Motorsports

NASCAR's road to glory turns

By BRANT JAMES
Published August 12, 2006

Carl Edwards isn't convinced Boris Said gave away the entire road-racing primer during their lessons this year. Granted, the second-year Nextel Cup driver was grateful for every piece of advice he got from a man he calls "the greatest road racer in the world."

But as the second and final road race on the Nextel Cup schedule approaches on Sunday at Watkins Glen, N.Y., the Said offers as proof of his forthrightness the results of the first road race at Sonoma, Calif., on June 25.

Said, 44, finished ninth. Edwards, in his fourth NASCAR road race, finished sixth.

"If I did keep some, Carl wouldn't have gotten me," Said chuckled. "He's a pretty quick study because he passed me on the last lap. When I teach someone, it's pretty much an open book. I expect the same in return when I ask questions about Indianapolis or ovals that I'm on."

Said has worked with all of Roush Racing's drivers as his fledgling No Fear Racing team's contribution to an informal alliance with the mega organization. One of the most important aspects is helping them choreograph the ballet of braking and shifting. Whereas a driver may shift and brake a few times a lap on an oval, during a road race they must constantly coordinate their feet and hands smoothly through the process of working the gearbox, accelerating, slowing and turning. And they must do it over and over without flaw.

"It's a lot harder on the driver," said Nextel Cup driver Greg Biffle, who qualified second and third in three races at Watkins Glen, but never finished better than 30th. "Certainly you're going both directions. You're shifting a lot. There's lots more opportunities to make mistakes. We're shifting so many times a lap, getting on the brakes, downshifting, turning at the right point. Normally we're used to four corners, and now we've got a whole bunch that are both directions."

Drivers' foot styles help dictate how difficult their day will be. Drivers are either left-foot or right-foot brakers. Said estimated about 90 percent are left-footed, though he is the opposite. A left-footed braker keeps his right foot on the accelerator, the left on the brake and does not use the clutch to shift. The right-footer will remove his foot from the accelerator to brake, use the left for the clutch. Both shift with the stick.

"If you're a right-foot braker, you have to roll your foot, be on the brake and the gas at the same time to match the revs, so when you're slowing down you can shift," Said said. "It looks a little more complicated when you watch it from an in-car camera. It's a little more technical.

"A left-foot braker does it the same way a guy driving a semi truck never uses the clutch. You just match the revs slowing down through the gears and up through the gears, its just a quick flip in the throttle. The gear boxes that we use are so good, you really don't have to use the clutch anymore."

Edwards, a left-footer who practices the conventional shifting method in his street car, admitted there are benefits to using the right foot. But comfort and the repeatability are paramount, he said.

"If you brake with your right foot and you put the clutch in all the time when you're braking, you have less chance of wheel-hopping the rear tires and so that makes it a little bit different," he said.

The trouble with road courses in general, Biffle said, is there is never one bad shift or corner. One begets another, and another, and a plummet through the running order.

"If you screw up in one corner, like three corners later your rhythm's off," said Biffle, Edwards' teammate at Roush. "It's like doing that deal when two people got their legs tied together. The problems keep rippling forward."

Nextel drivers take those problems more seriously, said Said, who qualified 15th Friday for Sunday's race. The bushy-haired free spirit has advised the likes of Dale Earnhardt Jr. before his new team's alliance with Roush, and has seen the emphasis on road racing increase the past five years.

Biffle, fourth this season at Infineon Raceway, claims an affinity for road racing despite a history of frustration. The upbeat Edwards is generally excited no matter where he is, even if it's outside the Chase for the Championship boundary. Which is exactly where he and Biffle are with five races left in the regular season. A road course, like a restrictor-plate track, offers the possibility of mayhem that can scramble standings.

"It could definitely shake things up," Edwards said. "Somebody could break a shifter. You're using more parts of the car, going both directions."

That makes it helpful to have a sage like Said as a mentor. If only Edwards was sure he had learned all the lessons.

"I'm sure he's not telling me all his secrets, but he really is an honest guy and an open guy. He's cool," Edwards said. "I'll put it this way: he answers my questions. He may not volunteer any extra information, but anything I ask he definitely tells me."

[Last modified August 12, 2006, 02:50:10]