In NASCAR’s conservative cowboy culture, however, the car has not been readily embraced by many of the top drivers, or the sport’s fans. While the drivers concede the car may be safer, some—including current Chase leader Jeff Gordon—have not always been impressed by its handling, and several have complained that it has made certain aspects of racing—particularly passing at the front of the pack—more difficult. And the fans tend to be wedded to the sport’s traditions, with all its risks, and are turned off by the new car’s less sleek, sexy look. Still, NASCAR sees the car’s first, experimental season as a success. Robin Pemberton, NASCAR vice president of competition, talked about the car and its future with NEWSWEEK’s Mark Starr. Excerpts:
NEWSWEEK: From NASCAR’s perspective, how successful has your “Car of Tomorrow” been this season? Robin Pemberton: The car has been very successful. It’s about safety, first and foremost, and then the competition and cost aspects. We feel that the car is more durable than the cars have been in the past, and therefore it has probably led to a little closer competition on the racetrack.
Why aren’t the drivers as enamored as you are? While they may agree on safety and cost, they seem to question the competitive claim? When you’re a driver you look at it from the cockpit of your car. What you say is what you feel. You hear comments, like it’s so hard to pass. What they’re saying is true. There are more cars in proximity to each other. The competition is much tighter now. The spread of times from the top to the bottom are closer, so with closer competition it is more difficult at times.
The complaints seem to suggest that the car is easier to maneuver in the back of the pack than at the front. Some drivers have complained, because passing becomes very difficult. The farther you get up in the field, the harder it’s going to be. That’s where the guys are that have a better handle on the car on any particular day.
So any problem in passing is not connected to the car but to the skill of the drivers? We’ve compressed the competition here. When we sit up and watch the races unfold, the lap times for the entire field are much, much closer now from the very fastest to the very slowest. What is not different is that the closer you get to the front of the field the harder it is to pass, because that’s why the guys are in front.
Does some of the resistance to the new car stem simply from the conservative nature of the NASCAR culture. Oh, yeah. We’ve got a lot of really new, young, talented drivers that have come in during the last three, four, five years. What they have not been through and don’t have the experience dealing with is any rule changes. Knowing this car was coming on board this year, the last three years we have locked down all the templates, all the rules and regulations to allow the teams to work on the new car—to work on the chassis, the handling and the aero part of it. So those new drivers haven’t experienced a template change or spoiler cut or aerodynamic change. Six years ago there was a change, seven years ago there was a change, every year there were model changes and body changes and new rules and regulations. [But] the new guys, probably a quarter of the field, have never been through a change before.
Next season, when there is only the “Car of the Tomorrow,” do you think this grousing will stop? I think anybody that’s competitive will always voice an opinion when they get beaten. With a higher level of competition week in and week out, there are always going to be guys that might complain. That’s the competitive nature.
There seems to be some resistance to the changes from the fans, too. Well, I think it’s natural. I think that goes hand in hand with the fan base and how fast it has grown in the last seven or eight years. It’s funny to me to listen to some of them when they say, “I can’t believe you’ve got a wing on the back of your Cup car. Who ever heard of such a thing?” There were wings on cars back in ‘69 and ‘70 and ‘71. Those people don’t even realize it. So those people are critical and make their statements, but they don’t have all the information. They don’t know where we’ve been in the past. I think fans a lot of the time will comment based on what their favorite driver’s comments are.
What problems with the car still need to be ironed out? I think it’s ironed out. We constantly have safety initiatives, whether it be the chassis part of it and impact studies as it relates to heat insulation, or noise—or it could be anything. We’re constantly working on things.
But is there a specific concern that you will be working on before next season? No. I think the important thing right now is to stabilize the rules for a number of years, and things will settle out. We’re going to hold the rules tight. Right now the teams are having to do parallel projects with the current car and last year’s car, so their engineering has been divided between two distinctly different types of vehicles. Once they get to concentrate on one, that will help things.
Has the car overshadowed the racing this year? Are you looking forward to it not being an issue? Yeah. But if there’s not that issue, there’s another issue. Right now it’s not about the car but about the drivers and letting them compete. Getting into this part of the season, everybody has enough time under their belt [with the new car] to know what they are up against.
Have I skipped over any of the complaints? I’m sure somebody will write you a letter and they will let you know what you did wrong.
Will they say I wasn’t hard enough on you and the car? They may. But we deal with that every week. You always have the extremists.
Despite the complaints, you’re pleased with the season, the car and where it has NASCAR positioned for the future? At the end of the day, the car has met and exceeded all expectations. It has been very competitive, it has been very safe, it has been durable. I think it opens itself up to harder side-by-side racing. We’ve had some of the closest finishes in history with this car. I don’t think anybody can argue that. You’re always going to have a team at times get on a good run and get a good lead and lead many laps. But if you look through the field—third place to 10th place to 15th—the racing back there is more intense than it has ever been. That’s what I like to see.
