Could we see rain tires again this weekend?

Quote :

Last year’s NAPA Auto Parts 200 NASCAR Nationwide Series race was an historic event, and not just because it was the second time the series raced at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Canada.

No, the race made headlines because NASCAR mandated rain tires for the first time in one of its three national series.

Many drivers and teams were caught by surprise with the decision, and some teams weren’t quite prepared to race in the rain. Another surprise was the performance of Goodyear’s rain tire, which held up well under difficult circumstances.

And the drivers did well, too, and though the race wasn’t exactly exciting, it wasn’t a demolition derby, either.

NASCAR heads north of the border again this weekend, and, guess what, rain is in the forecast. The Canadian Weather Office says there is a 60 percent chance of rain Sunday, when the 74-lap race is scheduled on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

For some in the series, that’s a curse. For others, it’s a welcome challenge.

“I was really excited to race in the rain at Montreal,” said Joe Gibbs Racing’s Dave Rogers, crew chief for Brad Coleman this weekend. “I thought that was really neat to be part of the first points race in NASCAR to be run in the rain. That’s something we’ll tell our grandchildren about. That was a really neat deal.

“I’m kind of hoping we go up there and it rains again. It changed everything: pit strategy, fuel mileage.”

Richard Childress Racing driver Stephen Leicht served as a spotter last year for Clint Bowyer. Usually, it bothers Leicht to watch others race while he has to spot. Not at Montreal last year.

“I’ve never been more jealous to not get in a race, especially at a road course, than I was at Montreal last year,” Leicht said. “Having finished fifth in ’07, I came back and tested and was very fast. I spotted for Clint the whole race in the hairpin turn, and I stood down there in the turn the whole race. I didn’t get to race one lap in the rain, and by the time I got back to the trailer, I was soaked head to toe in water.”

When asked what NASCAR needs to do if it rains again this year, driver Mike Bliss yelled, “Stop!”

But NASCAR doesn’t plan to do that, Nationwide Series Director Joe Balash said, unless the rain turns the track into a lake.

“It’s probably one of the last things we would do for qualifying, just because of the differences in experience levels with our teams,” Balash said. “We’d want to try to qualify on a dry surface. But we could start the race on rain.”

Last year, the race was halted short of the scheduled distance because large puddles began forming on the track, and cars were simply hydroplaning. Race winner Ron Fellows, a road-race veteran who has raced in the rain many times during his career, said NASCAR called the race at exactly the right time.

“As flat as [the track] is, you get an incredible amount of standing water,” Fellows said. “When you see that in sports-car races that I've done in the past with Corvette, like at LeMans, when you get heavy standing water, out comes the pace car. In a 24-hour race you're going to wait it out.

“[NASCAR] had the jet blowers trying to clear off the standing water. Standing water is where you come into problems with the race car. You hydroplane, completely out of control when you hit a puddle. There was a lot of standing water in a hurry on that particular track.”

Fellows was also complimentary of NASCAR and the way the sanctioning body handled the first race in the rain in series history.

“I think the teams certainly learned a lot in terms of maintaining some level of visibility for the drivers,” Fellows said. “NASCAR did absolutely the right thing in delaying when we got going just because the Montreal circuit is essentially a temporary facility.”

But NASCAR’s decision to race in the wet caught some teams by surprise. And Rogers said it caught some officials by surprise, too. To race in the rain, NASCAR requires a tail light and some sort of front window defroster. A wiper is optional.

“We’ve had these rules so long, and we’ve never raced in the rain that naturally, everything got relaxed,” Rogers said. “There were teams that showed up that were not prepared to race in the rain, and it caught … some of the officials in the pit boxes – it kind of slipped past them.”

Rogers’ driver last year, Joey Logano, was caught up in an accident when he rammed the rear of a car in front of him.

“We ran into the back of a car under caution moments before they called the race,” Rogers said. “And the reason we did is because [the car in front] didn’t have a tail light.”

Balash said the teams were to blame for not having the correct – i.e., functioning – equipment.

“We had a number of teams that thought that we weren’t serious about actually mounting the rain tires and running in the rain,” Balash said. “There were differences in their level of preparation. Now that we’ve had an event where we’ve run in the rain, they’re a lot more serious about the items they have on their car.”

Rogers said both JGR cars were legal this year, but the team has improved its wet-weather preparation.

“When we go back to Montreal, we will have a brakelight,” Rogers said. “They will see us. And we’ll have two wipers instead of one. The driver’s visibility hopefully will be very much improved this year.

“Once we realized that NASCAR wasn’t joking and we would race in the rain, we started taking rain racing a lot more seriously.”

~Scene Daily~

I know that the race last year was awesome - would love to see another race in the rain!!