NASCAR still evaluating McDowell's car and data
By SceneDaily Staff
Saturday, April 12, 2008
AVONDALE, Ariz. – G-force readings from Michael McDowell’s grinding crash at Texas Motor Speedway last weekend were lower than other major wrecks in NASCAR, but Sprint Cup Series Director John Darby said the nature of severe crashes in the new car has changed so much that G-force readings don’t mean as much as they once did.
NASCAR has begun the process of thoroughly examining McDowell’s battered Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota in its Research & Development Center, Darby said, adding that the G-force numbers were “pretty low.”
But that wasn’t totally unexpected, because the design of the new car and the SAFER barrier has changed crash dynamics.
“G-forces overall have been reduced,” Darby said. “But when you look at the big picture, the G-force is the least significant number anyway.”
The significant number is the change in velocity, which Darby said was “substantial” with McDowell’s car.
“They weren’t the worst we’ve ever seen by any means,” Darby said. “But part of the process of building a safer race car is to reduce all those numbers as best we can. Even when we understand completely the final numbers – which ultimately will be lower than what we’ve seen in the past – that’s what we’re looking for.”
McDowell’s crash, dramatic as it was, wasn’t as severe as the wreck suffered by Jeff Gordon at Las Vegas Motor Speedway when his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet slammed the inside wall along the track’s backstretch.
“It wasn’t as big a hit as the 24 took,” said Cal Wells, executive vice president for business operations for MWR. “The 24 hit a concrete wall and it jerked the motor and the transmission. ... Everything [on McDowell’s car] performed extraordinarily close to design.”
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