DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., Feb. 10 (UPI) -- After a miserable performance by the Ford teams in Sunday's Budweiser Shootout, NASCAR has issued a rules change for the carmaker that will take effect Tuesday morning.
The Ford teams will get an additional quarter-inch taken off the rear spoiler of the Taurus cars that will compete in Thursday's Gatorade Twin 125-mile qualifying races and next Sunday's Daytona 500.
Monday is the final round of time trials for the Daytona 500 which is one of the requirements necessary for the two 125-mile qualifying races that help determine the field for next Sunday's race.
"It gives us a chance on Thursday to see what this action creates," said NASCAR president Mike Helton. "Through the whole process of this aero-package change from Joe Gibbs' shop in October through testing in January, we said all along that we would adjust to try to get it right as quick as we can. Saturday's qualifying and today's race results are the first facts that we know for certain about."
This is the second change made to the rear spoiler of the Ford Taurus. The Fords also got a quarter-inch reduction of the rear spoiler on Jan. 22.
The Fords ran Saturday through Monday at 6 1/4 inches. The Chevrolet teams rear spoiler remains at 6 1/4 inches while Dodge and Pontiac teams measure at 6 1/2 inches tall.
"Besides being an obvious step in the right direction, we feel this should allow us to be more competitive in the race," said Greg Specht, North American Operations Manager, Ford Racing Technology. "I think the key now is to see what kind of effect this will have on Thursday. I'm really pleased about the fact that NASCAR decided to make this change before the 125s because it's another opportunity to see how competitive all the cars are in race conditions."
After Sunday's Budweiser Shootout, the race-winning Pontiac driven by Tony Stewart, the second-place Chevrolet driven by Dale Earnhardt Jr., the third-place Chevrolet driven by Jeff Gordon, the fourth-place finishing Dodge driven by Sterling Marlin and the highest-finished Ford driven by Dale Jarrett (sixth-place) were taken by NASCAR and tested on a chassis dyno.
Stewart's Pontiac, Earnhardt's Chevrolet, Marlin's Dodge and Jarrett's Ford were also taken to the Lockheed Wind Tunnel in Marietta, Ga., for further aerodynamic testing.
"We're making these changes based on results on the race track," Helton said. "We know a lot about wind tunnels and we are still going to do wind tunnel testing to gain as much knowledge as we can, but this action is coming from what we've seen in the three days from Daytona so far.
"The wind tunnel testing could certainly be information that will help us down the road. It's just not a factor in this decision we are making tonight."
The Ford teams were looking for any type of help that would make them more competitive. In Saturday's pole qualifications, there were just two Fords in the top 20 with Jarrett turning in the 13th-fastest time and Ricky Rudd 15th.
Meantime, seven cars in the top 10 in Saturday's qualifications were Chevrolets with the other three positions belonging to Dodge teams.
Jarrett's team owner, Robert Yates, agreed that Sunday's race looked more like the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona with several different classes of cars competing on the same track. Unfortunately, the Ford's looked like the GTU division while the other car brands looked like the faster prototypes.
Earnhardt, who finished second to Stewart in Sunday's race, doesn't believe that Ford needed a change but rather the Ford teams should have worked harder on their race cars.
"They got what they deserved," Earnhardt said. "They laid around all winter."
Despite the Ford situation, Helton liked the nature of Sunday's Budweiser Shootout, which ran caution-free. Although it was difficult to pass the leader, it did have its moments of good racing.
"Of course we're extremely upset," said Bob Wildberger, Senior Manager, NASCAR Operations, Dodge Motorsports. "We've worked hard through two rule changes to prepare for the Daytona 500. Just like with every rules change, we get together with our Dodge teams under the one-team approach and figure out how we can work with it."
