DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - When Jeff Gordon climbed unhurt from his smoldering car after a wild ride at the end of last Saturday night’s Budweiser Shootout, the four-time NASCAR champion had every right to curse the rule changes that resulted in the return of pack-style racing to Daytona International Speedway.
Gordon found himself upside-down for the first time in his career when his car was spun in heavy traffic on the last lap. He turned into the wall in Turn 4, and turned over on the driver’s side. The car skidded along the wall in a shower of sparks, slid down the banking to a paved run-off area near the entrance of pit road, and went into a barrel roll, doing 2 1/2 flips. It came to rest on its roof.
But given the tandem-style alternative that dominated restrictor-plate races at Daytona and Talladega last year, Gordon had nothing negative to say about pack racing, even though it resulted in three huge wrecks Saturday night.
“It’s pretty wild and crazy,’’ Gordon said. “But, I mean, I like this better than what we had last year, definitely.’’
What fans and drivers found so distasteful last year was that restrictor-plates at Daytona and Talladega forced drivers - who were allowed to have vehicle-to-vehicle communication with each other - to find dance partners with whom to tango in a two-car draft.
Problem was, the lead car always had the advantage over its partner, whose sole job was to act as a locomotive in the two-car train.
After offseason testing resulted in more two-car tandems, NASCAR made several rules changes to bunch the field: reducing the size of the air intake inlets on the front of the radiator grill; regulating pressure relief valves to manipulate water temperatures; and reducing downforce through the manipulation of the rear spoiler angle.
The result was pack-style racing in the Shootout, which also incorporated some tandem elements, as evidenced by Kyle Busch’s thrilling slingshot move to edge runner-up Tony Stewart by the scant margin of .013 seconds, the closest finish in Shootout history.
Drivers and fans will be hoping to see more of the same in today’s Gatorade Duels, a pair of 150-mile qualifying heats that will set the starting order of the 43-car grid for the Daytona 500. Roush Fenway Racing teammates Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle swept the front row during Sunday’s pole qualifying and will start their respective heats from the pole.
“This is better than having to sit there at the back of a spoiler for 500 miles and not be able to see where you’re going half the race,’’ Stewart said. “We had control of what lane we got to run in. We got to move whenever we wanted. You didn’t have to not move because you had a guy behind you that had to rely on making your decision on what he had to do also.
“We had more control as drivers.’’
That was the most appealing aspect of the rule changes - giving drivers the latitude to make their own decisions instead of relying on a partner. It also forced drivers to make on-track decisions on whether it was prudent to bump-draft a competitor and put him at risk while running in the pack.
“I think that’s kind of, to a certain degree, what NASCAR had in mind when they came up with this package,’’ Stewart said. “It was to put the decision in our hands.
“We’re all thinking twice of ‘do we want to put ourselves in that position?’ So it makes that guy who has that opportunity to push to think twice about it.’’
While the number of wrecks in the Shootout was alarming - especially given that they seemed to come when drivers were running in huge packs - Stewart said it was merely a function of drivers trying to push the envelope under the new rules.
“Everybody complained about the two-car stuff,’’ Stewart said. “Now we got this and it’s better. We’re telling you, ‘It’s better.’ You guys are like, ‘Is it going to be that bad [Sunday]?’
“Well, it’s not that bad. It’s the Bud Shootout. Everybody pushes the envelope. Everybody tries to see what the limit is, what the boundary is.’’
What drivers came to discover in the Shootout was that bump-drafting is going to require some patience, especially when it comes in a tandem when the rear car runs the risk of overheating. In a pack setting, bump-drafting requires more careful execution.
“We just can’t do it for long periods of time,’’ Gordon said. “So now we’re doing it packs. And so you get on the straightaway, you push a little bit. And once the tires get a little bit of heat in them and we have less downforce, the cars are moving around a lot.
“So you’ve got to be real careful with how you push and when you push, and it’s definitely going to take some patience. But I was having a blast out there.’’
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