Spacer has changed how Nationwide Series competitors drive
Whether the new tapered spacer helps save Nationwide Series teams any money with their engines is a subject for debate, but one thing is clear: It has drastically changed the way drivers attack the race track.
The spacer acts like a restrictor plate and takes away as much as 80 horsepower from engines, compared to last year. The spacer sits between the carburetor and intake manifold and restricts the amount of air/fuel mixture to the engine.
With less horsepower, drivers are more concerned with momentum through the corners than ever before.
“The spacer just makes it so you're not going as fast at the end of the straightaway,” defending series champion Carl Edwards said last weekend at Nashville Superspeedway. “The car still goes the same speed through the corner, but you don’t have as big a change in speed. You have to decide how far to drive it in the corner, when to get on the throttle.
“All of the habits from the thousands of laps that everybody’s run here are kind of hard to break. You’ve got to be aware of what you’re doing and make sure you're making the car fast, and you’re not slowing down by the way you’re driving.”
Edwards had won three races in a row at Nashville, but after one practice session at the 1.33-mile track, he decided he needed more time getting used to the way the spacer changes his driving style.
“I went out there the first couple of laps, and it just felt so foreign to me,” Edwards said. “It’s like something’s not right here, and I’m not going the right speed.”
To Kyle Busch, the trick is to stay on the throttle as long as possible when making a lap.
“You have to be able to keep your corner speed up,” Busch said. “Sometimes you can drive it in deeper and not use initial brake but use deeper brake when you get into the corner, and then get right back to the gas. There's a lot more throttle.
“It's all about getting back to the gas and getting the thing wide open for the exit of the corners. We're trying to keep that center-of-the-corner speed up. It makes you a little bit tighter, but you try to get back to the gas because you don't have much horsepower to pull you down the straightaway. We're making changes to the car, too, to try to get it out of the air and get it slick. Everybody is making changes on what they're used to.”
And it’s not just Nashville, Denny Hamlin said. On every track, drivers have had to make adjustments.
“I ran last week in the Nationwide race at Bristol and had to change everything I knew going into the race from the previous year,” Hamlin said. “It seems like with the low horsepower you have to concentrate on corner exit. You can't overcharge the corners with these cars. It's a lot different racing than what we're used to.”
