Nearly a week after Juan Montoya lost a chance to make history by winning the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard to go with his 2000 win in the Indianapolis 500, he still didn’t think he’d sped on pit road.
At least, on Friday morning at Pocono Raceway, he admitted there was no sense in worrying about the fact he was just over the 5 mile per hour allowance NASCAR gave atop its 55 mph speed limit at Indianapolis—despite almost being badgered for a different response to four consecutive and virtually identical questions.
“For some reason they said we were speeding and that’s what it is—I’ve moved on and that’s it,” Montoya said. “I think there’s times you’ve got to push but I think when you’ve got a 5-second lead with 30 laps to go you don’t have to push it and I wasn’t pushing it—but it didn’t change anything. NASCAR
“We checked ourselves after the race and it seemed OK and everything seemed to be in the right place,” said Montoya, who ended up finishing 11th.
Montoya, who currently remains in the hunt for a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup entering Sunday’s race at Pocono Raceway, said he would take heart in the strong performance from his Earnhardt Ganassi team.
“At least we showed to everybody how much potential this team has,” he said. “We just need to keep doing it.” ThatsRacin.com
Greg Biffle says that for all intents and purposes, a tachometer is just as good as a speedometer. They’re just not perfect.
“The thing is there’s error in the actual devices,” he said, “so if you had a speedometer, would it be 100% accurate or would you need to verify it every race? … It’s not as easy as it sounds.”
Jeff Gordon wonders why a governing device can’t be added to the existing cars.
“In every other form of motorsports, you come to pit road and you hit a button and it regulates the rpm and the mph,” he said. “I don’t understand why we don’t have that.
“As long as our gas pedal is our control unit, then it’s going to be inconsistent. If you take 850 horsepower engines and try to run them in second gear at 4,000 rpm, I don’t care if you’re looking at mph or rpm, it’s still very difficult to have it exact.” USA Today
Could NASCAR make the switch from RPM to mph on the dash? Not so fast.
Sprint Cup Series director John Darby said the tachometer was the most reliable factor in determining pit row speeds.
“They get multiple usages out of a tachometer as an engine meter as well, without having to bother with the expense and the troubles of adding another piece of equipment to the car,” Darby said at Pocono Raceway. “The tachometers today are so sophisticated that teams can actually program their pit road speed into the tachometer.”
Most teams have even added a lighting system to the tachometer. A green light means a driver’s speed is in the clear, yellow signifies he is pushing the limit and red means the speed is over the limit. The Canadian Press
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