Slidejobs

Watched the nascar race today and saw another boring Jimmy Johnson win on another cookie cutter mile and a half tracl.  Just brutal to watch.  Made me wish for the these guys to get on a mile oval and run 100 laps. Why? Well they are technically the best drivers in the world, but I love to see drivers throw it in their hardest and use every inch of the track to advnace a postion.  In other words...set em's up for a slidejob.

A slidejob is one of the funnest moves on a track for a spectator to watch, but it can also be the killer for a driver.  Many of late race passes are the result of a slidejob type of pass.  It can produce a last lap winner, a loss of position, or one hell of a wreck.  It is usally seen on track that have wide sweeping cornors and usually a bit of bank.  But this type of passing has made its way to the quarter to three eights size track and hae produced some hair raising moments.

The art of the slide job looks pretty easy to the casual observer, but it does take a some time to set it up. Normally, the car attempting to slidejob the front running competitor begins the move about mid striaght away.  The driverf takes the car a little high mid straight away and then dives into the cornor on the very bottom while the driver he is trying to pass is running the cushion.  Once the driver on the bottoms sets the car and gradually slides the car up to the exiting cornor cushion in front of the driver completeing the pass.
Now not all slide jobs are a sure thing.  Some drivers running the cushion can maintaine their momentum and just re-pass the car by simply going underneath the driver who completed the pass.  Some that do get passed wind up rear ending the other driver.  For an example, click on this link and watch the top 2 postion drivers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr1-0McXazw

Slidejobs require a lot of horsepower in order to hold the position after the pass.  The best thing about the art of a slidejob, is that it can resutl and an incredibly fun battle, but as I sated before, patience can where thin and they might wind up getting together and ending each of the drivers night.

Still makes for some fun racing.