NASCAR's Black Boxes; Gary Nelson says all in due time; critics say not soon enough.(Brief Article)

True to form-in its own time and way, and with stony disregard for criticism-NASCAR addresses its safety issues. At Dover, in three divisions including Winston Cup, ``black boxes'' were quietly tested in competition for the first time. ``Seven cars, each one configured differently to gain an understanding of the impact data recorder. We're taking this one step at a time,'' Winston Cup director Gary Nelson told AutoWeek this past week in Kansas City. ``We look at this year as our evaluation, and next year as no excuses-we're going to have it right.''

With the Earnhardt report in August, NASCAR vowed to install black boxes across the board, starting at Daytona in 2002. Although impact recorders have been in Indy cars since 1993, Nelson says considerable work is required to adapt them to NASCAR. ``Stock cars are different in ways that you never know before you jump into it. We've talked to everyone in the different series that run them, and we came up with a list of unanswered questions, and we needed answers before we jumped in off the deep end. We've still got questions, but we're getting it narrowed down.

``We're evaluating designs from several manufacturers. Our way of testing is to put all the submitted boxes in one car and crash it and compare the data, and we've done that. We saw that all the units produce [similar] data. But that's the smallest piece of the puzzle. From there it comes down to all the criteria that are unique to us: the temperatures and vibration our cars produce, the length of our races. One of our criteria is no wires from the box to the car,'' said Nelson. Unlike other major series, NASCAR has been effective in banning electronic driver aids-outlawing all

onboard electronics, and it remains fearful of cracking the door now. NASCAR's unit will be sealed and self-contained.

One charge the black box can prove or disprove is one constantly heard since the recent fatalities: that the current cars are ``too stiff.'' That view holds that as chassis have been made more rigid in recent years to improve handling (especially between the front spring pockets and the roll cage), excessive impact energy is now being transmitted to the driver. ``I don't buy that,'' Nelson says. ``If you're going to roll over six times or if somebody runs into your door at 180 mph, you want something strong. ...