Racing Sensations Story and photos by Dwight Drum
© 2007 Dwight Drum Web work by Larsen & Drum
"It's dead silence."Elliott Sadler
"Race cars don't drive that way."
Kyle Petty
"To hold it on the edge."
Ryan Newman
"Mayhem, pure mayhem."
Ron Capps
"It's kind of a blur."
Robert Hight
"The butterflies start going."
Helio Castroneves
"These things are animals."
Dave Connolly
"If they were able to drive on snow."
Andrew Prendeville
Probably the easiest decisions about major league sports happen in the stands or on a couch. It's so much easier to call and execute a play from the distance in a living room or off the playing field, dozens of rows towards the sky. The same simplicity principle applies to race cars roaring around or rocketing straight from 95 to over 320 mph.
Decisions at high speeds that must be made in an instant, often automatically, are never totally correct. Trying to compare an evaluation by stationary eyes from a stadium seat or leather lounger to the real decisive moment on the track where a second is way too long is like comparing fireworks to ballistic missiles. They both go bang, but only one goes places.
Drivers know well the fast environment on an active racetrack and are accustomed to many correct split second decisions as they learn their occupation. Some drivers can put the process of racing, the components of speed, into words that describe structured chaos as efficiently as they maneuver a steering wheel.
The next time you're on the couch or in the stands looking at speed it is hoped these following clear explanations make your observation of an ongoing race more entertaining.
NASCAR, NHRA IndyCar, cool words about hot racing: Elliott Sadler, Kyle Petty, Ron Capps, Robert Hight, Helio Castroneves, Dave Connolly and Andrew Prendeville
Andy Petree talks about Dale Earnhardt being able to see the air flow off of cars during a race.
Elliott Sadler, NASCAR Nextel Cup Driver
Sadler describes going airborne in a race car
Can you describe the sensation you feel when your car went into the air at Talladega?
"The sensation I'd say is pretty eerie because it goes so quiet. We're used to motor noises and sometimes when you spin out the screeching noises a tire has rubbing across the asphalt, but when you go up in the air -- it's dead silence. The motor cuts off and you're flying through the air and there's no screeching of the tires. Everything gets kind of dark when you start flipping like that. It's a pretty scary feeling. You feel like if you're a racecar driver spinning out you can do different things in the car to kind of control which side of the car you're going to hit on, kind of manipulate it a little bit, but when you're up in the air and kind of flipping you're really just a passenger. It's pretty scary. It's a lot worse than hitting the wall. I'd lots rather keep my stuff on the ground and leave it like that."
Does the car give you a signal if it's about to go Airborne?
"No, it just pretty much takes off. That's not good. You don't know what to do to prepare for it. When you hit a wall, you hit it once really hard. At a place like Dover you might bounce off the outside wall and hit the inside wall. You might hit it twice hard. When you're flipping, when I flipped at Talladega in 2003, I hit six or seven times really hard. It fell over 20 G's each hit and by the end of it you're pretty much beat up and out of breath. You feel like you're been in a boxing match. It's a lot tougher wreck than just staying on the ground."
Kyle Petty, NASCAR Nextel Cup Driver and Commentator
What do you think fans most misunderstand about driving at the Cup level?
"That's probably a good question. I don't know. Everybody equates the sport to what they know, which is driving up and down the interstate or driving on a country road or whatever. Race cars don't drive that way. They're a totally different animal. There's really no way to transfer it to the fans what's going through the driver's mind and what's going on -- on the racetrack. A lot of times an accident will happen and you see a driver drive into it and you're sitting at home on your couch and you think 'My God, I could have missed that wreck.' Let me tell you something. Sitting here beside me at 130 degrees after four and a half hours you see if you're thinking straight enough to get around that wreck. Things just happen sometimes that you can't avoid. It's easy to sit at home and look at it, but it's a lot different when you're there."
Ryan Newman NASCAR Nextel Cup Standout
What do you think fans misunderstand most about driving a Cup Car?
"That's a very good question. I would say probably just the ability to hold it on the edge. To go say a 30-second lap around Charlotte, and then to try to get the extra .2 out of it is what is so difficult. I don't think fans understand how difficult it is to get that additional tenth or .2 out of the car. As a driver to push the car to the edge and be perfect."
What's it like inside the car during a crash?
"Inside the car you just ride it out. After you lose control it's very, very difficult to regain it. Physically you just control yourself emotion-wise and mentality. You just ride it out and make a way through it and hopefully you are in a good position at the end."
Andy Petree (Former Dale Earnhardt crew chief)
Could Dale Earnhardt really see the air?
"That's what people always said. He never claimed to do that. He just kind of grin and his mustache would straighten up. He had that feel for that drafting.
"That side drafting you see today, he pioneered that whole thing before other drivers even knew what he was doing. He was doing that a long time ago. People kind of accused him of being able to see the air. I think it's more just an instinctive feel that he had for it. I think he could actually maybe kind of visualize it in his mind. He never really said that. I think other people accused him of being able to see it."
John Force, NHRA Funny Car Star (routine speed 320 mph )
Force describes a crash that broke his leg and hand in Dallas, Sep. 2007
“The car pulled in half and I’ve never seen that, ever. A tire came off the car just as I put the parachutes out and it literally pulled the car apart. I just feel so helpless and vulnerable. I’ve been on fire from here to Australia. I’ve had some burns, but I’ve gotten out of every crash and never had a scratch. I’ve never had a broken bone (before) so this is all new to me.”Ron Capps, NHRA Funny Car Driver (routine speed 320 mph)
If you were to take a fan for a ride down the fast track during competition, what would you say to them about the expectation of the experience?
"Mayhem. Pure mayhem. Most people would probably pass out. Everything that happens, everything that goes on during a run, I've often said it would be great if a fan could go through what we go through. They would understand why we get out of breath at the far end of the track. They don't understand why a guy like John Force gets out, rambles on when we just went a quarter of a mile. The amount of stuff that goes on here in every sense of your body, every smell, every noise, your eyesight, everything is at full tilt. It has to be. You have to listen to the engine while you're being catapulted zero to 330 mph in four seconds. It's a scenario that most people wouldn't be able to go through, even with training.
"It takes a special person. At times you may talk about one driver being better than another but even if you could say the worst driver out here and I don't think you can because there are so many good guys. But if you could say the worst driver out here, that person is still talented to do this. It's not just something a normal person could do is to just get up and jump into one of these things."
Robert Hight, Funny Car Ford Mustang driver (routine speed 320 mph)
If you were to take a fan for a ride down the fast track during competition, what would you say to them about the expectation of the experience?
"It's funny. If you're driving the thing you don't ever tell yourself, man this thing is truckin' or it's haulin'. There's not time for that. You've got to pay attention to driving it. You really don't sense exactly what's going on. Like how fast you're going and how fast the thing is accelerating until the end of the run. Then you kind of recollect what's going on. As it's happening it's kind of a blur."
Helio Castroneves, IndyCar Open-Wheel Driver (A Typical Winning Day)
Can you identify the common hurdles you must overcome routinely as a driver at the IndyCar level that fans might not quite understand?
"Normally when you get to the morning you got a meeting with the team, the plan to know what you are going to do before first practice. After that you have to sit down with your team to know what you got done and plan again for the next session. Plus, in the mean time, you have PR people and groups trying to talk to everyone from the local newspaper, from the national. At least I always ask for 30 minutes early to make sure I have time for me to get focused, otherwise I wouldn't be able to do my job.
"And then you go to race pretty much the same way. You have driver's introduction. You have driver's meeting as well to make sure any questions that you have so you can sort it out before the race. The butterflies start going when the national anthem stops playing. That for sure is something that is really difficult. But that is the adviser that the game started and that's how you go.
"So after the race hopefully you had a good day and go to the podium with your team. Then go to the press room and talk about what was good and what were the difficult times. Then the rest of the night if you don't have a plane you stay one more day and go back the next day. But if you have a plane, just jump in the plane and go home."
Dave Connolly (Pro Stock Car drag racer)
If you were to take a fan for a ride down the fast track during competition, what would you say to them about the expectation of the experience?
"You never know what to expect sometimes. These things are animals. When you do the burnout, you have to watch, especially on these Pro Stock cars. There is a lot of technique to it. You got to make sure you don't burn up the clutch doing the burnout, things like that. When you go up to stage, these guys are out to hurt your feelings. They are there to win. There are always mind games with the final starting line, hang you out, get into a big burn down. You never know what might happen up there. As soon as you leave the starting line, the car's a handful. Luckily we've got a good crew chief to get the car down well. It usually makes the driver's job a lot easier. It keeps the car under control so it doesn't shake the tires. When these things start shaking, spinning around you never know which direction they are going to go or how soon or fast you're going to have to shift the car."
Andrew Prendeville (Indy Pro Series open-wheel driver)
It's sometimes easy for fans to be critics. Some think they can drive. What do you think fans most misunderstand about driving at this level?
"I think they misunderstand the physics behind driving a car. On the street, the car's never really at the limit. Maybe the best way to explain it is that if they were able to drive on snow, that would be much closer to what it's like to drive a race car at the limit, when the car is always skating just a little bit and you really have to be in touch and aware of what the car is doing. People on the street, they drive in the snow, you can always notice they're very intent on their driving, they're not talking on the cell phone, they're not listening to the radio as loud. That's really more of the type of focus that you need to have to drive a race car at the limit."
Jeg Coughlin Jr. (2-time NHRA Pro Stock Car Champion)
Jeg Coughlin Jr. spent an off day making high-speed turns around the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in the back seat of Indy racer Stephan Gregorie's IRL test racer.
"What a rush!" the two-time Pro Stock champion said after three laps around the 13-turn circuit, where he reached estimated top speeds of 160-plus mph. "The concentration these guys and girls need to get around a course like this at those speeds is just incredible. We need several minutes of intense concentration to make a quarter-mile pass. These guys stay at that level for two hours or more. It's just phenomenal.
"The feeling of speed and the various G-forces you experience around the corners are really cool," said Coughlin, who routinely posts quarter-mile runs of 6.6 seconds at 210 mph. "When you come off that back stretch at 160 mph and go intothat turn it gets your attention, especially the first time through, but those cars are just glued to the track. They're very different from a Pro Stock car."
Leo Dougherty (Late Model driver and media representative)
Dougherty describes his first upside down ride:
"I've never been on my top before. I got driven into the wall and it broke the tie rod on the right wheel. The other car was able to ride it out rubbing me into the wall. I couldn't steer so I hit the end of the wall and the front end of the car bounced about 3 or 4 feet into the air. It came back down on the wall on the right side, then rolled over on the left side and then on to the top.
"I looked to the right and saw the cars on the asphalt stopped for the red flag. They looked like they were glued to the track so they wouldn't fall off it.
"I looked to the left and saw the wall and track looking like it was upside down. When I looked out the front I could see these feet, ankles and short parts of legs coming towards the car.
"The safety worker who got to me first said, 'Man you gotta get out of there.' That's when I smelled the gasoline.
"I popped the belts and somehow got on the inside of the roof on my belly and started crawling out backwards. Halfway out the safety worker grabbed my legs and dragged me out on my belly.
"I got soaked in the gasoline, oil, and transmission fluid that was leaking like a sieve onto the track. One little spark on a hot header and I would have been a crispy critter."
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