This weekend's Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway brings the return of restrictor-plate racing which means tightly grouped packs of cars, smaller fuel cells and the anticipation of "the big one." One thing that will be different this time around at Talladega is the NASCAR-mandated rule regarding the construction of the front bumpers used on the Nextel Cup Series cars.
The issue of "bump drafting" came to a boil during Speed Weeks at Daytona International Speedway in February. Issues on the track and discussions among drivers prompted NASCAR to invoke a "no bump zone" policy for the weekend of the Daytona 500. Soon after, some drivers began to lobby for a design change to the bumper of the cars that would prevent fellow competitors from relying on the "bump draft."
"They can attempt to do anything, but until we do something that will physically hurt the design of the car whenever you hit someone too hard, then we're not going to get much accomplished," said Dale Jarrett, driver of the #88 UPS Ford Fusion. "It just seems that everybody realizes that it's a tool that they have."
That tool will be altered for this weekend's Aaron's 499 at Talladega. NASCAR issued a technical bulletin to teams more than a month ago, which detailed specifications for the bumper area on all NASCAR Nextel Cup Series cars. The bulletin explained that "front and rear bumper cover reinforcement bars must be installed and must be acceptable to NASCAR officials." Specifications were established for the thickness of the front bumper panel, brace allotments, spacing and more.
Crew chief Slugger Labbe said that the ruling essentially takes the sport back to a period of four years ago when the teams started working to make the front bumpers as durable as possible.
"Restrictor plates kept getting smaller and smaller so we were doing things that allowed the drivers to stay in the gas all the way around the track," Labbe said, explaining the reasoning behind the stiffer front bumpers. "Aerodynamics are so important at Talladega. So in order to not compromise the nose of the cars, we built the bumpers stiffer and got more aggressive with it so that if the driver came up on another car he could just 'bump' him without getting out of the gas or without hurting the nose of the car."
What started four years ago as a solution to preserving the integrity of the front nose resulted in the state of bump drafting as it exists today in NASCAR Nextel Cup Series competition. NASCAR is now taking steps to limit what teams can do to the front nose of the race cars.
"Basically they are going to take away some of the braces that go from the bumper to the chassis," Labbe explained. "They are also detailing the thickness of the plate. Where we used to have a thick and strong front bumper, we're going to be limited as to how thick the bumper will be and NASCAR will measure every car's bumper. It also affects the thickness of the braces we use supporting the bumper."
"So now if a driver hits the guy in front of him trying to bump draft then he's going to sustain a good bit of damage to the nose of the car and pretty much ruin chances of a good finish," Labbe said.
While drivers will be aware of the changes to the bumper going into this weekend's event, Labbe said he believes fans will see some drivers test the bumper to see how much it will give.
"I think guys will try in practice to see what will happen," Labbe said. "I'm sure it's going to be interesting."
