Hampton, Ga. — As the new Taurus continues to chalk up its impressive stats the heat comes off the 2004 Ford car designers. Those designers, while having the best of everything available, just never know how a car will work until in the heat of battle.
One of the car’s chief aero designers, Bernie Marcus, feels better and better about the new Taurus with each passing week and on-track skirmish. And while there’s still plenty of development left in the car, Marcus’ accomplishment so far in 2004 are the same as Matt Kenseth’s — both are batting 667, prior to the Atlanta event running.
“I think that both at Daytona [International Speedway] on the speedways and at the downforce tracks – Rockingham [North Carolina Speedway], [Las] Vegas [Speedway] and Atlanta [Motor Speedway] – I’m pretty pleased with the way it’s turned out so far because I think we’re now competitive compared to last year,” Marcus said of his pure engineering exercise. “We can race people now. We can qualify better, or most of our cars can, and most of our cars can race better. So we’re kind of with [the other manufacturers] now.”
Marcus relishes having a new piece to work with since the old Taurus had roots and templates dating back to 1998. Leaving the old Taurus little more to give the aero engineers.
Marcus observes of the old car, “I think the way it had been developed between ’98 and 2003, we were pretty much maxed out with the real estate that we had to work with. But by making the tail a little bit longer and by making a change in the nose area, I think we kind of ratcheted it up a notch to the point where we’re now competitive again against the competition.”
Marcus and the entire Ford Racing Technology group saw to it the new car, in part, was in the teams’ hands early enough so they now have a good handle on the major issues.
“Obviously we just started to run it so it is up to the teams to develop it in the certain areas where the driver needs it,” explains Marcus. “People haven’t been running it a lot but the focus was to get the car submitted to NASCAR early so by October we were able to give people pieces to work with. So the teams have had enough time now to work with the things, build the car, run it and test it.”
While talk of parity has been circulating under the radar Marcus believes that NASCAR has done a good job keeping the box tight enough so that no one manufacturer can make the claim they are not up to the challenge of the Cup tour.
“I would say the field is very level, because if you take the two aero tracks we’ve raced so far – Daytona and Vegas – I think we were very close.
“At Daytona I think there was one make of each car on the grid within a tenth [after qualifying],” Marcus added.
“If you look at Vegas, which is kind of more of an aerodynamic track than I would say Rockingham – if you look at the grid in Vegas both in Busch and in Cup we’ve had one car from each manufacturer within probably half-a-tenth. So I would call that the same.”
Asked if he’s satisfied with the aero performance of the 2004 Taurus to-date Marcus let out a breath before answering, “Yes. From what I’ve see to this point, the answer would have to be ‘yes’.”
The next chance for the new Taurus to shine will be in tomorrow’s Golden Corral 500.
Kenseth is in the envious position that should he win this Atlanta race he’ll own three consecutive race wins — something that’s not been done at this level of stock car racing since Jeff Gordon knocked off three in a row back in 1998.
One stat that Kenseth can claim, however, is a point lead so large at this point in the season that you have to go back to 1977 for the record. Cale Yarborough set a frantic three race pace for the ‘77 field to chase with an 85 point lead, Kenseth, now second on the list, leads with 88 points.
“My driving style isn't any different right now than it was six weeks ago or last year,” reminds the hottest driver on the tour now. “We just have better stuff to work with and Robbie [Reiser – crew chief of Kenseth’s No. 17 car] and everybody has done a good job the first couple of races of giving me cars that we can go out and lead laps with and win races with. When you have the equipment, you can go out and do that if you have your car set up all right, but last year we just struggled a little bit at the end of the year."
"It's a long season yet,” added Kenseth. “Our goal is to try to win the championship this season and try to lead laps and win races. We've got a great start toward that, but it's a really long season."
