Clean Air

By Jason Jarrett

I usually keep things on the lighter side and definitely on the "pc" side. Billy Venturini always called me, Mr. PC. I also know no one wants to hear the two words at the top of the page but I think that clean air on the front of these race cars is still having a huge impact. I try to think that I am pretty observant when I see what is happening on the track and the issue of clean air has caught my attention for the past couple of weeks. I have not heard many drivers complain about it lately but to me the "clean air" issues are still very important. Maybe everyone is just dealing with it because they no that the "car of tomorrow" is coming soon. The best answer I have is that the teams know the problem will always exist so they are just continuously working to make it better for their car and driver.

There have been some observations that I have made over the last few races. In the Busch race last week at Chicago I noticed that when Mears got out front, his car came to life. I was glad to see him make it to victory lane. His crew made a good call and they made the most of it. I was spotting for David Green and I noticed how hard it was in the "dirty air" or in traffic for him and several others to make passes. A lot of times he could run up to the car in front of him but to get by them he had to hunt some clean air by trying the top of the track or by running the opposite lane of the car in front of him. He had a tough day but they never gave up and raced as hard as they could all day long. Kurt Busch was strong all day in the Busch race as well but I think getting back in traffic hurt the handling of his car. Carl Edwards might have thrown my theory out the window in a few laps because he was able to work the traffic and almost made it back to Mears.

Sunday, during the Cup race at Chicago, dad was a good example of clean air helping a car and dirty air hurting a car. When he was in the back of the pack he could not make much progress but there was a time when he was one of the first laps down cars that was lined up on the inside. On one of the restarts he was able to fall in line around sixth or seventh. He was able to stay there for a while. Again, this is all just my opinion and observations, but I think the clean air on the front of the car helped him be able to stay up there and have a shot at being the "lucky dog." Unfortunately, he lost third gear and was never able to make up a lap.

This Sunday morning, as I sit waiting on race time, the clean air thoughts just keep popping into my mind. Yesterday, in the Busch Series race, I spotted for Green again. He went down a lap early but was in contention to get the "free pass" if the caution would fly at the right time. When he could line up towards the front and fall in line up there he could stay up around the top ten but when he would fall back into traffic the car looked totally different. He had another rough day at Loudon. The car lost power with about 20 laps to go and he lost several spots that he had fought hard all day to keep. To contradict my thinking a little bit, Carl Edwards and Clint Bowyer were able to work traffic, and the clean air issue did not seem to affect them as bad.

I guess I will see if the same issues come into effect today in the Cup race here at Loudon. There will always be teams that can figure out the issues they are dealing with better than others but I still think that clean and dirty air are affecting many cars out there. Something else that helps resolve this issue is how well your team gets you off of pit road. There may be larger issues to worry about but this has been something I have been thinking about for a few weeks and thought I would see what your thoughts were on clean air.

These posts are just my thoughts and opinions. This is the Mr. PC coming out in me!

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