Rear Spoilers, Yellow Lines, "No Bumping Zones" May Disappear

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NASCAR Says Rear Spoilers, Yellow Lines, "No Bumping Zones" May Disappear In 2010: NASCAR's Managing Director Corporate Communications, Ramsey Poston, said Friday that the sanctioning body is investigating the possibility of replacing rear wings with old-style rear spoilers in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, in time for the start of the 2010 Daytona 500. However, Poston told Sirius NASCAR Radio's Sirius Speedway with Dave Moody that the change has nothing to do with cars becoming airborne during high speed crashes at the circuits two superspeedways; Daytona and Talladega. "We took a car to the wind tunnel after last year's fall race at Talladega and recreated Ryan Newman's crash to as high a degree as possible," he said. "Those tests showed beyond any doubt that the rear wing had no effect on the way that race car took off. With that said, we talked to 14 different drivers at the NASCAR Technical Center yesterday [Thursday], and all 14 of them were in favor of going back to rear spoilers as a way of increasing downforce and improving competition. As a result of the input we have received from those drivers, and others, I think it's safe to say that we are taking a very serious look at the possibility of reintroducing rear spoilers for the 2010 season." If NASCAR elects to move forward with the change, Poston said the sanctioning body will wind-tunnel test the package almost immediately, before scheduling an on-track test session prior to the start of SpeedWeek 2010. Poston said NASCAR has met with every track operator since the end of last season, along with drivers, owners, crewchiefs and even media partners in an effort to determine what might be done to improve competition, and that the rear wing/spoiler is only one item on the list. "If it helps us improve competition, we will move forward with it," said Poston. "There are other changes that we will announce during the annual Media Tour that I think will be welcomed by everyone; drivers, crewchiefs, team owners and especially fans."
Poston revealed that NASCAR is likely to loosen the reins on drivers next season, saying, "We're going to let the drivers drive." While declining to give specifics prior to the official announcement, it is expected that NASCAR will eliminate the controversial "no bumping zones" at superspeedways, and possibly even the rule prohibiting drivers from racing below a yellow line at the bottom of the banking at both Daytona and Talladega.(Sirius Speedway)(1-9-2010)

things could get interesting

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NASCAR to announce changes Jan 21st: On Jan. 21 at the NASCAR Research & Development Center, officials from NASCAR are expected to announce a series of rules revisions, some drastic, others less so. It is expected that the controversial rear wing, one of the COT's [Car of Tomoorow/Today or NASCAR Racecar] most defining characteristics, will be scrapped in favor of a more traditional blade spoiler like the NASCAR Nationwide Series cars use. Also being looked it is the front splitter, which runs parallel to the racing surface and replaced the conventional front air dam. NASCAR officials also are talking about eliminating the no-passing zones at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway, as well as other as-year unspecified changes, all aimed at helping re-energize interest in the sport. NASCAR officials said Saturday at the Sprint Sound & Speed [in Nashville] event that final decisions about the modifications have not been made, but will be announced Jan. 21.(SPEEDtv)(1-10-2010)
AND: NASCAR teams are testing this week at Texas World Speedway [#12-Keselowski tested at TWS last week], to see how that planned new rear spoiler might work on their Sprint Cup cars, according to stock car crews. NASCAR officials are tentatively planning to change the rear wing on the Cup cars to a more standard flat rear spoiler, beginning either with the Bristol 500 March 21 or Martinsville 500 March 28. But it will be the Cup races at Phoenix April 10th and Texas April 18th that would be the major test of the new spoiler, which is designed to add downforce to the cars and make them handle better. There are more changes coming too, apparently, with Daytona cars possibly sporting a new 'shark fin' on the rear deck, to make them more stable when they get sideways. The 'shark fin' would be a three-inch tall fin running from the top of the rear window to the rear wing, according to crews. How that might be tested is unclear, since NASCAR has banned testing at Daytona and Talladega. While the long-standard flat rear spoiler on Cup and Nationwide cars has basically been just a $5 piece of steel, bolted on to the rear deck, the new flat rear spoiler will apparently be another 'over-engineered' piece by NASCAR, sold to the teams by NASCAR and installed at each track by NASCAR officials.(mikemulhern.net)(1-10-2010)

Very interesting... sounds like good changes to me! Hope they happen!

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Larger plate at Daytona? Sources tell Sirius NASCAR Radio's Sirius Speedway with Dave Moody that NASCAR could mandate a larger restrictor plate for this year's running of the Daytona 500. Sprint Cup Series racers were required to run a 31/32" plate at Daytona and Talladega last season, but multiple sources who attended a meeting with NASCAR today say the sanctioning body may allow a bigger plate this season in an effort to boost horsepower, torque and throttle response. That move would reportedly come as part of a package of changes that could include aerodynamic modifications to the rear window area and a switch from rear wings to old-style rear spoilers. A number of procedural changes are also bring discussed, including the abolition of no bumping zones and the so-called "yellow line rule" at both Daytona and Talladega. A spokesman for NASCAR declined to comment when asked about the restrictor plate change earlier today, saying that meetings are ongoing with drivers and teams, and that no final decisions have been made.(Sirius Speedway)(1-11-2010)

Brian Vickers talked about the changes that were made today on his Facebook. I must say I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the cars run without that big wing on it and the new changes with the restrictor plates:

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I wanted to follow up the previous post and the questions you all have about the rule changes-
Here is what I am excited about: The spoiler coming back and larger restrictor plate is going to be great for competition. Bump drafting is going to be allowed! If you want to ride in the back-fine. If you want to race up front- LETS GO! All the drivers need to stop complaining and start racing- but if we see a bad call or something is not right-SAY IT! We need to police ourselves out there. If we don't like something about the way we are being raced-speak up! The goal in all of this is to bring the fire and passion of racing back to all of us- the drivers, the teams and especially the fans! Its going to be a great 2010 Season

Stay Tuned
BV