Budweiser Shootout drivers were out of control, but happy with new rules package
The wicker helped keep Sprint Cup cars from spinning out and getting airborne in the Budweiser Shootout. // Jim Fluharty, NASCAR Illustrated
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Drivers said their cars were out of control during the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona International Speedway.
And that’s just the way they want it.
Racing for the first time with a new rules package that features a restrictor plate with holes 63/64ths of an inch (a 1/16th-inch increase over a year ago) as well as a large wicker bill that goes down the left side of the rear window and over the hood, the drivers seemed pleased with the way the cars raced.
“The cars were pretty out of control, which was fun at times,” said Hendrick Motorsports’ Jeff Gordon. “You had to really drive them. But we’ve got to get our car handling maybe a little bit better. The plate was good, though. I liked the plate.”
NASCAR monitored the speeds and was happy with them. For the first 19 laps, all run under green, the leader’s average speed was 187.548 mph.
“The bigger plate showed the most in some of the later laps where the 1 [of Jamie McMurray] and the 29 [of Kevin Harvick] kept swapping the lead back and forth,” NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Director John Darby said. “That’s what you get when you get a bigger plate. You get the ability to pull back up and move around somebody. I was really, really pleased with the speeds and everything.”
The increase in the holes of the restrictor plates was designed to give drivers more throttle response.
“We were all driving up to the top of the race track and hanging on and sliding around,” Hendrick Motorsports’ Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. “Nobody was really full-throttle there on the long runs. It was a lot of fun. We were driving them. We were driving them more.
“There were just a lot of big bumps out there that upset the cars. Other than that, it was fun having that extra speed driving off into the corner and being able to use that a little bit.”
Even though Carl Edwards led 42 of the first 43 laps, Richard Petty Motorsports driver Kasey Kahne said that drivers were racing hard early.
“I was on edge from the time it went green,” Kahne said. “Even the first 25, in intros, there were guys saying, ‘Should we take it easy? We do this, do that.’ I felt it was on from the time the green flag came out tonight.”
The wicker on the left side of the car is designed to keep cars on the ground, and NASCAR didn’t see any cars get airborne. NASCAR also has required the endplates on the wings to be curved instead of straight.
Darby said he thinks the endplates made a big difference in keeping cars from spinning out.
“There were a lot of instances in tonight’s race where you saw somebody start to spin, get cocked way out there and was able to recover the car,” Darby said.
Even with the bigger restrictor plate and other changes, the cars aren’t easy to drive. And that’s OK, drivers said.
“I like the cars,” said Ken Schrader, who was driving for Red Bull Racing. “They are out of control and race cars aren’t supposed to be real easy to drive.”
