Drivers' prayers answered with loss of wing, return of spoiler

CONCORD, N.C. -- It's not official, yet but NASCAR's pending decision to trade the Sprint Cup car's rear wing for a spoiler already seems to be a big hit.

An announcement that will put the change into stone will come this week when the annual Preseason Media Tour brigade descends on NASCAR's Research & Development Center. But there's enough evidence, including an internal memo distributed to teams last week and a pair of test sessions in the weeks ahead, to know the wing is on the endangered species list.

Jeff Gordon says he doesn't anticipate any drastic differences with the re-introduction of the spoiler. (Getty Images)

That seems to be fine with most every driver who has chimed in on the subject.

"I think that's big for us all, everyone, fans, competitors and all," said Mark Martin. "The performance of the spoiler may be a little bit different, but that configuration isn't, I don't think, completely defined yet. So in the end the performance of the spoiler should be similar to what we have with the wing with a much more traditional look."

Since the new Cup machine debuted in 2007, one of the biggest complaints has been the lack of identity between the different manufacturers who compete on the series and the generic look of the cars.

The addition of the more traditional spoiler will bring back the traditional stock car look Martin mentions while also providing fans an opportunity to better differentiate between makes.

"Hopefully this will give some of our fans that stock car look they feel was lost when the new car came into play with the rear wing," Greg Biffle said.

What the spoiler brings to the party in for competition is still a bit up in the air. While wind-tunnel work has gone on, teams won't get a chance to actually test the new design for several weeks.

Jeff Gordon is hoping the spoiler will ramp up the action and ability to pass but isn't expecting major changes immediately.

"I don't think it's going to be night and day," Gordon said. "Their goal is to be around the downforce levels we have now. The first thing that I've heard from our engineers is that a rear spoiler should add total downforce to the car, which might change the balance and give it a little more front to it, which I think would be a great thing."

Keeping the cars from becoming airborne would also be a great thing. After last year's scary flights at Talladega by Carl Edwards and Ryan Newman, which some believe were helped by the attributes of the rear wing, NASCAR engineers went to work in hopes of finding a cure.

Whether the return to a spoiler is the ultimate answer remains to be seen, but Newman for one is willing to give it a try with a return to the sport's past.

"The difference is when you get cars side by side in racing, what the effects are of the downforce and the turbulent air," Newman said. "I feel that the correlation is easy to make to that spoiler, which we've had in the past. The difference is what that spoiler does when the car goes backward vs. the wing or what that spoiler does side-by-side with other car vs. the wing."

Newman points out that the issue seems to be relegated to the restrictor-plate tracks, but that the loss of the wing has a good chance of ending the sight of airborne racecars.

"At places like Texas and Atlanta and Charlotte, I don't remember seeing a car getting spun around to the point that it could get airborne, so I think that that wing that creates that downforce going forward also creates lift going backward," Newman said.

The first on-track shakedown of the spoiler will come at Texas Motor Speedway during the tire test Tuesday and Wednesday. Four drivers -- Biffle, Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch and Brian Vickers, representing the four current manufacturers -- will take part.

That will be a prelude to an open test set for Charlotte on March 23 and 24.

At this point Busch is a proponent of the change and is anxious to be one of the first to try it out.

"Why did we go to that wing? Because it does look goofy," Busch asked. "But the other thing I see is that there is something about the way that when one of these COT cars breaks away into the lead, that second-place car can't get up to him because he's up against that threshold of downforce. That's all the air he can get on his car. and that lead car is blocking that air. How is it coming off the wing? We don't know."

Busch thinks it's worth a try and could have a dramatic effect.

"Let's put a spoiler on it, let's check it out. Let's see how a car reacts from behind, because we want to see these cars bunched up when the leader gets out there, he doesn't have a distinct advantage. That's been the biggest thing, and I hope that the spoiler helps with that when that lead car gets out there, you can't catch him."