Fast Words, Still Images Story and photos by Dwight Drum Web work by Larsen & Drum
DAYTONA TIRE TEST
Test. Test.
It's been the standard in video and audio preliminaries since the first wave of electronics made radio and TV a reality. In the past the test was surely more testy when the broadcast and film industry was a scanty baby changing the world for all adults.
Testing. Testing.
It's OK if it's working; it's nothing if it's not. The advent of the Internet has just propelled the reality of invisible communication lines made universal to almost every remote corner of our precious earth.
Testing. Testing.
Daytona International Speedway! No better place for speed and communication, test or not.
Test. Test. You're on.
Tires, not teams. Tires, not drivers. Or so it seems.
Racetake.com takes you to an important and private test on the most revered track in NASCAR racing. It may not seem exciting like a race, but it has everything to do with every NASCAR race as no car wins without good and plentiful tires.
No crowds were present to take in the running of just a few cars and media were not permitted any where near the Goodyear tires in the garage or on pit road with any type of photo equipment. Photo opportunity was restricted to several long distant shots from one spot on turn four of the long track for a few minutes in the afternoon.
No tire gets any spin without a driver and we bring you just one driver among many great ones for one big reason. He was one of the few testing. This time.
Reporter Dwight Drum was at a recent Daytona test to ask questions:
Jamie McMurray
Testing verses racing. Is the seat time helpful for you here?
"Not here. Not really. Anybody can run around here wide open. The driver doesn't make a difference in qualifying trim. The difference here is when you get in the race making the right decisions in the draft and picking the right line -- and having people who want to help you out. But as far as testing here it's just all about trying to make the car faster. It's not much for the driver."
Can testing at a track like Daytona be boring or exciting?
"I don't know that it's boring here. A lot of guys will joke around and say it's boring, but with the size of the restrictor plate that we have on the car to run 47-second lap times, it's pretty thrilling to go around. It's kind of fun to do that. With the other car running regular speeds, it's not that exciting but if the team is learning something, that's kind of all part of it."
Is every race still an adventure to you?
"Yeah, with the CoT it's so new. We're running that car on bigger racetracks now. It's really weird how in practice you can make huge adjustments to the car and it doesn't drive any different. And when you get in the race you can make small adjustments and all of a sudden it's not drivable. When you're committed to having to run for 50 or 60 laps until the fuel is out and put new tires on until a caution comes out. So every week you wind up learning something about this car. The teams keep developing so much stuff. We're trying to make these cars drive like the old cars did and make them drive better. Every day there is something new."
You mentioned driving on the edge. Can you explain to a fan what that's like? What toll that takes on you like on a track like Darlington or Daytona?
"Well. Darlington is really fast. I would say in qualifying trim or even race trim when we got there on Thursday as far as sensation of speed it's the fastest place we have been to. I don't remember the exact lap times but when they we over we were still off three or four tenths off some of the guys could run. I just didn't see how it would be possible to go faster than that. I mean the car feels good and it's just insane how fast you are going around this racetrack. So when you get in those runs and you have to run 60 laps like that and then you take a breather and put tires on and you get to do it all over again. After two or three hours of that, you kind of what some results from everything that you have put into it. That's what's tough about our sport that you can go like at Richmond we made 350 laps and our last car wreck I was mad afterwards because you just jimmied your heart out for the last three hours and to have someone take it away that has really nothing to do with the race, it makes you mad and you get frustrated."
© 2008 Dwight Drum
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