Wind could wreak havoc in Kobalt 400 at LVMS
In the old Broadway musical “Paint Your Wagon,” they called the wind Maria.
The men who will drive brightly colored NASCAR wagons in today’s Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway — and Danica Patrick, who will start 18th — are calling it something different.
Start with treacherous, go from there.
The gorgeous weather we’ve been having is supposed to move out just in time for the big Sprint Cup Series race. Isn’t that the way it always happens?
Well, no, at least not if you go by the Old Farmer’s Almanac. But that’s what people usually say anyway. And many of the drivers were saying it Friday after making blistering qualification runs under near idyllic conditions at the 1.5-mile speed plant on the north edge of town.
Early in the week, meteorological concerns mostly were about the rain. Sixty percent chance, everybody was saying. Don’t worry, NASCAR said. We’ll be bringing the Air Titan 2.0, our super-duper track drying system.
Never underestimate the presence of a state-of-the-art track drying system. By Friday, rain was all but out of the forecast. (By Saturday, a small chance of an isolated shower was back in.)
But it’s the wind that has everybody fretting.
The forecast is for stiff 30 mph breezes (which not even NASCAR can control) under partly cloudy skies with cooler temperatures. Friday’s high, when the Sprint Cup guys and Danica posted their qualifying times, was 80 degrees; it’s supposed to be 64 today.
The cooler temperatures might cut down on the beer drinking in the grandstands a tad (yeah, right), but it’s the wind that had drivers furrowing brows.
“I don’t know how we are supposed to adjust for that,” said Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, who will start outside on the front row. “What we hope is that it is a constant wind. The gusts of wind is what crashes cars. If you get big gusts, the car jumps out of the (racing groove) and leads you into the wall and spins you right out.
“It is going to be dangerous, treacherous for sure. It is going to be just crazy to think about what that wind is going to do.”
The youthful 2014 Daytona 500 winner was asked if the wind has ever caused him to crash.
“Probably. I try to forget that stuff,” he said.
“I know a lot of times it just jumps out of nowhere on you and the car just takes off. If you are already on that edge, it doesn’t take but a little bit to push you over that edge. When you think of 3o mph winds, that is a big deal.
“I think the wind is going to be a big story. You guys are already on it.”
Las Vegan Kurt Busch, who will start alongside Logano after earning his second straight pole position with a record-qualifying speed of 196.328 mph, suggested he’s going to have one eye focused on the track, the other on a wind sock.
“Yeah, I’m looking at the forecast,” Busch said. “It looks pretty gnarly for the wind.
“The speed of the wind will push us big time, from what I’m gathering, from a southwest direction into Turn 3. When you have a tailwind multiplied by 30 mph, that is a headwind of 30 mph down the straightaway. That is a swing of 60 mph. That is a significant difference that these cars are going to feel.”
After Busch allowed for the change in barometric pressure and the Greenhouse effect, he put it into terms that all the drivers, and even some guys drinking beer in the grandstands, could understand.
“We are all going to be out there struggling, fighting and trying to gain that grip with the tailwind,” he said.
The drivers in Saturday’s Boyd Gaming 300 Xfinity Series race said they didn’t have to adjust for the wind, which was reported at 8 mph with gusts up to 20 mph when the checkered flag fell. But canopies over the pit boxes were flapping wildly in the breeze when Kyle Busch did his victory burnout, the residue of which quickly drifted toward Turn 4.
So what will the Cup drivers wind up calling the wind?
On Broadway they called it Maria, and they said she blows the stars around and sends the clouds a flyin’.
On Sunday, if the forecasts are accurate, we’ll find out how she feels about stock cars barreling into the turns on this new low downforce package that everybody has been talking about.
Gentlemen, start your wind machines.
Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski
KOBALT 400
■ WHAT: NASCAR Sprint Cup
■ WHEN: 12:30 p.m. today
■ WHERE: Las Vegas Motor Speedway
■ TV: Fox Sports
■ RADIO: PRN NASCAR Radio SiriusXM 90
■ TICKETS: www.lvms.com
