Traction Control being used in NASCAR? Some engine builders and car owners are
becoming increasingly concerned about what they insist is the growing use of
illegal traction control devices on Winston Cup cars and what they consider
NASCAR's seeming inability to police it. At Martinsville in April, NASCAR
officials announced they were cracking down on the devices, and showed teams
some that they had been able to find through distributors. According to crews,
one of those devices, about half the size of a pack of cigarettes, would be
plugged into the ignition box in the car after the driver climbed in; then
after the race the driver could simply unplug it, stick it into his driving
suit and crawl out of the car. To stop that, NASCAR inspectors began sealing
ignition wiring, to keep drivers from unplugging any wires. Now, however,
engine men say they have been offered - surreptitiously, of course - new
traction control devices that are supposed to be undetectable. One of the new
devices is reported to be inside the ignition box itself and triggered by a
cell phone from the pits. "It's a shame ... it's so blatant right now," one
engine man said. "You can look at last year's results versus this year's
results, track by track, and see what's going on. If NASCAR really wanted to
police it, they could set up special microphones to listen to the cars coming
off the corner; the sound is distinctive enough. And they need to go hire some
more sophisticated engineers to analyze these ignition boxes. Or else NASCAR
will simply have to make it legal." Car owner Richard Childress says he's
convinced his teams have been beaten by teams running traction control: "Oh
yes, I feel for certain we have."
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