Preseason Thunder Seems To Have Been Successful

After watching the three days of thunder, as in Preseason Thunder at Daytona, it seems that most everyone is pretty happy with the new, Gen-6 car bodies.  Especially NASCAR, as the last time I have heard, they don't plan on making any changes between now and the next time the cars hit that burning track surface of Daytona.  (I assume the jet dryer trucks have Juan Pablo impact suppression tech by now!)

There seems to be some things that will take getting used to, break in period, but as we saw, or as tested, the roof flaps are bigger and a few other changes that are being predicted that will be making this 2013 Daytona 500 more of a wheel man's race than ever before.

• The new 2013 cars will sport brand identifiable body work.  (Though I fear that might take us back to the era of "his brand's nose has better airflow than mine!" era)
• The cars are 160 pounds lighter.
• A couple of bars were added to the roll cage, making it more sturdy and a bit more roomier.
• A taller spoiler and new camber rules are designed to make this new car handle better.
• There's less aero-dependency, and Goodyear made a tire specifically for the new car.

And these changes make it so the car can handle better going into the corners making the racing surface more of a level playing field.  At least that's the anticipations.

BUT...

We also saw that bump-drafting has been changed forever (or until they change the bumpers).  Dale Earnhardt Jr. took note that he could push a Toyota down the stretch, but the moment he laid his Chevy bumper to the back end of a Ford, he "wheel barreled" the car off the ground and they had a pretty decent practice wreck.

And this, NASCAR hopes, will eliminate the tandem drafting that many fans have been grumpy about.

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And the general consensus from the drivers is that these changes will be good for the racing.  Other consensus say there will be a huge learning curve coming into the Daytona 500 weekend.  (Ebayers, get ready with your checkbooks for that scrap metal auction coming up!)

But speeds look interesting from the three-day practice session:

Thursday:

• Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 195.712 mph
• Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 195.385 mph
• Kyle Busch, Toyota, 195.329 mph

Friday:

• Trevor Bayne, Ford, 199.650 mph
• Joey Logano, Ford,199.309 mph
• Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 199.212 mph

Saturday:

• Greg Biffle, Ford, 194.936 mph
• Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 194.717 mph
• Kyle Busch, Toyota, 194.578 mph

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Thursday and Saturday were single car sessions and Friday was when the pack got together for drafting practice.  But I don't see any Chevy's in the top-3 speeds.  But that should not be an issue, this was only practice.

So after that last few years of some of the best racing I've seen out of NASCAR, the promise is that we're about to see even better racing.  And there's no doubt that those first and last 40 laps of every race out there will be pretty intense.  But I'm still waiting for the mid-race laps to be addressed so I can stay awake or engaged during the telecast.  But that's just me and over time, I'm sure things will straighten out.

For now, it's 2013 and the Gen-6 car.  And my biggest problem will be how to keep track of what new drivers are in their new rides.  That might take a few laps to get used to.

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