Tampering wtih Roof Flaps?

When you watch the flips from the weekend, it looks like the roof flaps aren't coming up until the car is upside down. It's especially noticable in the Kenseth wreck. Is it possible these safety devices are being tampered with to improve areo at the plate tracks?

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Permalink Reply by Matt on April 27, 2009 at 10:15am

Nascar checks the flaps to make sure they are within spec and nothing has been tampered with.

Kenseths Busch wreck just happened to be at the right angle where the flaps did not deploy.

If you watch Edwards wreck, the flaps came up and started to set the car down right before being hit by Newman. The hit popped the car back into the air. The flaps are good, but cannot overcome that.

Just for everyones info, the flaps work based on negative pressure in the cockpit of the car. As the car starts to move backwards, the aero that helps keep the car planted to the ground going forwards does the exact oppostive, it creates lift. This also creates a low or negative pressure inside the car, which forces the flaps up.

I only explained since some people dont know how the flaps work. Some assume they are automated or driven by motors and sensors.

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Permalink Reply by Matt on April 27, 2009 at 11:33am

Roush as a company helped, but it was a collective effort between them, GM, Ford, and Nascar.

http://www.sae.org/servlets/productDetail?PROD_TYP=PAPER&PROD_C...

When I was in the garage area, they would make teams fix roof flaps that had the smallest issue opening or closing. They took those things very seriously.

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Permalink Reply by Keith on April 27, 2009 at 11:55am

David Poole said this morning that after numerous review of the video, the angle of the car did not allow the airflow to deploy the flaps. It's just one of them freak situations. Newman's hit made the deal worse than it might have been otherwise.

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Permalink Reply by Matt on April 27, 2009 at 12:21pm

You can see the flaps come up on Edwards car, and watch the car start coming back towards the ground before Newman hit him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX7RAvVhBJ0

Look at 2:39