Mark Martin's Spring

[CapnDean]

Somebody Pulllease!

 

Explain to me the Martin spring penalty.

 

I understand that he had a spring that had 4 3/8 coils.

I understand that Nascar calls for 4 1/2 coils.

I understand that his spring was from a Nascar approved supplier and came straight from the box.

 

My questions are:

 

#1 How could the missing 1/8 of a spring affect performance?

{I'm serious here...could it?}

 

#2 How could you tell by looking at a spring that it was missing 1/8 of a coil?

 

#3 Is this a common cheat (less spring) to improve one's chances?

 

#4 - - Did anybody else come up with a spring that came from the manufacturer short like this?

 

I guess what I am trying to figure out is that is this a fluke...or was he really trying to cheat?  Or was his set up man just pushing the envelope and got too close?

 

CapnDean

[General Lee 01]

Answers to your questions....

 

 

 

#1.  It didn't make a d@mn bit of a difference, it did not help the car's handling much, if it did, it was an insignificant gain.

 

#2. You wouldn't believe the hi-tech sh*t Nascar officials have. I think they get some of their equipment from NASA. lol

 

#3. My understanding is, it's been done before, but not often.

 

 

#4. At the same race as Martin's? No. If you mean otherwise,  refer to answer #3.

 

To answer your big question:

 

Martin's team wasn't trying to cheat. Mark Martin is a reputable driver whom wouldn't resort to cheating.Which is why he's my favorite driver... of all time.

[Elwood]

I would like to submit a more unbiased answer, b/c I know General cannot have an unbiased answer to a Mark Martin question.  

 

 

Martin and Rousch claim they were not cheating and the part came that way.  They claim that they found others they had like that after this incident.

NASCAR has to enforce the rules they have, if they take one persons word for it that it was an accident then they have to take everybody's word for it that has the same problem.

The rule might be stupid, but they need to enforce the rules they have.

 

Now for the Opinionated part.  

 

IMO, they should chnge the rule a little, so that 1/8 or 1/4 of an inch either way would be acceptable.

 

I don't think MArtin would cheat either, but I wouldn't put it past some of his crew or other members of Rousch Racing, but then again I just don't like Jack Rousch.

[General Lee 01]

Hey, 90% of my reply was un-biased.

 

I was just stating what I heard from the experts on TV.

 

 

What's that they always say? " You don't have to look it up, because we already did.".

[Elwood]

[MountaineerTom]

The crew chief is responsible for the set up of the car.  It's his responsibility to ensure it will pass inspection.

 

On the other hand, I don't believe it was done intentionally.  

[Worktruck]

If Mark would just slap a camera or kick a photographer they would give back the 25 points..........But seriosly it is looking like Roush Racing is the red headed stepchild of Nascar. Everytime they get close they get penalized. The guy is one of the greatest talents behind the wheel, and I'm not biased :thumb:

[ClipperSkipper]

You're correct: Jimmy Fenning would not have missed this.

It sucks you buy off of a Nascar approved supplier and get boned. In the mean time I'll continue bringing my Chase Authentics trailer to NHIS.

 

Have a great one!

[Guest Friz]

I think that the big thing here is;

Any rules infraction, if ignored or allowed to "slide", results in a bigger infraction down the line.

You can get a definite handling advantage by using coils with uneven distance between coils. It's called a progressive spring. They're on a lot of motorcycles, but I don't know if many cars are using them. If Martin's "short" spring was ruled as okay, it sets the base for a spring that's a little "shorter", or the coils aren't quite "even". Where does it end? Race mechanics are known for their ability to work around the rules (I know, I've done it many times on short track cars. Sometimes I got caught, and sometimes I didn't). For this reason alone, NASCAR has become adamant about following rules to the letter. No "creative interpretation" allowed.

I love the fact that there is no democracy and no union in NASCAR. You do what the Boss says, or go take your toys somewhere else.

I hate that Martin got busted, I really would have liked to seen him on the stage, but I like Stewart as well.