Fifth Avenue Forum

Low profile tires, independent suspension, etc. They did a test with the "final" version the other day with William Byron and he said, "“It was tough to get a hold of at first, just how fast everything is,” said Byron. “The tire doesn’t have the same sidewall, so there is not the same amount of slip that you can hang the car out. You just have to get used to that timing and rhythm of when the car does step out, how quickly you can catch it when it slides the front tires, how quickly does it come back. All of those things are different from what we do now. It takes some adjustment to learn from.”

Then he crashed, the test ended early and NASCAR said, "yep, that's our final version."

I think this is going to be a step like the move away from bias ply tires in the late 80s - more engineering, different driving styles and a changing of the guard for who can wheel one of them. I think it's going to open the door for drivers with experience in less forgiving cars, not the Sprint Car drivers and local-track soft-sidewall feeder series. It's probably a good thing for us - we may not have to watch folks like Dario Franchetti struggle when they cross over, and maybe Alonso decides to come play - but I'm not sure the fan base will appreciate the influx of foreign driver's that this is going to enable.

Correction: Atlanta & Homestead with no crowd.

Watching the 2004 Subway 400 on FOX.

NASCAR was so much better without gimmicks and over engineered cars.

Plus Rockingham is awesome.