am guessing they may want to look into reshaping that part of the barrier if possible so it does not direct a car directly back onto the track. Jeff walked to the ambulance, but he has back problems - hope he is ok, it was a huge hit.

TLGunman

Cup and Nationwide cars also lack rear brake lights, wipers (those makeshift things on the Nationwide cars last year don't count), and defog systems(rag on a stick doesn't count either). Without those items, racing in the rain isn't safe, even with rain tires.

Zoxxo

All easily added items. Maybe they could take a little bit of cash from their lug nut budgets

As was stated on last night's Wind Tunnel, the only track where the rain tire issue has any relevance is Watkins Glen (rain at Sonoma in August is decidedly unlikely.) So they can hide behind the difficulty of testing the COT on rain tires for just one race per year.

Btw, the fear of "too many yellow flags" is just another way of saying "the majority of the drivers couldn't handle it." Given that the majority has *never* driven a race car in the rain, (a) it's a given that they really have no idea what is/isn't possible and (b) they probably -couldn't- handle it. That's all just fine *but* we need to hear far less of the "best drivers in the world" BS from their fans when the majority of those "great" drivers actually shy away from doing what most of the rest of the world's race car drivers do regularly.

Z//

ghoffman

Listen, the Cup drivers are great, don't make that mistake. I really don't think Stewart, Ambrose, Gordon, et all would have any problems running in the rain, after all 800 HP in the mud in a sprint car does require a little car control. The wipers are a catalog item from BSR racing, and defoggers are NBD as well as blocking the air intakes for the brakes. I think it is buisness decision as much as any technical reason.