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IS THIS THE FINAL TEXAS TWO-STEP?
THE “Q” RUN RECAP AND PREVIEW
BY Miles Nelson
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With the announcement that Texas Motor Speedway was going to finally get their coveted second Nextel Cup race; it wasn’t long before the questions started about the fate of both the IndyCar events, I have heard that this will probably be the last “two-step.” I’m not ready to throw in the towel on two IndyCar races at Texas just yet, scheduling is the issue and things have a way of working out. A race that draws over 60K is a pretty good payday for a track. While not wanting to be accused of spin doctoring, I know how much money one NASCAR event can suck out of the family bank account, never mind two. It may just be a good idea for IndyCar to put all its eggs in the night race basket, the short time between the first NextCup and the IndyCar weekend doesn’t seem to bother the fans, and with only one IndyCar event to attend, they may just turn it into a huge event.
Thursday the IndyCars took to the TMS track for the first time with the 3.0 liter engines and revised aero rules, and the most
important question became how much speed would be lost? The almost immediate answer is more than 9 mph! Last evening Dario Franchitti put the AGR Dallara Honda on the pole at 209.609. Last season, with the 3.5 liter engines, the night race pole was 219.3, set by Tomas Scheckter in a G Force Toyota. In the fall, in the last race in a five-man points chase, Gil de Ferran sat on the pole at 222.430. At this TMS race last year it must be noted that Honda and Toyota were in only their 4th race with their IndyCar engines. Several months later, when they returned to TMS, they had found enough new horsepower to gain over 3 mph. Looking at those numbers, it is easy to understand why IndyCar had to reduce the engine to 3.0 liters this year. Unchecked, who knows how much faster the cars would have been this year at Texas. Even with the “air-hole” at the PIR test, the cars were close to the 2003 PIR pole speed. So comparing event for event, the pole speed this year is 9.7 mph slower than last year. It might just be even more interesting to see the speed gain when the cars return in the fall.
We know where most of the speed was lost (the engine), but Thursday I E-mailed Phil Casey of IndyCar to find out if the IRL was going to “tailor” the aero package to TMS, somewhat like what they tried to do at IMS. Phil was quick to reply with the answer, “Miles, the aero package is 10 degree wing flap, minimum 1 inch wicker and 1/4 inch reverse wicker on the bottom of wing. A 1/2 inch vertical wicker on the end fences, a minimum ride height of 2 1/2 inches in the front and a minimum ride height of 2 3/4 inches in the rear.” They will continue to use the curved skid plate, but will paint a white stripe on it to identify a car that is rubbing the track, penalties are in store for infractions. When you consider that at Indy, when the teams wanted to go fast they went to negative wing, it is easy to see where some of the speed was lost, but over all, the Indy pole was close to 9 mph slower, as was the pole at TMS.
Last night the gap between Franchitti and Scott Sharp, the slowest qualifier was 6 mph, last year at TMS the gap was closer to 10 mph, and so if the IRL is thinking any of these changes will increase separation, I don’t see how. In fact, with the reduced power, I think the draft will play a bigger part, in the final practice seven cars were faster than the Franchitti pole speed and 18 were within 4 mph of Sam Hornish’s 211.3 mph lap.
Recently I started to use the fastest tracks as a means to gauge relative horsepower between the three engine manufacturers, I call it my rolling dynamometer. The way a dyno works is measure the engines power output against a known resistance. I simply let the friction and air pressure of running a lap at the best possible speed provide the resistance and substitute the speed for the horsepower number. I only use Dallara results, because there are no G Force cars with Chevy engines. The tracks I use for the evaluation are those where the drivers don’t lift anywhere on the track. I also try to negate the efforts of the weaker teams if they appear to diminish the average number too badly. When I started doing this last year I had problems getting enough representative Chevy and Honda numbers, this year my issues are with Toyota. With two of the best Toyota teams using G Force cars (TCGR), I am left with Penske and whatever Foyt and Nunn can come up with, that is why I only used two speeds from each manufacturer last night, the results,
Honda, 209.06
Chevy, 207.79
Toyota, 207.66
I will continue to rate the engines after every fast track event.
Tomorrow I will preview the race and pick my top five finishers.
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