On the Loose Side
by Kenny Bruce
In the garage, a part's more than just a part
March 29, 2008
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MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Michael Waltrip, Jeff Gordon, even NASCAR officials made light of the fuss car owner Jack Roush made over a sway bar this weekend.
And that’s too bad. Maybe a sway bar – a piece located underneath the chassis that affects a suspension’s roll stiffness – isn’t as detailed as, say, a carburetor. Maybe we don’t hear winning drivers climb from their cars and talk about how “that sway bar made all the difference today.”
But still, a part’s a part. And every part is important. Every team in the garage has information and data, parts and pieces, that it considers off limits to others. It may be difficult to keep secrets in the garage, but that doesn’t mean teams don’t try.
Teams competing in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series have less and less control over what makes their cars go fast, or slow, these days. NASCAR’s stringent guidelines have made every Ford look like a Chevrolet, every Chevrolet look like a Dodge and every Dodge look like a Toyota. Teams spend millions of dollars each year on research, testing, trips to the wind tunnel and parts development in an effort to go faster than the next guy. You think there are any insignificant pieces on a race car? Think again.
Otherwise, why would teams go to the extreme of altering something as small as the lug nuts in an effort to shave time off a pit stop? That, by the way, isn’t legal. But it’s been done.
Otherwise, why would teams play with oil cooler lids? Jack bolts? Fender braces? You name the part, it’s likely that it’s been scrutinized and/or altered to see what could be done to it to improve performance.
Maybe Waltrip’s team did wind up with the sway bar from Roush Fenway Racing by accident. Maybe not. And while it’s true that many of the parts and pieces are put on display each week during postrace teardown and can be viewed by just about anyone, seeing a part and having a part in one’s possession aren’t the same thing. You can’t test a part you’ve only seen.
Roush has every right to be angry. The only question that really needs to be asked though, is whether he should be angry that another team ended up with a piece of his equipment, or that his team didn’t keep better tabs on its own stock.
And that’s too bad. Maybe a sway bar – a piece located underneath the chassis that affects a suspension’s roll stiffness – isn’t as detailed as, say, a carburetor. Maybe we don’t hear winning drivers climb from their cars and talk about how “that sway bar made all the difference today.”
But still, a part’s a part. And every part is important. Every team in the garage has information and data, parts and pieces, that it considers off limits to others. It may be difficult to keep secrets in the garage, but that doesn’t mean teams don’t try.
Teams competing in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series have less and less control over what makes their cars go fast, or slow, these days. NASCAR’s stringent guidelines have made every Ford look like a Chevrolet, every Chevrolet look like a Dodge and every Dodge look like a Toyota. Teams spend millions of dollars each year on research, testing, trips to the wind tunnel and parts development in an effort to go faster than the next guy. You think there are any insignificant pieces on a race car? Think again.
Otherwise, why would teams go to the extreme of altering something as small as the lug nuts in an effort to shave time off a pit stop? That, by the way, isn’t legal. But it’s been done.
Otherwise, why would teams play with oil cooler lids? Jack bolts? Fender braces? You name the part, it’s likely that it’s been scrutinized and/or altered to see what could be done to it to improve performance.
Maybe Waltrip’s team did wind up with the sway bar from Roush Fenway Racing by accident. Maybe not. And while it’s true that many of the parts and pieces are put on display each week during postrace teardown and can be viewed by just about anyone, seeing a part and having a part in one’s possession aren’t the same thing. You can’t test a part you’ve only seen.
Roush has every right to be angry. The only question that really needs to be asked though, is whether he should be angry that another team ended up with a piece of his equipment, or that his team didn’t keep better tabs on its own stock.
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