My appologies for being so late again with the post. Being back in the working world is tough I guess. My appolgies for to the THP users for this being so Robby-centric, but Robby's is the only cup team I've ever worked on, so my oppinions have been shaped from my experiences there.

Want to get some buisness out of the way before I touch on some of the craziness that has gone down in nascar world this week. First of all, THP store has been so successful that we are are going to make a charitable donation to somewhere. There will be discussions this week as to which charity we are going to pick, but we will make an announcement before Thanksgiving. Secondly I would like to announce that starting on Monday the THP store will be inaugurating "The 25 days of Robby". Each weekday for the next 5 weeks, THP will be posting a different RG item on the THP store with a 'buy it now' price, so that you don't have to wait to have your presents shipped. The schedule is below and has thumbnails of the first weeks items.

Ok...So a wacky week in NASCAR. Obviously the DEI Ganassi merger was the biggest news, and unfortunately left one of my friends jobless. However, since this is an engineering discussion, the biggest news in the technical side of NASCAR was the testing ban that was announced on Friday. How is the testing ban going to shake up the grid next year and what does this mean for the teams week to week preparations are the two big questions in my mind.

I don't think the testing ban will shake up the grid. The bigger teams have been ramping up their simulation programs in the last bunch of years and they are getting to the point where they are reliable enough to unload with a decent setup. Every team that has won a race this year has spent a ton of money on simulation. Next year they will continue to do so, and will keep using it to win. Most of the small teams get simulation support, so they are not totally in the dark. At RGM we did simulation work a little bit, and it definitly helped about half of the time. However, you need a team of dedicated personell to babysit it and make it useful, so the less funded teams are still going to be at a disadvantage. You will also see 7-post testing become even more of a priority, as this will be one of the best ways to tune the car before the race. At the very least it will keep the teams from slamming the splitter on the ground off the truck.

On a week to week basis, it should make running a cup team less expensive without testing. Unfortunately, some of the cost savings will come from lost jobs for people who are on test teams. When a big team goes testing they send a whole different team of mechanics and engineers to the track, and just a couple of the race weekend people. So putting a car together for a test did not really mess up the flow of trying to get cars to the track. At smaller teams the race weekend people are the test people, so it is very draining, and takes time away from getting the car for the upcoming race prepared. So the big teams will cut some more jobs, and it will be buisness as usual for the small teams.

Last race of the year and in my mind, the points race for the top 35 is hotter than for the championship. Robby, Marcus Ambrose, and the 84 (Vickers this week) will be desperate to beat each other for the final guaranteed spot in the top 35 and a automatic qualification for the first 5 races next year. Robby is a bit ahead of the other 2 and I will pick him and the 84 to be in the top 35 at the end of day. Ambrose has had an awesome last couple of weeks, but I think the 84 withe Vickers will be too strong, and Rob will have the fire to make the last hurdle, and keep his team in buisness to fight again next year.