Historical Motorsports Stories writes:

"NASCAR's Traction Control Controversy"

Posted by nascarman on August 2, 2018

Viewed 6693 times Tweet On April 14, 2002, drivers, crew chiefs, and owners assembled for the pre-race driver's meeting before the Virginia 500 at Martinsville. These gatherings are usually formalities covering the same topics every week, but this one was different. NASCAR President, Mike Helton, stood in front of the crowd holding two mysterious, yet familiar devices in his hands. They were highly illegal in NASCAR, but may have been quite common in the garage.



"Everybody, I think, understands our rules and regulations in regards to traction control," Helton told the racers. "In an effort to police that, we have spent a lot of time and money buying parts and pieces you've been offered so we can figure out what to look for.



"There's not much we can do to the people who manufacture these things to try to get around the rules. It's the crew chiefs and drivers we will react to when we find these or if we ever find these in a car."





Martinsville 2002 (Jonathan Ferrey/GettyImages)



Through the early part of 2002, rumors were hot in the garage area that certain cars had secret Traction Control Systems. The rumors were so prevalent that NASCAR had to address them and give a stern warning to teams that day at Martinsville. Traction Control was highly illegal in a form of auto racing that prides itself on simple cars that test driver skill more than engineering prowess. For a series that sometimes refers to its participants as "the 43 best drivers in the world," the public notion that the cars were made easy to drive was alarming.



The sanctioning body maintained that no teams were using TCS; it was easy to find and impossible to get past officials. But on the contrary, the mechanics who worked daily on these race cars maintained that true Traction Control couldn't be detected and that lots of other teams had it in their cars.



Traction Control worked by adjusting the ignition system when a driver steps on the gas pedal. It would modulate the RPMs that an engine turned and keep the rear wheels from slipping on acceleration. On particularly slick race tracks like Martinsville, Darlington, and Bristol, this meant a driver could mash the gas and not worry about the rear wheels spinning too fast and having the car step out. By eliminating rear wheel slip, the car would be easier to drive and it would take less skill for the driver to get up to full speed. It would also make the car much faster.



How a Traction Control System was installed was up for debate. Some said it had to be wired into the ignition boxes and those small wires could be covered with paint or decals. Others said that you only needed a specially-programmed computer chip plugged into the ignition box. As the race started, a driver could plug the chip into the box, then unplug it after the race, either throwing the chip out the window or slipping it into his pocket. Several articles from around 2002 claimed that these chips were found laying on tracks after a race had ended.



Drivers and mechanics said there were little ways that Traction Control was noticable. It was said that if you watch a race carefully from an onboard camera, you could tell which teams were using TCS. The engine would sort of hesitate on acceleration and the tachometer would fluctuate instead of rising steadily. You might even be able to hear an odd sounding engine if you stood trackside in a turn. It was also said that if a driver won a race, tried to do a burnout, and just couldn't get the rear wheels to spin wildly, he too may have exposed the TCS.



Rumors that teams were using Traction Control started in the late-90s and continued through the early-2000s. In February 2001, short track car-owner, Ken Barlow told Monte Dutton of the Gaston Gazette he had built Traction Control devices that were used by Cup Series teams. He claimed he was going public with his testimony because NASCAR had punished him for using a similar system in short track racing. "They condoned it at the Cup level, but they didn't want traction control getting into the short-track level."



The Traction Control controversy became wildfire in 2002. There were so many teams accusing each other of using TCS that Mike Helton had to sternly remind all teams at Martinsville that it was illegal. To keep teams from pulling out ignition wires and replacing them, officials began sealing ignition wiring. But that was only one way Traction Control could be done.



By the summer of '02, even some high-profile team owners were saying Traction Control was in other cars. Richard Childress said his organization had been beaten by teams using TCS. "Oh yes, I feel for certain we have," Childress told the Winston-Salem Journal. At the time he made those comments, Childress' best driver was Jeff Green, currently 23rd in points; Kevin Harvick was 34th.







Just hours prior to the July 6th Pepsi 400 at Daytona, NASCAR officials gathered media members for an hour-long Traction Control information session and press conference. (The transcript can be found HERE) The purpose of this meeting was "to educate the media not to get snowed by a guy who had a bad race." The officials claimed Traction Control was just an excuse for paranoid teams to explain why they got beaten.



At that Daytona meeting, Cup Series director John Darby said that if a team was caught using TCS, the resulting penalty "would probably be one of the largest (fines) that NASCAR has ever levied." This was a reason why NASCAR kept their standard, simplistic analogue electrical system; less computers meant less chance for manipulation. Just weeks later, NASCAR further tried to silence the rumors by creating a rule change that moved ignition boxes and wiring to the top of the dashboard, to be implemented in 2004. The boxes have remained in that location ever since.



In August 2002, longtime journalist, Al Pearce, wrote an article for Autoweek that detailed the TCS controversy. The piece was mixed with quotes from NASCAR claiming they could catch its use, and team members skeptical they could.



"We hear competitors talk about traction control," Gary Nelson, head of NASCAR's R&D, told Autoweek. "We see stories and hear comments that somebody's got it or another driver's had it for years and it's out there. Our job is to write and enforce rules, and we think we're doing a great job. We say it's close to impossible to have it, but our goal is to make it completely impossible."



To check for TCS, NASCAR officials inspected wiring harnesses on the cars. Supposedly, officials also had a special microphone they would use at tracks that could detect if an engine was making an abnormal sound through the corners.







But despite NASCAR saying they could catch it, teams in the garage weren't so sure a system would be caught.



Pearce quoted "an unnamed former Busch Series champion" who said NASCAR couldn't find Traction Control "if it hit 'em in the face. Where do they get some of their inspectors, down at the parts store?" he said. "Yes, traction control is hard to find. Yes, there's all kind of talk about how to hide it and who's using it. But you'd think NASCAR would have enough resources to find it."



Brett Bodine echoed the idea. "I'm an underfunded owner who wants the playing field as level as possible," Bodine said. "I want everything equal because I can't afford that trick stuff. But I'm not sure they know exactly what to look for. Hey, if you can hide wires in paint and behind decals, you know it's hard to find."



"I don't know if (NASCAR's) people could even find it," crew-chief Mike Hillman told Autoweek, "but on the off-chance they happen to stumble on it, the punishment would be hard. Because of that, and because nobody knows for sure whether they can find it, I don't think anybody's using it right now."



Autoweek also included a list of wins between 1998 and 2002 that people in the garage believed were the result of Traction Control. They listed Bobby Hamilton's dominating win at Martinsville in 1998, Joe Nemechek's at Rockingham 2001, Kurt Busch's first win at Bristol in 2002, and Jimmie Johnson's first win at Fontana that same year.



When 2002 ended and NASCAR changed almost nothing in the rule book for 2003, the rumors continued into the next year.







In the summer of 2003, Todd Bodine told the Winston-Salem Journal that over a dozen teams had Traction Control in their cars and there was a very easy way to tell who. "Yes, unequivocally yes. I've heard numbers that up to 16 cars in here have it," Bodine said. "The funny part is the guys who win with it and then forget they have it, and they can't do the burnout. So they stop, switch the (ignition) box, and then do the burnout. It's happened three times in Busch this year with two different drivers." In that same article, car-owner Jim Smith claimed that some TCS could even be operated remotely just by using a cellphone to activate a small chip in the ignition box. This style, he claimed, was widespread in the Truck Series.



The rumors reached their peak in November 2003. On a cold and rainy day at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Jeff Gordon made a charge at the end and led the final 36 laps to win the race. It was his post-race celebration that got attention.





Jeff Gordon takes the checkered flag (Rusty Jarrett/GettyImages)



Gordon stopped the car at the finish line to do a burnout, stood on the gas, and the rear tires spun only a little. And then the rear wheels seemed to lock up, like something was stopping them from breaking free and spinning. After that lackluster burnout, Gordon drove slowly to victory lane and aroused many suspicions.



Could his win be the result of a Traction Control System? Was the terrible burnout proof of it?



NASCAR swept in to analyze the car in their post-race inspection. They looked closely at the car and inspected the ignition system. They took the rear end back to their R&D center and took that apart. Nothing illegal was found.



For their 2004 season preview magazine, Athlon Sports published an article on Traction Control and described that having the driver plug and unplug a chip into an ignition box was an archaic way of getting a TCS, the proper way was much more sophisticated:



The big boys' version of traction control is built into the car from the ground up. Wiring is put in the frame rails before the car is built, and the wires are painted over for further concealment. In these days of tiny computer chips, the better-financed teams install a chip the size of a watch battery in the transmission, electronics or even the tachometer; anywhere that can detect a spike in RPMs will suffice. The wires can go through the eye of a pop rivet. The only way to find it? Cut up the car. Then what happens if nothing is found? A needle in a haystack would be easier to find. So why would NASCAR risk embarrassing itself and infuriating teams by confiscating and destroying a car only to find nothing?



For the 2004 season, NASCAR changed its rules to easier police any alleged TCS. Primary and secondary ignition systems were separated so that the wiring could be checked easier in inspection. The ignition boxes were required to be mounted clearly on the right-side of the dashboard so crews couldn't plug TCS devices into it and so people could look through the windows and see the ignition boxes. The rumors that teams had Traction Control abruptly stopped.



You might think that it would be easier to sneak traction control into cars now. The use of EFI, the ECU, and computers that engineers can plug directly into the cars would send chills down the spine of officials trying to stop Traction Control in 2002. NASCAR has not let up on their opposition to driving aids like TCS. Their penalty structure lists any use of Traction Control as a Level 2 penalty, the most severe. It would carry a minimum penalty of 75 points, a six-race suspension for the crew chief, and a fine of over $100,000. No one has ever been caught with a system despite the rumors.



But today, companies like Davis Technologies produce and sell Traction Control Systems for auto racing. They sell big units, and very tiny ones. Their uses are for drag racing and dirt/asphalt oval-track competition. They only thing they don't publish is their client list.







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