Spoiler vs Wing

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The 2010 NASCAR season has not yet begun and there is already controversy. Should the Cup car, the Car of Tomorrow (COT) that theyve been running for three years now, keep with the rear mounted wing or switch back to the spoiler? Sports cars began using the spoiler in the early 1960s as a way to keep the back end of the car on the ground at high speed. In effect what is does is break up the air flowing over the car. Without the spoiler the tail will rise, which means the rear tires will come off the ground. This creates an area of disrupted air behind the car that actually slows the car down as it is a vacuum. Richard Petty was the first to use this by pulling into the vacuum of a car in front and let that car pull his along. Today its called drafting and is why multiple car rows are faster than a car by itself. A leading car, all alone, will be quickly caught up with by the row. Another trick Petty used, and later was effectively used by David Pearson against him, was the slingshot where the second car gains speed by pulling into the vacuum and pulling by for the win. The angle of the spoiler can affect speed and handling. The higher the angle, the more downforce on the rear of the car so better handling (ideal for short tracks). For super fast tracks like Daytona less spoiler is needed thereby allowing faster speeds. Beginning in the late 1990s cars became so slick with sloped noses that they slipped through the air. In one test a NASCAR Monte Carlo was found to be 30 miles per hour faster than a lighter Porsche with greater power, though the Porsche handled while the Monte Carlo was on the edge of falling off the track. In the new decade NASCAR decided that the cars were going too fast with multi-car trains as shown by the number of the big ones as seen at Daytona. The Car of Tomorrow is taller and has a more vertical nose thereby making more air resistance and slower speeds. Since the late 1960s Formula 1 and Indy cars have used a separate wing mounted above the tail. The idea is to let air flow around the car creating less vacuum behind the car reducing drafting while the wing pushes the back end down for grip. The wing also has endplates that keep air from slipping off the wing for even more downforce. The problem, as stated by many drivers, is that the wing is higher and blocks rear vision. To the owners the wing is more expensive than the sheet metal spoiler that is still used on Nationwide Cup cars. Since the mid 1990s stock cars havent looked like stock cars, but the wing is an obvious object that is not on standard cars. Either way, the real problem is that when a stock car gets turned backwards, as they often do, whether it is wing or spoiler, it combines with the flat back end of the car to lift the car off the ground resulting in the spectacular crashes that make the highlight films. NASCAR has announced that tests will be made in May to see how the COT works with a spoiler instead of the wing and how much the rest of the car will have to be changed. These changes will cost the owners in this era of reduced sponsorship. The results will have an effect on a new car that is being developed for the Nationwide series. The wing and spoiler have different air flows over the rear of the car.