I notice in the Daytona Shootout the cars were always in pairs with a pusher
With the current design of the cars, two cars lined up together in a draft are faster than a line of cars with the difference in speeds sometimes as much as 10mph gain. Previously the surface at Daytona, with its bumps and rough surface, would make handling an issue after about 10-15 laps so this effect did not come into play. However, with the new surface it now holds true the same way it was at Talladega.
The front and the rear bumper of the NASCAR COT now line up where one car can stay in constant contact with another without causing any lift on the rear tires. Because the cars are so close together the aerodynamic effect called the draft is more pronounced than in previous years. This makes the pair faster as the second car does not have any wind resistance. One danger of this maneuver is that the engines can overheat as no air is entering the radiator of the car pushing. Since the Shootout was run in temperatures of around 40 degrees the engines were not getting overheated, but the Daytona 500 will be run during the day so the drivers will need to be very careful to get air over the front of their cars to keep from blowing their motors.
Not anymore. NASCAR just told the crews to adjust the PSI on the radiators of each race car. This will force the cars NOT to pair up for a long time. They'll over heat. After the Duals they will go to a bigger Restrictor Plate, I bet my life on it. The cars were pushing 206MPH in the shoot out. NASCAR likes to keep the speed at Daytona under 200MPH. They like the speed at 190-195MPH
