Gordon's Car Cleared of Traction Control

[HOUSTONLM04]

Gordon's Car Cleared of Traction Control: Perhaps you noticed last week’s race winner Jeff Gordon having difficulty completing a proper burnout after winning last week’s race. You might have also noticed Gordon was able to run through Atlanta Motor Speedway’s corners so high that he was kicking up dirt and dust, but never pulled the car’s rear end into the wall. If so, you were not alone as a vast number of those who toil in the Winston Cup garage noticed these things as well, including NASCAR officials. According to NASCAR PR staff, Gordon’s car was torn down, inspected with a fine toothed comb and special attention paid to the ignition system. NASCAR officials did take the rear end from Gordon’s car into the Conover, N.C., R&D center, where the unit, away from the prying eyes of the competitors, was cleared later in the week. This confiscation was not widely publicized within the industry, but few were surprised when they did hear the news. One driver simply said of the impounded piece, “It doesn’t surprise me. I was running as hard as I could and I certainly couldn’t pull half the moves that [Gordon] was. Nope. It doesn’t surprise me, that they took it and that they didn’t find anything wrong.”(Ford Racing)(11-2-2003)

[HOUSTONLM04]

and yet more on Traction control: When #24-Jeff Gordon couldn't do a decent post-race victory burnout at Atlanta, rivals were quick to question whether he might have been running traction control, the illegal system that prevents rear wheels from spinning out of control. Many teams suspect use of traction control is rampant this season, and one driver says he suspects as many as 16 teams [none named.....again] have used the device, which is believed to be impossible to detect. Some wonder why NASCAR couldn't modify its engine chassis dyno to detect traction control. Others say that NASCAR uses a sophisticated sound analysis system that can detect traction control. Robbie Loomis, Gordon's crew chief, says Atlanta wouldn't be a very good track for traction control, and some fellow crew chiefs agree. "I don't really know enough about it," Loomis said. "Obviously it would work at the short tracks and anywhere you have a lot of wheel-spin. But at Atlanta the car stays pretty hooked up and you have a lot of traction. Me personally, I don't think it's out there that much. Somebody might slide in and use it every now and then on you. But my hat's off to any team that's got an engineer good enough to dial that stuff in." The chassis dyno wouldn't be a good detection system, Loomis said, "because they talk about the driver being involved in putting it in the car and taking it out." One question rivals had was about the sometimes erratic performance of Gordon's car off the corners at Atlanta. Loomis said that was a fuel line problem. "Unfortunately we were having trouble with the fuel system. It scared me early in the race. We've got some stuff out here to look at it, and hopefully we've got it fixed."(Winston Salem Journal)(11-1-2003)

[Jason]

lol

If F1 officials can't find it I highly doubt NASCAR officials can.

[ProTree]

wasn't gordon caught using traction control back in his midget days on asphalt-i may have to pull out some old magazines and some vhs tapes from the old thursday nite thunder shows and see-maybe he's trying to impress some new model(pinup)