Gordon Steals Stewart's Race
Race five in the chase for the Nextel Cup was held in Martinsville, Virginia. Tony Stewart took the pole, and let the majority of laps, only to
be upset by Jeff Gordon in the late going. Gordon's pit strategy was being called by new crew chief Steve Letarte. He elected to keep Gordon out for the all important track position, when everybody else stopped on lap 342 of 500. This vaulted Gordon into the lead, and more importantly the clean air he needed to get the last couple of tenths of a second out of his DuPont Monte Carlo. On the next - and final - set of stops, Gordon beat Stewart out of the pits, due in part to being the first onto pit lane, then overcame a few late race cautions and restarts to hold on for the win. With the win, he completed the season sweep of both races at Martinsville.
In baseball, you would call Gordon's victory a 'manufactured' win. You see, Gordon had told crew chief Latarte that he thought he had a car that could win, if he could get out in the clean air at the front. Letarte gave him that
chance, and Gordon made the most of it. But to really understand the difference, you have to understand just what the clean air means to today's Nextel Cup car.
At Martinsville, it is very much nose-to-tail racing, and if you are right behind someone two major things happen. First, you lose the 'uninterrupted' airflow to the nose of your car, which means you lose downforce, which in turn means you get a 'push', which makes the car difficult to turn. A push also means you have to wait longer to get back on the gas exiting a corner, and thus slower overall. The second thing 'dirty' air does is reduce cooling. Most think of overheating the engine when cooling is discussed, but at Martinsville the major loss of cooling is to the brakes and inner bead of the front tire. Without this cold air going into the nose of the car, the brakes overheat, and the inner bead of the tire gets too hot, and performance is lost.
Race five in the chase for the Nextel Cup was held in Martinsville, Virginia. Tony Stewart took the pole, and let the majority of laps, only to
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| Crew chief Letarte elected to keep Jeff Gordon out for the all important track position, when everybody else stopped on lap 342 of 500. (Photo: Dorsey Patrick) |
In baseball, you would call Gordon's victory a 'manufactured' win. You see, Gordon had told crew chief Latarte that he thought he had a car that could win, if he could get out in the clean air at the front. Letarte gave him that
 |
| In baseball, you would call Gordon's victory a 'manufactured' win. (Photo: Dorsey Patrick) |
At Martinsville, it is very much nose-to-tail racing, and if you are right behind someone two major things happen. First, you lose the 'uninterrupted' airflow to the nose of your car, which means you lose downforce, which in turn means you get a 'push', which makes the car difficult to turn. A push also means you have to wait longer to get back on the gas exiting a corner, and thus slower overall. The second thing 'dirty' air does is reduce cooling. Most think of overheating the engine when cooling is discussed, but at Martinsville the major loss of cooling is to the brakes and inner bead of the front tire. Without this cold air going into the nose of the car, the brakes overheat, and the inner bead of the tire gets too hot, and performance is lost.