I’m not a Brad K. or a Carl fan… but I really enjoyed the post incident interview with Carl. It reminded me of the trash talking we used to see back in the 1980′s.

The touchy feely NASCAR just doesn’t do it for me.

I understand them not wanting flying race cars for not wanting to take out the fans(thanks dudes)… but then again when they do take flight it’s on every sports recap from the cable sports channels to the local nightly news and big hits on the video sharing sites.

I’ve always felt that NASCAR believes in ‘if you can’t have a good finish, at least we can have an exciting wreck’.

I know the networks approach it this way with the ads for the plate tracks and they way they analyze the wrecks with ad nauseam replays.

-W

HINT: Its the wing, stupid.

View the replay that shows the reflection of the wing and you see it flex massively when that 195 mph breeze catches it, then the car goes airborn…

But if empiracle evidence is not enough, let’s break out the engineering formula for calculating the lifting force of a wing. It’s hard to represent it correctly here since there are no symbols, but for a wing in clean air:

L = 1/2ClPV*A

Let’s assume some reasonable values for the formula and see what we get:

Coefficient of lift for wing at 20 degrees deflection = 1.5
Air density at race time = 1.2 Kg/meter3
Velocity = 195 mph
Wing area = 10 square feet (my best guess looking from a distance)

Run the numbers and the lifting force is…drum roll please…

1428 pounds of lift

Now bear in mind that this force has a mechanical advantage because the wing is sticking out the back of the car, so you get a ‘lever effect’ much like handles on a wheel barrow.

The weight bias of the 3500 lb car is (I’m guessing) about 60/40 to the front so you only have about…another drum roll please…1400 lbs weight in the rear of the car.

Hmmmm…about 1400 lbs rear weight pulling down, and a wing producing about 1428 lbs force (not counting the lever effects) pushing up…and they wonder why it went flying???

1. to me, retaliation at atlanta is unacceptable. fast track, big track, lots of possible unintended consequences. for this reason, the analogy of “hamlin/homestead = edwards/atlanta” doesn’t hold for me. if my driver did the same thing, i would most certainly feel the same way.

2. seems to me that “have at it, boys” was solidly in effect the first 2 times that edwards attempted to get to keselowski after returning to the track. i’m confident nascar was well aware of what edwards’ intents were when he came back on & i haven’t read anything, anywhere that says he was warned.

3. TC, thanks for squelching the thought that the team was involved.

4. i have no issue with retaliation by drivers: it’s part of the sport. but i do expect a professional racer to know how and when and — most importantly — when NOT to do it. yes, tempers flare and things happen. but edwards had 153 laps to decide what to do and he chose this. i’m not the biggest fan of hamlin but i give him props for picking his race track for his action.

ok, these last two points ARE driver-related: i lied.

5. i remain concerned about edwards’ escalating behavior toward colleagues who he believes have done something to him. he has taken action on the track as well as off the track and, in the case of the particular incidents involving kenseth, harvick, and earnhardt jr, it was after a sufficent “cool down” period. should nascar take that into consideration? i don’t think so: they need to respond to what happened on the track in this particular case.

6. but that being said: i am hard pressed to think of another recent driver who has been as physically threatening outside the car as edwards. i would like nascar to use this as a motivation to work with edwards in reviewing his behavior over the past 4-5 years toward his colleagues and perhaps invest in the “tony stewart school of anger management” classes. anger is one thing: physically threatening or attacking a colleague on repeated occasions is unacceptable.

what would i do in nascar’s place? i’m liking marty smith/jenna fryer idea: no practice for the 99 at bristol. (or how about this: park him for the first lap. let him qualify, let him practice but then hold him for 1 lap.) in addition, i’d hit the driver — NOT the owner! — with a points fine. yes, they can “have at it,” but when it gets out of control (and i strongly feel that this was out of control,) i believe nascar has the responsibility to step in and take some action, not just let it pass.

to those who are asking if the severity of the reaction is because of the 12 car getting airborne: of couse that’s a big part of the reaction. but that doesn’t mean it should be dismissed out of hand, either. the “what ifs” may be interesting but nascar needs to review the “what happened.”