NASCAR’s George Pyne reiterated NASCAR’s plans to cut downforce on Winston Cup cars. Four years ago, a good car would generate 800 to 900 pounds of downforce, with its rear spoiler, nose and roof designs. This season, a good car will generate well over 1,400 pounds. The more downforce, the better a car sticks in the corners, but at the expense of a tremendous, dangerous increase in tire deformation. In response, Goodyear has gone to a much harder tire to prevent blowouts. But drivers have complained about the hard tires and have pushed NASCAR and Goodyear for softer tires, which they say would make for better racing. Goodyear, however, doesn’t plan to switch to softer tires until NASCAR can cut the downforce to back under 1,000 pounds, according to several teams. This year, NASCAR’s John Darby hopes to make at least two 1/2-inch cuts in the rear spoiler. Each cut would take about 50 pounds of downforce off the rear, and it is assumed that teams would then have to take another 50 pounds off the nose to keep the car balanced. Two such cuts would cut downforce back to 1,200 pounds, close enough to where Goodyear might provide somewhat softer tires.( Winston Salem Journal )(1-27-2003)
