Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 9, 1995 TAG: 9507100098
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: E7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER
DATELINE: LOUDON, N. H. LENGTH: Medium
But when NASCAR officials announced at Daytona last weekend that they're getting rid of rear sway bars, and then turned around the next day and rescinded the ban, you just had to figure something fishy was going on.
Sway bars, for the record, are metal bars attached to the suspension of race cars that help prevent the chassis from swaying in tight, flat turns. They have been a standard feature in passenger cars for years, but only recently have rear sway bars been used in Winston Cup cars, which already have ultra-rigid chassis.
The use of sway bars had become so widespread that when Winston Cup Director Gary Nelson announced the ban, he was surprised with the amount of protest he received. That prompted him to back off.
In an interview Saturday, he explained why he banned them in the first place.
``Car owners are saying they're not getting enough practice time,'' Nelson said. ``They're telling us they have so many things on the car to sort out. They're saying they either need more testing or practice or less things on the car to adjust.
``We decided that the easiest option was to cut back on the things they had to adjust. And the sway bar was the first thing on the list.''
But Nelson's flip-flop stirred a rumor mill that already was grinding at full tilt.
One line of speculation was that NASCAR was convinced that teams were using the sway bar to hide tiny unauthorized telemetry or electronic traction control devices, such as sensors. And because NASCAR inspectors couldn't find an electronic smoking gun, they decided to get rid of the part altogether, the reasoning went.
After all, many teams in the garage were convinced of the truth of the rumor that NASCAR had discovered and secretly confiscated traction control devices from several trucks in the NASCAR truck series.
Hadn't they taken a sway bar from the Richard Childress truck team at Bristol and ignition boxes and rev limiters from a number of teams there? And if NASCAR wasn't looking for secret electronics, then why did inspectors conduct the most thorough post-race inspections ever on the Jeff Gordon, Terry Labonte and Bobby Labonte cars after the last three races?
Traction control, one of the hottest "underground'' topics in the garage this season, is a system (there are a variety of them) that prevents engine horsepower from overpowering the wheels and making the tires spin as drivers accelerate out of turns.
Childress confirmed on Friday that a sway bar had been taken from his truck team at Bristol, but flatly denied the team has been using traction control. And on Saturday, Nelson and one of his top cops, inspector Steve Peterson, addressed the various rumors.
The sway bar issue, Nelson said, ``was not related at all'' to NASCAR's ongoing investigation of traction control devices.
As for traction control, Peterson said, ``From Daytona [in February] until now, we have not found a shread of evidence to support the use of traction control'' in NASCAR racing.
And if there was evidence that traction control was being used in the truck series, ``you'd see me at some truck races researching it,'' Nelson said. ``There's not a thread of truth to that. We have found nothing that showed any attempt to put an [information] processor on any car.''
But Nelson did confirm that post-race inspections have been more intense than ever before, and will continue to be.
``They looked at every nook and cranny in those [three] cars,'' Nelson said. ``The message we want to get out is if you try it, you're going to get caught, because [inspectors] will tear the car apart. It's not that we're tearing a car apart looking for something. We're tearing the car apart as a deterrent.''
But when it comes to NASCAR racing, there's always a sense of mystery. There's always the thought that something might be going on after all.
And even Nelson isn't immune from it.
``Steve and I went to a trade show [last December],'' Nelson said, ``and a guy had a traction control device that was part of a carburetor linkage. And he told us he had sold it to some of the top teams. But we have yet to find it. And we have yet to find out who they sold it to.''
by CNB