NASCAR news and notes

Times wires
Sunday, February 13, 2011

DAYTONA BEACH — NASCAR waved a caution flag Sunday, trying to slow cars down a day after speeds topped 206 mph at Daytona International Speedway.

Officials might not be done, either.

The sport's governing body made two technical changes in hopes of limiting two-car hookups and high speeds before the season-opening Daytona 500.

NASCAR told teams to add pressure-release valves to cooling systems and reduce the size of grill openings. The changes should limit the time two cars can run bumper to bumper around the 2½-mile superspeedway, which was repaved in the offseason. Drivers likely will need to break those formations to avoid overheating engines.

The moves are expected to reduce speeds from those reached during Saturday night's exhibition Budweiser Shootout.

"The world's not broken. We just want to tweak it a little bit," Sprint Cup series director John Darby said.

The 75-lap Shootout featured cars hooking up in pairs because it was the fastest way around. It was fast — Michael Waltrip topped 206 mph — and a stark contrast from the previous tight pack racing.

"It's not necessarily an intention to break those up," Darby said. " … (Drivers) can pass at will. They have the ability to have some control over what's going on around them. So those aren't bad things. This puts a duration limit on those."

And should slow everyone.

"The speed's the problem for everybody," said Jimmy Makar, vice president of Joe Gibbs Racing. "We're all a little nervous about the speed. We don't need to be running that fast for sure."

Several drivers worked the two-car system to perfection in the Shootout, which Kurt Busch won in a close finish.

"Maybe I'm in a little bit of denial, but I keep thinking there's no way we could do that for the whole race," four-time series champion Jeff Gordon said. "I didn't think we could do it for the whole race (Saturday) night. We proved we could. I'm like, 'How can we do it for 500 miles?' "

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who won the pole Sunday for the Daytona 500, said he liked the old style of racing at Daytona, where drivers had to zigzag through one big pack of cars — after all, he was pretty good at it.

"I prefer the other style better," Earnhardt said. "But, I mean, it was fun (Saturday) night. I prefer having more choices in my own destiny, I guess."

Cars return to practice Wednesday, and if speeds top 200 mph again, NASCAR could cut the size of restrictor plates.

CLINCHING SPOTS: Bill Elliott, Travis Kvapil and Lakeland's Joe Nemechek clinched spots in the 500 field in qualifying. They posted the top three speeds outside the 35 who have spots locked up based on last year's points. Terry Labonte is assured of a starting spot with a past champion's provisional.

EAST BAY RACEWAY: Tim McCreadie led wire-to-wire to win the 35th DART Winternationals late Saturday at the Gibsonton track. Jimmy Owens won the Super Late Model.

Source: http://www.tampabay.com/sports/nascar-news-and-notes/1151483

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