Motorsports Column for 4/15/00

Last weekend, the story was pit strategy. It won the Winston Cup Martinsville race for Mark Martin and lost it for a dominant Rusty Wallace.

Pit strategy also determined the outcome of the Formula 1 race at Imola, with Michael Schumacher's Ferrari beating the faster McLaren of Mika Hakkinen by a scant 1.1 seconds, due to faster pit work.

And the pit strategy for CART Champ cars was to see which team was best at snowball fights, as the Nazareth race was postponed until May 27 due to snow. This means that Target-Ganassi drivers Juan Montoya and Jimmy Vasser are going to have a busy weekend, running Nazareth on Saturday and the Indy 500 on Sunday.

Weather also cut short activities at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Several rookies were unable to complete their tests due to cold weather and rain, and seasoned drivers who had hoped to get in some significant testing time were also thwarted.

The Ganassi team was the first to depart when rain halted track activities on Tuesday ... drivers Juan Montoya and Jimmy Vasser needed to be at Long Beach for the start of practice for the CART Champ Car race, which takes place tomorrow.

By the way, the number of American drivers at the Long Beach race will be double the count at the Homestead season opener. Bryan Herta will be aboard the Walker Racing Honda/Reynard, replacing the injured Shinji Nakano.

And with a fractured wrist sidelining Team Players driver Patrick Carpentier, Memo Gidley will step into the seat for the next two races. Gidley was first thought to be the choice for the Walker Racing ride, only to be dropped in favor of Herta at the last moment.

- The second Winston Cup restrictor-plate race of the season is coming up tomorrow at Talladega. Recent NASCAR rules changes have added fuel to the controversy surrounding the whole idea of restrictor plates and mandated shock absorber settings.

NASCAR announced two weeks ago at Bristol that it would shrink the restrictor-plate holes from 29/32 inch to 7/8 inch in order to decrease horsepower and reduce speed. Engine output losses of 20 horsepower are anticipated, meaning a reduction in speeds of six to eight miles per hour.

The problem is that the change will bunch the cars up even more and give drivers less control than ever. When everybody is running wide open all the way around the track, the drivers have no more throttle to avoid trouble when it occurs, leading to the huge multi-car crashes that have been Talladega's trademark. The smaller restrictor plates will make the situation worse.

Mark Martin explained the philosophy sarcastically, saying, "The bottom line really is, no matter what we think, the fans want the cars in a wad, therefore NASCAR wants the cars in a wad. They weren't in a wad at Daytona, so they want to do something to get them in a wad. I'm sure the fans will enjoy what they see."

Competitors see even less logic in NASCAR's rule change concerning shock and spring rates, which was first tried at Daytona. Instead of specified shock and spring rates at all four corners, the rule has been modified to let teams do whatever they want with the front shocks and springs at Talladega. The back end will stay spec.

The change will allow teams to lower the cars' noses, eliminating aero push, but will consequently raise the back. The fear is that, if cars spin in this configuration, the tendency will be for them to flip over, despite the roof flaps that were designed to reduce that tendency.

Personally, I think that NASCAR has gone so far in trying to equalize competition that it has gone past the point of diminishing returns, and they are experimenting with changes that may prove damaging to the sport.

- Jeff Burton gets quote of the week credit for his quote following last weekend's Martinsville race, where he finished second:

"We were an 18th-place car and finished second. I think me finishing second today is borderline a felony. We might need to spend a few hours in jail before we go home."

Roger Diez is the Nevada Appeal motorsports columnist.