Time for change

Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2001 | 10:51 a.m.

TOP SPEEDS

Selected NASCAR Winston Cup drivers and their speeds from Tuesday's test session at LVMS:

Todd Bodine: 169.237 mph

Joe Nemechek: 169.104

Mark Martin: 168.887

Rusty Wallace: 168.025

Ron Hornaday: 167.957

Mike Skinner: 167.650

Kurt Busch: 167.416

Brendan Gaughan: 167.406

Robert Pressley: 167.131

Bobby Hamilton: 167.017

Kenny Wallace: 166.909

Jerry Nadeau: 166.113

Michael Waltrip: 166.082

Elliott Sadler: 166.047

Jeff Gordon: 165.980

Dale Earnhardt: 165.634

Ricky Craven: 165.406

Jeremy Mayfield: 165.350

Ricky Rudd: 164.684

Terry Labonte: 164.604

NASCAR officials discovered Tuesday that the more things change, the more they remain the same -- at least in terms of trying to find a more competitive aerodynamics package for Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

After trying different aerodynamic packages on several Winston Cup cars during Tuesday's open test at LVMS, Winston Cup director Gary Nelson was left scratching his head.

NASCAR is attempting to come up with rules changes similar to those it implemented for the Winston 500 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway last fall that led to one of the best races of the season; the race featured 49 lead changes among 21 drivers.

"When we went to Daytona and Talladega (last year) with the aerodynamics idea, we came out of there real quickly with some changes," Nelson said. "But all the cars use at those tracks is aerodynamics, so a small aerodynamic change would make a big change on the racetrack.

"Here, we change aerodynamics and we didn't see much difference on the track. We tried the aerodynamic package that we used in Talladega and the drivers didn't like it; it didn't match what they were looking for."

Nelson said he was hoping that by adding more drag to the cars, as NASCAR did at Talladega, it would make it easier for cars to pass one another while still maintaining their handling integrity.

"That's the idea we came here with but we found that that didn't change the car that much, so drag isn't as big a thing at this type of track as we thought it was," said the former Winston Cup crew chief.

"What makes up a lap at this track is much more complicated than just aero-drag. We've got four cars at one time doing things for us right now."

Nelson said he would be back at the track today as the open test continues and try different packages in an attempt to come up with one that will satisfy both NASCAR and its drivers.

"In any study, you learn as you go and you have to be flexible enough to change direction," he said.

Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, Joe Nemechek and Jerry Nadeau all tested different packages Tuesday at NASCAR's request. Rusty Wallace and Dale Jarrett will try out some of NASCAR's ideas today.

Nadeau said he didn't test any of the aero-related changes, but did experiment with moving 50 pounds of weight from the right side to the left in the car -- with little effect.

"I didn't do any aero changes -- just weights," Nadeau said. "If they do decide to put the weight on the left side, I think where it's going to help is probably tire wear.

"It didn't make any difference on speed or anything like that. I think it'll be safer on the tires, is all."

Nemechek tested some suspension changes and said he liked the way the car responded -- and, like Nadeau, said they did nothing to slow the car.

"We did some things that I think made the car drive better," Nemechek said. "It's getting back to where you've got to make the things handle better. A lot of the things we do to the cars now to make them go fast make them drive bad.

"We kind of went in the other direction: What do we need to do to make the car drive good but still have good aerodynamics to make the cars turn? There's no real speed advantage (in the changes) but I think it drives better."

Although NASCAR has come under fire in recent years for staging what some critics call boring races on intermediate-size tracks such as LVMS, Nelson said the sport's sanctioning body is not out to make changes for changes sake.

"I think we're always looking, number one, to keep our finger on the pulse of what's going on in the garage and, number two, to be educated enough, if we make decisions, that we make the correct decisions regarding rules," he said.

"The competition as we got through the year last year was pretty darned good."

Nelson said he didn't expect to have all the answers by the time he leaves Las Vegas this evening and didn't rule out keeping the same rules for the March 4 UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 at LVMS.

"I don't think we're going to leave here with a cookbook that tells us, 'Here's how you need to write the rules and everything will be fine.' " Nelson said.