(spoiler alert) 2019 Advance Auto Parts Clash (or Crash, if you prefer)

[OldSchool+]

Warning #1: This video shows the finish of the Advance Auto Parts Clash that ran 2/10/19. Read no further if you have not seen the event, but intend to.

Warning #2: Darrell Waltrip is among the narrators in the following video. Do not watch if you find that offensive.

https://youtu.be/vjdUGvvKeU0?t=1

So, there it is. Jimmie was about six inches up on Paul Menard on what Jimmie correctly determined to be about the last chance to pass before the rain closed in.

Disclaimers:

>I am not a JJ fan.

>"Normally" (if there is such a thing in racing) I feel that a guy has to be about up to the middle of the driver's door in order to claim the position as "his" without being "dirty".

BUT, on the last lap all that goes out the window, and winning is paramount (my opinion only--Mark Martin, for instance, disagrees). And Menard was late blocking and was trying to protect his position with the side of his bumper. A losing proposition.

And the rest of the field went along for the typical, very expensive, and potentially dangerous ride at Daytona.

So, imo, Jimmie gets no demerits for this one.

Your thoughts? at will.

ps--Jacko, to your point, if NASCAR flattened the banks at "the super(?)speedways", the teams would require less cars and therefore have more sponsorship money available for other expenses!

But they won't, adding yet another nail in the coffin of their self-defeating practices.

[luke81]

Racing for the win, in a race where second place means nothing at all....this is what's going to happen. I'm 100% ok with it.

[zerofor]

Nope,not ok with it.True Menard left him a little too much room,BUT forcing your way in and tearing up pretty much the entire field is NEVER ok and he should have had a line of guys in the winner's circle to beat that thought into him.The only reason it didn't happen is they all would have done the exact same thing.But it doesn't make it right or ok.Door handle establishes position but Menard was in the spin cycle before JJ got there.But paybacks a bitch!!!

[OldSchool+]

04--You did notice that with the current no-bumping, no-pushing, no 2 car draft, no line of cars drafting, no-nuttin' restrictor-plate-contrived-racing...NOBODY could pass all day, correct?

So, Jimmie dropped back a little, killing Menard's momentum, and then ducked low carrying more speed.

Menard was late in sizing all that up, or he would have dropped back with him and then zigged low in defense, but given that he did not...

When Paul finally moved off the wall just after Jimmie got there, should Jimmie have lifted?

re: Payback? Agree, but then, Logano is the current Cup Champion & Big Mean E won seven of them, so...

[Phil Jacques]

I've been reading all the comments on how JJ did it intentionally blah blah blah on Twitter and I just laugh.

Anyone who understands the basics of how air can work, would understand what happened. Neither driver turned into each other. It was all the air. It was very simply the same effect on the sides of the cars, that the belly pan has. The air moving between the two cars accelerates much like wind between two buildings speeds up. The buildings are fixed objects and cannot move. The cars however, are not fixed and that air acceleration creates a low pressure point and sucks the cars together.

This video explains it well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZXqnyVY-bM

[OldSchool+]

Agreed, grasshoppa.

But, they routinely use that effect to "sidedraft" whereby a car effectively stalls the other car and forwards their own position--a little.

And yet, they do that without crashing.

Somethin' happened on that there backstretch.

Jeffy indicated that Menard "came off the wall a little bit". I guess I agree with him.

IF the suction=crash phenomenon is "unavoidable" would it not be a lawsuit worthy liability to drivers and fans "caused" by NASCAR?

[OldSchool+]

ps--I think the phenomenon is caused by a lack of air at speed, in effect, a low pressure area, in between the cars.

The higher pressure outside of two cars running next to each other "pushes" them together, but the low pressure is really what allows the sidedrafts and etc. to occur.

[jacko241]

I'll will say first that I don't like JJ. I really don't know why, it is just a gut feeling about the guy. I sense something strange about him. Maybe it is his greatness, I don't know. I will also say all things being equal, I pull for the Ford or Toyota. But after watching the video OS posted several times, I agree that it was air. Menard was already going sideways before JJ got there. Just proves again how stupid this racing is. I don't know that I suggested lowering the banks, but what I think would help is just flat slowing the cars down, to maybe a max of 180 mph. Then, I think they could race and pass.

[OldSchool+]

Ah, but how?

Plates are the real problem, and have led to all the other bump draft issues, which have led to 20oz radiators, and etc.

And 180 is still fast enough to have big crashes and fast enough for air to have an effect of sucking the cars together.

Joe--same question I sort of asked Phil: Clearly they can (usually) run together. And clearly a guy can run closer to the side of another car on occasion to slow him down and/or speed himself up. Why was that crash any different?

[jacko241]

I agree the plates are part of the problem, but so is aero. I am working this Speedweeks with the NASCAR Racing Experience giving rides. We run around there in packs of 5 or 6 cars at 160-165mph. No problem at all. My opinion is that they have reduced the drag on these cars som much, along with some weird side affects created by this, makes the cars very unstable. Bear in mind that in the Awesome Bill days, they went around there doing 210 mph laps, probably reaching 220+ on the chutes.

[OldSchool+]

Re: 220--and the reason they added plates?

To avoid a sport-losing-lawsuit due to a car getting into the stands.

Sideways, they look like airplane wings, and above 205 or so, flaps or not, they act like airplane wings.

And the only known way to reduce the speed is with plates, which cause the packs (that Awsome Beall did not have to deal with).

I still think that rev limiters may help (with off peak rpm throttle response) but would not eliminate the problem. They would still run in packs.

They have a chicane, that would do it. We will never know.

You see, NASCAR thinks the fans like the big crashes.

[jacko241]

Using the bus stop would be cool!!! There are other ways to slow them, much smaller displacement, BIG blades, etc.

[OldSchool+]

smaller displacement sounds good, but it would lead to more rpm, read money.

F1 shows where this could go.

Big rear spoilers, or a blade around the nose (both of which have been tried) lead to pack racing and all that goes with it.

Chicane would lead to late braking passing attempts and subsequent crashes.

You know, they could widen up the apron on one end or the other--say three and four--and put a little bank on it, and then make ABOVE the double line "out of bounds". But that would amount to (correctly) admitting that their big track was good for 1959, not so much for 1989, even less appropriate for 2019.

[OldSchool+]

Tony's tongue in cheek comments were and are hilarious:

https://youtu.be/8JZ0HcqqfqI

[jacko241]

Tony was awesome. I heard Joe Gibbs say they have lost 5 cars already, and have not even gotten to the Twins.