I Tested an ARCA Car at DAYTONA! (It wasn't what I expected)

So, we're driving to Daytona for the Arca test and I'm going to drive in it and we're somewhere in South Carolina. We just booked it to friend of ours, the the Sigma hauler's on the way down there. We spent a lot of time around them when we were working on my car at GMS cuz they were working out of the GMS fabrication shop. Should be Jerry driving that thing. I don't think he knows we're back here, but we'll pull up next to him and see if he'll honk at us. So, Dina said to be in the credential line at 5:30. They open at 6:00. It's 5:31. And we're the second people here. I think the employees just showed up. So. >> I think cuz she just carried in a a box of stuff, so yeah. Yeah. >> That'll be like credentials that they just got from like NASCAR. Who can't say we don't follow instructions. We were here only 10 minutes ago. Yeah. This is so strange to be here to drive something. It's just very different. Everyone's got their story of when they came through the tunnel and saw the track and all that. Well, here's where we're going to go through the tunnel. I have this film you with the tunnel. Yeah. Yeah. Feel a lot better if you clean the windshield. Yeah, we don't need to do that very much. The washer fluid tank on this truck has been cracked since I got it and I never fixed it. I just learned how to deal with having crud on the windshield. Got used to it. I don't even think about not having the ability to use the wipers to clean it off. Like it'll fog. It's crazy. It's really cool. I don't know if these people are following me cuz they think I know what I'm doing cuz I don't. I'm just meandering about. And I think we'll eventually we'll get to the garage area, which is somewhere over there. Okay, we have a sign that says Arca that helps. How are you doing today, Mitch? Good. How about you? I heard you talking about something falling off. Is that on the way today? >> I had Elmer just checking the belts on them to make sure they're where they need to be. One thing you can do this morning, you need to get in line at some point. You need to get all your gear checked. Okay. Um, do that. Um, and that's pretty much the only thing I can do to the plan is for you today. If this thing drives halfway decent, I'm going to probably put you in this for some laps. Cuz we're going to run these kids through this one today and then if we have room, we'll fit you in today. But, that's what I'm going to get some laps in this today. Okay. >> So, me and you will kind of be sharing my car. Okay. Okay. Cool. This is Logan. Nice to meet you, Logan. Nice to meet you. I'm glad you could come. Have they given you a transponder yet or no? Yep, I have my transponder. When he goes down and once you get uh your gear checked, then you will get weighed and then they give you your transponder. Okay, where is that at? >> It's right here at the scale. They're all There's a line sitting right down there. Good morning. Morning. Hi. This is Logan. Hi, Logan. Welcome to the 224, miss. 224? Uh, when you're all wrapped up for the weekend, you'll keep this if you're doing it multiple days, but whenever you're done testing, you just want to bring it back here and check it in for you. Okay. Thank you. Yep, you're welcome. So, I just got out of the drivers meeting for all the people who have never been here before. They're going to take us around in a van with a veteran driver to show us what the surface looks like and explain things. So, that's what I'm waiting for now. A truck in the back says Michigan on it. That's a long way from home. Just whatever you're doing, be consistent and that'll help your guys for to know what kind of speed you got in your car. Um and try to shift at the same place, get up to speed the same way. If you look right here at the Sunoco sign between the two yellow lines or the white dashes, anywhere after this is where you can blend up. You got all this area though where you can get up to speed and blend up. There's a lot of room here. You got mirrors. Use your mirrors. Use your spotter. They'll get you across the track. If the back is coming and you pull up right here, they'll probably still catch you at some point. So, don't think you're going to go back to the bottom of the racetrack and stay in front of the pack. It just causes a wreck. So, the front of the first lap, couple laps or whatever you have to do if you want to get into a pack, stay up around the top. If you're going to join the pack, stay up like this and the pack will come by you underneath and you just fill in in the backside. Um track's really smooth. No big surprises here. Our drive is really good. Can get a little bit loose here off of four. Seen her spin brakes there. As you merge, just merge slowly. You don't have to yank the wheel here. They have As everybody knows, most Arca races are right around the yellow line. So, you're going to do a lot of racing right here. If you're following people closely, one of the sketchiest things we do here is entering the turn because you can't see where you're at. So, you're driving along here and you don't know for sure where you're going to turn in and if you turn in and hit that yellow, you go up. So, just be Make sure you're very aware of where you're at entering the turn and not hit the yellow dots or the yellow line because it will shoot you across the track or spin you out. Both are bad. But, like I said, you're going to spend most of your day right here. Um but don't be doing this. Be careful. Don't touch the apron here. You do it, see how it wants to do you. It's just really uncomfortable. Just so, stay off the yellow line. The corners, they steer themselves here. The tri-oval does it. So, that's where you usually have the incidents in the tri-oval. So, if you're like I said, drafting, hand out the window, waving, use your spotter. The hand out the window a lot of times will get my engine. But, all the way down to here, start rolling out of gas, pumping your brakes. And just remember you are running it a lot faster than what you think. And you'll see what the problem to the entrance here what it feels like. It feels like the track is decambered. Feel that? So, you just want to be aware of that because you don't want to go back up on the racetrack. So, come down for pit road to pit. Just before the Sunoco sign, there's a yellow line. That's where the pit road speed starts. There's a yellow line just after the other Sunoco sign where it stops. This is where we catch most people is right here because they're still you're still going 100 mile an hour and I think thinking that you're barely crawling because you've been out there been doing 180. And if you do come on pit road and you missed, you say, "Holy I'm going way too fast." Don't panic. Yeah, let off the brake pedal, let the car take its head. You'll be coming down pit road. They'll yell at you said for going in and the next time you'll do better. So, but if you start to lock [clears throat] your brakes, as we all know, you'll spin out and you'll be out in the middle of grass. Thank you, Frank. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Just remember coming into pit to the garage area, you bear left and you bear left coming out. >> Yep. You pull the handle. Yep, you're good. Well, that was helpful. Although, I think my new guy obligations are over for a little bit because Willy's going to run the car. So, we'll we'll see what he's doing. There's Willy going out for his first run. What Willy was talking about before is this the a fresh car. They just redid everything and it's got some kinks they're working out. Hello. What are you doing? We're trying to create a dance. And we're I'm courting other cars to see if they want to dance with Bryce and everyone's like, "I don't want to do it yet." Uh, like draft? >> Yeah. Oh. Everybody's like, "Uh, I'm checking out my car still, you know, I'm doing this. I'll wait after lunch." I'm like, "Okay, that's safe." But, like, you know, let's get it going. What's going on with Willy? Um well, I'm pretty sure one of the ducts hit the the floorboard and it was like getting hot and that's why it was smoking. And also, the clip had fresh paint, so that might have been part of why it was smoking. Oh, it was burning off the headers. Yeah, so but he gets paranoid. Willy's paranoid. Dude, you have to be. If you're not paranoid, you end up with a a big problem. Yeah. You're Tony? Yep. I'm Mitchell. Yeah, about doing the O'Leary Bros stuff. The the guy who runs the place there wanted to do it, but the corporate legal team said no. I don't know. I was really excited about that. That sucks it didn't work out. >> But, when we found out you were going to be here, I was like, "Oh, hell yeah, that's awesome." We wanted to do something with you anyway. What have you been doing? I've been sorting out Today, uh, sorting out between the two cars trying to get both of them, you know, the best they can be. We got that one over pretty good with the, you know, guy who's running the car. We picked Willy up a little bit, but we need to get more. We got some still got some ghosts in the car. We're getting the ghosts out. Are you going in the right direction? Seems to be. We picked it up, but we're just chiseling at it right now. We haven't made no big gains. Couple small gains. Change in the balance is uh I think I had all the heights screwed up on it. I had a little wasn't making any RPMs. It's making about 9,200. What do you call those? Pre-diarrhea triangles. That's Mooresville talk down here. So, the first thing we're doing on the pull down rig is we're pushing each corner up to make sure the travel, the ball joint doesn't bind up, your tie rod end, everything works correctly on your travel of each independent component and then we pull the car down at that point. So what is the 10 mm in race world that always disappears? Is that going to be a 3 I thought you'd say 7/16 anything. I was going to say 9/16 or 3/4. Anyone other there? No. Do you need somebody under there? >> I need somebody to catch that. >> Okay, I'll catch it. Just don't record anything. So we're going to point this at the floor. Yeah, as long as it's floor I don't care. >> [laughter] >> But you may be in this at some point too, miss, just so you know, cuz I might be making changes and just need an idiot to go ride it around, so Okay. >> be that idiot. Okay. Yeah. Just tell me what to do. I'll go do it. >> You go down the straightaway and you turn left when it turns left [music] and you bring it back around. That's how hard it is to drive around Daytona. Okay. Yeah. Am I going to have to provide any feedback or is that all the stopwatch? Uh, pretty much as long as you hold the gas pedal, don't touch the brakes. That's all you got to do. That's really easy. That's That's what I did on the way here. Yeah. Willie's a little bit of an idiot savant, right? What he does know is like unreal. Him takes him building race cars, he's like second to none. Now, he can't remember how he takes his wings, how he takes his steak. He can't remember where anything goes in our kitchen. We live in We'll take a race car for one time you can put a bathroom. I wonder if there's no room for any of that stuff. He's got everything else occupied. So what do you want me to do? Go ahead and get in it and start getting ready for the your laps. I'm just a dummy so you can work on it without climbing in and out. >> Exactly. Is that what Okay. If I'm here to help, that's what I'll do. Okay. I want you to understand that no one has been in this car longer than the him. I'm here as far as I'm concerned, I'm here to do a job which is make it easier for him to work on it as opposed to climbing in and out. So I will do exactly what you tell me to do and make your life easier is my goal here. Is Willie going to be on the radio with you? You've got to start We've got, you know, Davey has tested here a bunch of times with us. Ready? Yeah, let's see if I can get in there. We got two little bitty guys that were this tall with the other car and then we got the Jolly Green Giant over this one. >> The Jolly Green Giant. How's the wheel? He's going to get some foam right now. Okay, I have my seat insert. I don't know how much of a pain in the butt it would try to be to stick it in here. Eight. It's more of a George seat, but I don't know. It's not the same insert. Eight doesn't look like it would be easy to do. >> No, cuz this has got this extra thing back here that would push me way too far forward. This whole web system down here is not something I've ever My own system doesn't do this, so this is a little bit different, but other than that it's fine. I feel like I got miles of headroom in here compared to my own car. If you were in this car, I don't think your helmet would look so beat up from getting in and out. No, my helmet looks like a dang football helmet cuz I have to put it on before I get in the car or I have no movement to put the stuff on and it hits everything on the way in and out. And then people ask, "Why don't you paint that helmet?" Cuz I beat the I beat it immediately. I love the old Hurst shift ball from like 1974. Well, you you you've seen Willie's shop. Oh, yeah. No, this is cool. Yeah, that was probably out of one of his drag cars. He won't throw anything away. He's like, "I'll find use for it one day." I would do this on purpose. I could put the shift ball from my personal Can I get you to So on the bottom side of this one here, you might have to pull this wheel off. The nut is on the backside. Just loosen it up a little bit. >> Okay. I can't I can't get around it from this side without climbing all all the way across you. There you go. >> Thank you, Willie. Sorry I was All right, cool. Put it Put it where you want it. Yeah, that's better. That looks a lot better. I like 90/90. That's kind of where it's good. So once you If you can get that side snug, once you get out, we'll get down in there and get it. Are you excited? Yeah. Does it feel real yet? No, not really. It probably won't feel real until I'm going down pit road, going through the gears and I'm like, "Wow, I'm going to go out there and I'm going to floor it and nobody's going to yell at me." Actually, that's They would yell at me if I didn't do that. So that's that's different. That'll I'm interested to see how it feels after I go do it and we check back in. Mhm. I'm not going to be at the top of the board or anything cuz they're still ironing stuff out, but I'll be in real fast just check that one. You know how to adjust these properly? I want to make sure it's not too loose. All right, turn your head to the right all the way. All the way. Yeah, that's just the shoulder. All right, go back to center. All the way. Got to see my wristband. I got my wristband, guys. Did they put the transponder in? Yes. Yeah, you'll drive it up there to the officials to get your spoiler checked. Yeah, road is clear, so come on and roll straight out and hang a left right after that fence and park it right there one of those stalls for a second. Take a deep breath. I think below that yellow line, so exit at turn two. Exit at two, you'll see a broken line. You can go ahead and blend up from there. Nice grip on the wheel, no big tugs. 5282 last lap. 5282. Moves around a lot more than I thought it would. When the bank and flattens out, you'll feel the car settle a little bit, so prepare for that with the wheel. Crosswind's picking up pretty good. You'll probably feel that on the back stretch. Just kind of put it over the brake, but don't touch it. Say hi when they get to me, right? Yeah, they're probably in Lap about five or something. Hold your line. You want to get wide to be able to make this turn. All right here at this road next time. You'll go to the left right here. Kind of circle back to the garage. Pick up feet every lap. Can't ask for much more than that. Brad said it's natural to have it turn off four line now. Yeah, the banking transitions so fast that it just kind of takes you down there. It really does. It's uh Well, I got a lot to say. Just hang on. I will say that anybody that's ever watched this on TV or thought about or seen it in car camera and been like, "Yeah, it looks like they're just cruising in there." What you see and what the track is shaped like is not one-to-one with what you are doing with that steering wheel to not keep this car where it's supposed to be. It's like you're turning right to go left and the air moves and you're like you're driving when there's nothing there. It's uh The strangest part is when you come out of the banking. And when you're up there, it's like a wall. And the first time you go into it, it's like everything goes like And then you kind of just going through the turn like This is weird. And then you get to the end and the banking comes out and then the car just like item done. And then you have to bring it back in. And then by that time you're at the tri-oval and you're like Okay, it's enough to do that thing again. You go to the turn and then it makes a little more sense that time. And then you come out of four and it feels like you hit a spot on the wall that has a electromagnet that just takes your car and goes, "You're going to come this way now." And you're like What's that? And then you come back out and you're like, "That was weird." As you go around more and more, you're like, "Okay, this is starting to make sense. I know what wheel and what needs to happen." When it does unload, you kind of go like this and then it comes down and you're kind of like this and then like that and then like that to go straight. It's like countersteering. Yeah, it really is. It is you have to like unplug what you're feeling all over and just say is the car going straight? Is it headed where I want it to? Yes or no. Everything else, disregard that. Drive the car. So, Doc Hudson's advice works? Strangely enough, it does. Except you don't get that cinematic slide. It just looks like you're off for a cruise on the interstate. Uh It's funny cuz like realistically they do look so damn slow. Like this is funny. >> but in there you're like, "Oh, wow, that was weird. Oh, this is weird." And then after a while you're like, "Yeah, I'm I'm having fun for about three laps." And there is zero air flow inside that car. Not I'm not hooked up to a helmet hose or nothing. And that's when I was like, "It's getting really hot in here." And uh I don't want this heat to impair my judgment or like sweat to fall in my eye or something. I don't know what I don't know. It's already requiring a whole different set of There's like a lot of people on the track now. Like more than there was like ever at one time I feel like. Yeah, they probably all saw me and they're like, "All right." Well, they're like drafting and stuff. How did it feel when that pack caught you? It didn't really do anything to me. I think they were high enough and then It's It was the same feeling on the short track Once they were in front of me and you had that spatial awareness like, "Okay, there's other vehicles out here. They're doing the same thing as me." Everything kind of slows down a little bit. >> How did that feel compared to the first time you did this? Honestly, it's kind of the same. Like you feel that this car is is set up in a way that it's skewed the opposite direction. So, the rear end is like moving. It's like almost independent to whatever the front does. So, when you turn, it takes like a like a half a second for the rear to do whatever the front does. And feeling that disconnected like it's like, "Oh." Like am I loose? Yeah, or what is it? It feels like It doesn't like You think, "Okay, I got my steering wheel. I'm a car. This is a straight road. It's just going to go where I point it." No, it does not do that. It does not do that. You are you're driving.…