Rear spoiler causing cars to go airborn?
By spalladino
@spalladino (17891)
United States
March 7, 2010 4:12pm CST
I'm watching the race and just saw a crash involving the #12 car. He came down in front of Carl Edwards in the #99, who clipped him in the rear corner by the rear wheel. This hit caused the rear end of the #12 to lift up off the ground, sending the entire car into the air, flipping it onto it's top and rolling back upright. Fortunately, it did not hit the fence and no spectators were injured this time. I've heard commentators mention that the new, larger rear spoiler on these cars is causing this problem but NASCAR says that's not the case. So, what do you think? I don't recall seeing stock cars flying into the air, rear end first, before those new wings were installed.
1 response
@millertime (1394)
• United States
14 Mar 10
I watched this race and saw the crash also. It seemed extremely similar to the one where Edwards car spun and flipped. They are saying it's due to the fact that the wing sticks out beyond the back of the car body and catches too much air when the car turns around at high speed.
I remember seeing cars spin before this large spoiler was added and when the car would start to lift, the roof spoilers would deploy causing it to set back down onto the track. In these two crashes however, the roof spoilers, even though they deployed, weren't enough to overcome the lifting effect of the wing.
They are actually going to modify the cars very soon and have them change back to the old spoiler design. Hopefully, that will prevent this type of accident from happening again.
