Warped Wednesday: It’s all about the roof cams
Welcome to Warped Wednesday, our new feature at From the Marbles. On it, we'll put out the rush to judgment map, go a little too far and have a little fun. Will it be funny? Sometimes. Will it be crazy and largely unbelievable? Probably. Will not everyone get it? Definitely. So let's get started, shall we?
The solution to boring green flag racing at intermediate tracks has been found and it has nothing to do with the new Sprint Cup Series car and everything to do with something that NASCAR fans have come to take for granted during race coverage: The roof cam.
Before the race at Phoenix International Raceway, NASCAR announced that roof cams will not be installed on cars at any intermediate track. Why? Sprint Cup Series Director John Darby said that the roof cams could give a car as much as 80-90 pounds of extra downforce. That's almost one Danica Patrick!
And you know who got those maximum benefits? The leader of the race. But not any longer.
Now that the leader doesn't have that incredible advantage, it will be virtually impossible for a lead to be over 1 second in an intermediate track race. This week at Vegas? The NASCAR record for lead changes may be broken.
Think of what else weighs 80-90 pounds. That's like two sandbags. 10 gallons of milk. A really big German Shepherd. That's a big advantage. Gone. Yeah, it wasn't apparent at Phoenix. But drivers were talking before the race how the second line on Phoenix's new pavement hadn't come in yet. They knew the roof cam removal secret wasn't going to be shown until Vegas. And Pocono? Oh man, we're not going to think about Pocono. After this year, you're going to be wanting 36 races a year at Pocono.
The newfound racing will extend back throughout the pack too. The cars will be three wide every lap. It could look like a restrictor plate race. All because of one tiny roof cam.
Yeah, it won't be as fun to not have roof cam shots from an assortment of cars throughout the race, as the angle can provide some spectacular footage. But we'll be getting spectacular footage for 267 straight laps on Sunday and on every 1.5 mile and 2 mile track from now on. That's worth the tradeoff.
Yeah, the Gen-6 car will get all the credit when we talk about how epic Sunday's race was. But when you talk with your friends and coworkers about it on Monday morning, tell them that the real reason is the removal of the roof cams. They'll think you're a genius. A technical savant. You may get a promotion.
Just remember where you read it first.
