24 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams took to the Talladega Superspeedway in a test session that was used to confirm that the gear ratio was compatible with the restrictor plate size for next month’s running of the Aaron’s 499 and to test the spoilers on the cars. The morning speeds showed a few cars over the 190 mark:
1. 48 Jimmie Johnson 196.467
2. 24 Jeff Gordon 196.310
3. 83 Brian Vickers 195.808
4. 82 Scott Speed 195.684
5. 14 Tony Stewart 195.596
6. 2 Kurt Busch 189.320
*Check out that huge diff between 6th and 5th!
From my understanding, morning, or usually, cooler air helps with handling. It’s heavier air, so to speak. Denser air. The afternoon runs then show us faster times. In a track that is slower than Talladega, it would show as drivers need to adjust to less down force. But at Talladega, nobody has to slow down for the corners. But as it was put, I think it was more focus no seeing what can be pulled out of the new configurations:
Teams began drafting in earnest after lunch. The plate size went down to 31/32” and the teams adjusted the size of their rear spoilers in order to find that happy medium between high speeds and handling.
I think they found it! The plates were reduced and spoilers shaved a bit to slow down the fast closure rates they saw in the morning.
That 196.467 speed that Jimmie Johnson posted would have been 20th instead of top of the charts had that been the afternoon!
Here are the top 10 speeds from the afternoon spoiler test at Talladega:
1. 11 Denny Hamlin 202.170
2. 20 Joey Logano 201.863
3. 83 Brian Vickers 200.163
4. 00 David Reutimann 199.879
5. 18 David Gilliland 199.858
6. 48 Jimmie Johnson 199.800
7. 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr 199.791
8. 56 Martin Truex Jr 199.754
9. 78 Regan Smith Chv 199.658
10. 98 Paul Menard Frd 199.629
I’m guessing we’ll see some pretty good speeds at the next restrictor plate race… and the spoiler, if I’m not mistaken, goes into use next week! At least we now have the spoiler back. I wonder when the less box-like looking nose will go?
