NASCAR Puts 99 Edwards on Probation
NASCAR's Mike Helton speaks out about the incident at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday.
For this article spoiler and wing relate to the same meaning of the new wings on the car of tomorrow:
He also says they are looking into the incident which the 12 car went airborne, which has never happened at Atlanta as far as I can remember. Well I have a theory on why:
The new spoilers NASCAR has on the new cars they are using are like a big upside airplane wing and mounted like they are it creates downforce. Turn the car around at over 180mph and the wing essentially becomes the same as as airplane and creates lift especially as the wing has a space between the trunk lid and bottom of the wing. Yes the roof flaps deploy when the car is turned backwards but the air still gets under the wing and picks the car up. The wing also sticks out he back of the car a little as well. Look at the video of Sunday's race and in slow motion you can see the wing as the car turned around backwards the pressure of the air bending the the wing as it picks the car up.
NHRA Top Fuel dragsters run on the upside down wing theory for their for the high tall wings they use to create downforce but if one ever got backwards...........
Anyway NASCAR is going to change the rear wing (spoiler) in the near future this year, but sooner would be better. A solid spoiler like the ones of the old car would prevent the air rushing under the wing and picking the car up, and the air would be forced to go to the roof flaps like it was designed.
On a side note:
I know NASCAR has said they did extensive research on these cars going over backwards with the new wing like at Daytona and Talladega last year and Atlanta this year and before they built them and have said that they have no conclusive evidence taht is the problem but it doesn't take much to see (and I seen enough NASCAR shows to know about aerodynamics) that when the car turns around backwards the air goes between the wing and the trunk lid and does not get all the air over the roof and into the roof flaps as was designed for.
Just my opinion, but makes sense and Darrell Waltrip eluded to it as well. As NASCAR has a 2 week break before Bristol they should speed up the process of installing the new spoilers before Bristol.
