Wow. That didn’t take long. The “big one” before the “big one” season starting Daytona 500 even got the green flag. The testing of the new Gen-6 car went wild during draft and group testing at speed…
Apparently, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. discovered a “draft fact”, that is if his post run comments were on the mark. Marcos Ambrose went loose setting off a chain of events that left a eleven cars in a state of insurance headache. Ambrose’s Ford went sideways after a rear clip from Earnhardt, Jr.’s Chevy which apparently lead to his comments.
It seems a Gen-6 Chevy can run up on a Gen-6 Toyota or another Gen-6 Chevy but the rear of the Gen-6 Ford didn’t match well and slip, slide, bang the wall. How scientific that is may be up for discussion.
The eleven collected were Marcos Ambrose, Brad Keselowski, Jeff Gordon, Jamie McMurray, Kasey Kahne, Kyle Busch, Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards, Joey Logano, Regan Smith, and Aric Almirola. Dale, Jr. made it through…
Beyond, the big unintentional test of how the Gen-6 takes a hit, it seems teams and drivers were able to pack up with some useful data to ponder over before getting on with the business of real racing. What that data consists of could be anything from aero to grip to drafting to little setup bits could help performance.
However, that “two car” draft thing we’ve seen the past couple of seasons may be on the shelf, for the most part. This big spin and crash out showed that caution may be the order for running close. We’ll see on race day. For now, drivers are backing away from the idea of pushing.
They are back at Daytona for the Sprint Unlimited on February 16th to be followed by the Budweiser Duals and then the season starting Daytona 500 on February 24th.
The Gen-6 appears to be just a few tweaks away from the green flag. Let’s go racing!