Many expecting wild Talladega race next month

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Drivers practice in the car of tomorrow at Talladega Superspeedway.

Car of tomorrow to be used for UAW-Ford 500; drivers say design will make race unpredictable

Talladega Superspeedway, always an unpredictable stop on the Nextel Cup tour, will be even more so on Oct. 7, because that day’s race is the car-of-tomorrow warm-up for next season’s Daytona 500.

Yesterday, NASCAR teams took their first hard look at the new car at Talladega, the Nextel Cup tour’s biggest track.

“It’s tough to say how the drivers are really going to take it,” Denny Hamlin said of the UAW-Ford 500, the fourth race of this year’s Chase for the Championship. “But the way the cars are set up and the big hole they punch in the air, it should be way wilder than anything we’ve ever seen.

“I’d say it’s going to be a lot like the Truck races, where they talk about how big the closing rate is. These cars are going to punch such a big hole in the air we’ll be stuck together like glue, and if one guy makes a mistake, it could be a big one.”

But Hamlin said that his first time out with the new car at Talladega, “I really didn’t notice that much difference, not really as much as what I thought.”

NASCAR would like for the car of tomorrow to bring back the old Talladega-Daytona slingshot. But Hamlin said, “We’re running so many RPMs, even by ourselves. Most of these motors are making max power probably between 7,500 and 8,000 RPM. By ourselves we’re running close to 8,400. So we know we’re going to be upwards of nine-grand probably in the draft.

“What that does is take away a lot of throttle response. So you’re not going to be able to just lift off the gas and get back on it and really have that extra power, because you’re already so far past your power band.

“The problem with that is we’re stuck to this (NASCAR-mandated) gear, so we can’t go down in gear to compensate for it. If they did go down in gear, it would just make the speed so ridiculously fast that they’d have to slow them down some other kind of way.”

Sheer speed, Hamlin said, will probably not be a major issue at Talladega.

“I think you can have the absolute slowest car and you’ll be able to slingshot yourself right into the lead with no problem. Ultimately, a guy with the worst car will be able to win.

“I think you’re not going to have as big a deal with side-drafting as with the old car, because side-drafting would just push air on the guy’s spoiler beside you.”

Jimmie Johnson tested at Talladega last fall in the first tentative runs with the car of tomorrow.

“My opinion was when we had the cars at the right speed for safety, it took out some of the passing,” Johnson said. “So I’m hopeful NASCAR’s been able to find a little better package.”

To some in the NASCAR garage, the Chase will open this week at Loudon, N.H., with three men clearly the class of the field: Johnson, teammate Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart.

“I still feel like Jeff had such a great year that he’s probably the guy to keep our eyes on the most,” Johnson said, although he has beaten Gordon the past two weeks, at California and Richmond.

“We need to stay aggressive, and not get off our game.”

Johnson said he expects an aggressive race at Talladega.

“You can get away with a lot more pushing and shoving, because the cars have a lot of downforce, and they’re real comfortable to drive,” he said. “I think that will lead to a little more aggressive driving.

“But if you use the bumper too much, the way the front bumpers have the struts attached to them that hook to the splitter (the snowplow-like nose piece), if you hit someone too hard it will pull the splitter up and actually change the shape of it and create lift in the car, which would be a big problem.

“Hopefully, that will discourage a lot of the real pushing and shoving. But the potential is there for more rough driving than in the past.”

Kevin Harvick agreed that “there’s just a lot of unknowns” about the Talladega race now.

“So far, the car drives really well, and everything seems to be fine,” Harvick said. “But you can do all the testing you want, but you can’t really ever put it in race condition.”

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