Just like anything else in the car that will allow Down Force. Take it off or loosen the Bolts.

A show was done on this exact lid not long ago and it was stated that a car that had the lip loosened or taken off, would allow the Car to have such Down force that it would Drive like it was stuck to the Track.

So go Figure why the 99, Edwards car was so good. I think the Win should be taken away in the future and these things will STOP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mel, Edwards car was good because, it’s an Edwards kind of track. The penalized part really wouldn’t offer a performance-enhancement of any kind. It had to do with the oil tank reservoir cover not being fastened securely, it’s nowhere near an aero-enhancement. He’ll be good again this weekend at Atlanta (three-in-a-row isn’t an out-there prediction). Take away the win!?! HA!! The penalized part here has no remote correlation to such a severe penalty, if he’s good, he’s good and people just have to deal with it. Also, your saying that Edwards should be made the example for a penalty that’s no where even in the nieghborhood to being as bad as others in years past, to top it off you didn’t even know what the penalty was. Hopefully NASCAR will not maintain the penalty, Edwards may have been rough around the edges at a few points last year, but I can say this, he IS NOT a cheater. No one should cheapen his ability or character with excuses, he’s just a great race-car driver!!

A show was done on this exact lid not long ago and it was stated that a car that had the lip loosened or taken off, would allow the Car to have such Down force that it would Drive like it was stuck to the Track.

So go Figure why the 99, Edwards car was so good. I think the Win should be taken away in the future and these things will STOP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As far as what it does, it helps evacuate air from under the car. The oil tank which is behind the seat sits in a box, that box has a lid on it because the oil lines run from the tank (inside the car) to the underside of the car and then to the engine, so without the lid on that box, air can come up through the openings for the line (heck entire bottom of box might be open I’m not sure) but anyway air comes up through the box from under the car and with the lid off it’ll help the car some because there would not be the air under the car creating lift/drag.

Howie might be able to explain maybe even show us with a pic of how exactly it is set up on the Cup/Nationwide cars, but what I said is a pretty good description based off what I have seen/read/heard in the past.

Either way, though, the fact is it was against the rules and could possibly have been a competitive advantage. It’s very suspicious to me that all these teams suddenly have problems with this specific part and I don’t remember anyone ever having a problem with it in the past…..

And to the people who reply and it comes up with somebody else’s name, the easy way to avoid that is to register.

Hmmm ….”Off” and “unsecured”. That’s making shades of gray now isn’t it. LOL

tampabbay99