I think Nascar teams have been pushing the envelope from day 1. I can't imagine this would help them that much. I did have a fleeting thought when they interviewed Berrier on NVL last night about his prior "pushing the envelope" infractions. The fuel tank qualifying deal was an obvious infraction, but this one particularly if on both cars had to be ok's by RC??
Harvick, Burton had performance advantage
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SPEED /
Posted: 5 hours ago
On 'The SPEED Report,' Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on SPEED, Bob Dillner reported that the winner of the first race in the Chase for the Nextel Cup and his Richard Childress Racing teammate had a performance advantage.
As darkness falls upon New Hampshire International Speedway, we have learned that there was an issue with the winning car of Kevin Harvick and also his teammate, Jeff Burton, in postrace tech.
That issue surrounded the actual rim of the race car. The team apparently manipulated that rim to act as a bleeder valve to release air pressure from that rim. In English, it was a performance advantage for the RCR team.
Now, it was not against anything in the rule book so there won't be any fines or points penalties later on this week, but they have been told not to do it again. So the question is: will it ruin or hurt the performance of the team in the last nine races of the Chase?
Dillner and Tribune Newspaper Group motor sports writer Ed Hinton also discussed this performance advantage with Dave Despain on SPEED's 'Wind Tunnel' (Sunday, 9 p.m. ET).
Bob Dillner: A bunch of interesting stuff happened in post-race tech, Dave.
David Despain: Tell all. I understand there's an issue for the winner?
Bob Dillner: Yeah, there was a little bit of an issue. Nothing will come of it because it's one of those patented gray areas that we always talk about, but what the No. 29 and No. 31 teams — and remember, Kevin Harvick if I could just mention actually won the race so we're talking about the winner of the race — did is they were they were trying to manipulate the rules around the actual rims that the tire goes around.
In short-track racing, we know all about the super late models, whether it's on dirt or asphalt. You have something that's called a bleeder valve, which releases the pressure to help the guys get the proper pressure that they need. Well, you can't use a bleeder valve in NASCAR Cup competition, but what the team did here is they laser-cut the rim to .003 of an inch in one part of the tire. That actually allowed some air to escape from the rim, and it was a performance advantage basically for the No. 29 and the No. 31 teams. There's been a lot of talk this year about teams doing this sort of thing in the garage area, but nobody was ever caught with it.
Today, it's not in the rule book. It's not a deal where it's illegal or whatever. It's a very gray area deal, and basically they were told, "Hey, let's not do that again." But you've got to wonder how these teams are going to perform now that they're not allowed to do it in the final couple races.
David Despain: So they're checking the wheels. No penalty, but don't bring it back next week. Is that the bottom line?
Bob Dillner: Exactly. I've got to applaud the RCR guys because when you can push the gray areas like they did and get away with it — who knows how long they've been doing it — it's to their advantage. And that's what this game of NASCAR is all about so they did a darn good job. But NASCAR did see something that they didn't like tonight and told them, "Hey guys, let's not do that again." Because you think about the pressure situation. We all know as the tires get hotter, it builds pressure. And if you have a .003 of an inch little slot there, it's going to release some of that pressure to the team's liking.
David Despain: Bob Dillner, live from Loudon. Any reaction, Ed Hinton?
Ed Hinton: Yeah, it's very similar... Last year, (No. 48 crew chief) Chad Knaus had some really neat shocks. They took them away from him just before the Chase. (NASCAR said,) "Not illegal, just don't bring them back. We don't understand them." All it does is gut and disembowel your effort for the Chase. That's all.
David Despain: You think Harvick's hurt by this?
Ed Hinton: Oh, he and Burton are very definitely hurt just like Johnson was hurt last year when they took their shocks away.