“There are so many lessons to learn,” the Scot said, “If you look at
Daytona, there are lessons in themselves because with restrictor plate racing you might have a little bit more than half the horsepower we’re going to have next week in California. I think, in years past, you were going almost wide-open around the track but now, if you’re in the middle to the back of the pack, you are lifting a lot and really driving the car.”
Unlike any purpose-designed racing car, a heavy NASCAR stock car with comparatively narrow tyres and very little downforce - further exacerbated by the CoT - is always squirming around.
“What I’m getting used to as much as anything is this feeling of the car sliding around,” Dario remarked, “With the Indycar, I’m used to quite quick movements - short and smaller movements. If you get sideways with these cars, you’re in the fence. So I’m still getting used to that feeling of driving the car with the rear moving and sliding around. You’ve got to get used to that and it seems from talking to the team and talking to Juan, and to other drivers like Tony Stewart, that everybody goes through it when they first come here.”
Another aspect to stock car racing is that the car’s handling is always compromised and the driver has to learn to live with it.
To read the rest of this Gordon Kirby column and other 'The Way It Is' columns go to www.gordonkirby.com. Gordon Kirby is the American editor of Motor Sport
![Carl Edwards battles with Dale Earnhardt Jr at Daytona [Pic Credit Ford Media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/405809.jpg)
