Daytona's Turn 3 to be repaved for July 400...and Dale Jr. has some questions

 No one was seriously injured in the Daytona 500 fire, but the track asphalt will have to be torn up and replaced (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
 

   (Updated)

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   It's Bike Week in Daytona, and after Saturday's Daytona 200, that part of the track will be torn up and repaved.
   "Long-term repairs," is how Daytona's Joie Chitwood puts it.
   "Once this work is complete, we expect to have no further issues related to the jet dryer crash, and we'll be ready to go for the Coke Zero 400 Powered By Coca-Cola in July," Chitwood says.
  
  

     Brad Keselowski: smart enough last summer to play the pit road game better than his rivals, in winning here. But NASCAR closed the loop hole. (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   Knock on wood, and it's only three races into the new season, but Dale Earnhardt Jr. is off to the best start of his career.
   And he's leading laps too.
   In fact Earnhardt led 70 laps at Las Vegas, and that's more laps than he led in all 2011.
   After that spirited runner-up to Matt Kenseth at Daytona, Earnhardt "struggled a little bit at Phoenix, but we still got a decent finish (14th) out of it.
   "We had a pretty good car last week; we just stayed out of trouble.
    "Some other guys have had difficulties and we've been able to capitalize on that."
    So Earnhardt comes into Sunday afternoon's Food City 500 fourth in the Sprint Cup standings.
    Maybe all that 'focus' crew chief Steve Letarte has been preaching is paying off.
    Earnhardt's only win here was back in 2004, and he hasn't really done much at this track since joining Rick Hendrick in 2008, for some reason. He hasn't even led a lap here in five years.
    So this race could prove if this season is indeed shaping up as a good one for Earnhardt, or just another run of ups-and-downs.
   

   

   
Brian "Mr. Red Bull' Vickers: back in action for the first time this season, driving for Michael Waltrip. And all that stuff in that Maxim article, just not true, he now insists (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
   

    For whatever he does at the wheel, Earnhardt is always one of the most openly honest men in this sport.
    Win one this year and it's a turnaround season? "No," he says candidly, "because I felt that way in 2008, and we won one and never won again.
    "I just don't believe in 'Man, you open up the flood gates, and they are just going to come piling on.'"
  
    Earnhardt's feisty run-in with former teammate Mark Martin was one Las Vegas highlight:  http://bit.ly/zU87i2
    "Me and Mark handled our little issue immediately after we got home," Earnhardt said. "I feel pretty good we got that sorted out."
   Is this a new, more aggressive Dale Earnhardt Jr.?
    "No," he insists.
    "I did run into the back of Mark, so maybe that makes that race stand out, or gives you that impression.
    "He should have let me have the top (groove)…but it's his prerogative to do what he wants.
    "To run into the back of somebody and put them in the fence….I put him in the fence for it, and that was kind of foolish of me."

    
Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- leery about the deluge of data from the new fuel injection computers (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
   

    Here Friday, as rain showers danced around Bristol Motor Speedway, and the sun peeked in and out, Earnhardt offered some insights in his feelings about all the new technology and streaming race data pouring into the sport from the new computerized fuel injection systems.
    Many in the sport had looked at last week's Las Vegas 400 as key to understanding more about the EFI systems being used this year, after decades with the venerable engine carburetor. And Friday just about everyone offered analysis.
    The Hendrick and Jack Roush teams appear to have a significant edge so far with EFI over their rivals.
    And one major question here was whether NASCAR officials should order teams to share EFI data with rivals, to keep the playing field somewhat neutral as teams develop the new, and very complicated engine system.
    Jimmie Johnson, runner-up to Tony Stewart at Las Vegas, was quick to say he wanted to see that data from Stewart. And Johnson got it, because both men use Hendrick engineering. "I did look at Tony's data and definitely have a direction – and know what's going on," Johnson said with a big smile.
    "It's a complicated thing, that I'm certainly not going to share for the world to see. But I've got a clear direction of where to work."

  
Jimmie Johnson: his crew chief, Chad Knaus, has one final NASCAR appeal, Tuesday with John Middlebrook (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   However the whole debate about NASCAR opening up such engine data may be a false debate – because Hendrick has seven drivers using his stuff, with all seven having data access, and Roush has nine drivers using his stuff. The real issue here isn't about the mega-teams, but rather about the few remaining smaller operations, who don't have nearly the access to that much data.
  
   Earnhardt himself has serious reservations about the EFI data, the massive amounts of data teams now have at their disposal.
   Having NASCAR order teams to share data: "I'd rather not have that," Earnhardt says.
    "It would benefit to be able to see that. But I think it is a slippery slope.
     "With fuel injection, it brings in the ability this year to be able to see data that we've never been able to see before. I think we should ease into how we use that data…and how NASCAR allows us to use that data…kind of slowly, not to upset the culture of the sport, or how things have worked in the past.
    "I think if we take this new door that has been opened to us and abuse it, it might not be good for the sport."
    Just what exactly Earnhardt was driving at here isn't clear.
   
   

     Happy St. Patty's day to Danica Patrick: It's a fine day, begorra!  Maybe that's what persuaded her to accept an invite to Tony Stewart's Prelude to the Dream charity race on Eldora's dirt June 6. (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
   

    One point though was offered by crew chief Matt Puccia, who runs Greg Biffle's tour-leading Ford team: "The driver may tell you 'I just ran 12 laps flat out,' and you can look at this data and tell him 'No, you didn't, and here's the data to look at.'"
    On-the-throttle information may be the easiest for everyone to understand, in the new data, and on-the-brakes too.
    If one driver goes into a corner three car lengths deeper than a teammate, it's right there on the graph for everyone to see.
    It is a big-picture change for these drivers and teams, and Earnhardt wonders if it's really a step in the right direction:
     "We used to have really strict limitations on being able to see data on a race weekend. Now with this system we can look at throttle traces….
     "It is simple things, but it still tells you more than you knew.
     "To be able to share that among teammates is great. For years we've salivated over having PI systems (on-board computer data systems) at the track on the weekends, and being able to get real true, live data from the cars.
    "This is a step in that direction. And it is exciting for the engineers and the drivers.
     "But what I think has happened to the sport over the last several years is that we have been boxed-in, and limited on creativity (by tight rules).
    "There has been a lot less opportunity for an advantage created by individuals and creativity and talent. Basically every car is built exactly almost the same; there are really no areas where you can be smarter than the next guy.
     "Well, this data gives us that opportunity to open that box up a little bit."
    The downside Earnhardt says is "if we start sharing this with everybody…where everybody can look at what everybody's doing.
    "It's like this -- If you have a video game, and everybody knows how to win, how fun is that?
    "Keep the challenge in it without giving away all the answers."

   Johanna Long: only 19, but working to make it in NASCAR too (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)