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closePemberton gives COT 'A-minus'
DAVID POOLE, dpoole@charlotteobserver.com
Friday, Mar. 30, 2007
MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Just before Nextel Cup teams took to the track at Martinsville Speedway for their second race with the car of tomorrow, NASCAR officials said they were pleased with how things went in the debut race at Bristol.
“It would have to be like an A-minus on it,” said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR’s vice president for competition.
The minus, Pemberton said, comes from potential issues with some of the parts used in the taller, wider race cars. First among those concerns, Nextel Cup Series director John Darby said, was the failure of exhaust systems in several cars.
“There are so many things that surround a failed exhaust system,” Darby said. “It’s additional heat goes into the cockpit, it’s the possibility of carbon monoxide entering the cockpit. …There were more exhaust failures than we need to see.”
Darby said teams used material ranging in thickness from .083 to .120 of an inch to build exhaust systems on the older version of the race car. Some, in an effort to save weight, switched to .049- to .065-inch material in the new cars. Most of the tailpipes that failed were built with the thinner material, he said.
“Looking at the cars (here), tailpipe configurations and the material they are constructed out of has changed dramatically in just a week’s time.”
Matt Kenseth said he had a major problem with the protective foam inside the driver’s side frame rails of his car melting and giving off fumes that he said have had him feeling bad all week. Denny Hamlin also had issues with carbon monoxide in his car.
“NASCAR had a meeting this morning and said we burned up foam in the door plate and we didn’t have it installed properly,” Kenseth said. “We did have it installed properly and we burned our door foam all the way 15 inches up. …I had to breathe that stuff all day. …That’s a big concern for me this week and in the future when we get in the cars with right-side windows.”
Darby also said that Greg Biffle received no penalty for having a car that NASCAR said was too low following last week’s race at Bristol because the rule book regarding the car of tomorrow lists minimum rear height requirements only for Daytona and Talladega.
Nextel Cup Series director John Darby said Friday that will soon be rectified. “We understand we have to have a minimum going down the road,” he said. “Where we’re at right now is determining where the teams need it and where we need it.”
Briefly
• Fan voting to select a team to participate in the NASCAR Nextel All-Star Challenge at Lowe’s Motor Speedway begins Sunday. Drivers in the top 50 in the Nextel Cup standings not already qualified for the May 19 all-star race are eligible. Fans will be able to vote via their Sprint or Nextel phones or online at www.nextel.com/speed or www.nascar.com.
• Jimmie Johnson said he strongly believes that using oxygen helps him flush carbon monoxide from his system, especially on weekends at short tracks. “I have done it for all size tracks, but it is time consuming and hard to stay on a regular schedule,” said Johnson, who tries to breathe it for an hour on Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning and then again after the race. “But on the short tracks, I really focus on it. One of the most important things is to get the carbon out of your system…and pure oxygen is the only thing that will get that out.”
• Justin Labonte, a former Busch Series winner, is entered in tonight’s Allstate Texas Thunder 150 Grand National West series race in Kyle, Texas. “I’ve been looking at opportunities as they come up,” said Labonte, son of two-time champion Terry Labonte. “I’m really looking forward to getting more seat time.”
Jim Utter contributed to this report