Anyone who drives a car has at one time or another been at least momentarily blinded by the glare of setting sun.
Try having that happen at 150 mph.
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"I noticed yesterday in practice the sun was coming under the grandstands right in your eyes," said Rusty Wallace, who will join 42 of his NASCAR Nextel Cup competitors in today's Subway Fresh 500 -- a 312-mile (500-kilometer) race that will begin in daylight and end under the new lights at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale, Ariz.
The problem in Thursday's evening practice came between 6 and 6:30 p.m., which will be about one hour into today's race. Unless the day turns out overcast, as yesterday did, that could lead to problems.
"You're right up against the wall, and that was really touch and go," Wallace explained. "When you've got sunlight right in your face going into Turn 1, that's one thing. You know kind of what to expect. But when you're wide open in the throttle coming off [Turn] 4 and the sun is glaring in your eyes and you have to make a turn there, I think that's the tough turn."
It's just the latest sun problem faced by Cup drivers as NASCAR continues moving races into TV's prime-time hours on the East Coast.
"It will be a bit of a problem, but this race is not as bad as Darlington and Fontana," JamieMcMurray said. "At those tracks, the glare is real bad and lasts a lot longer."
Series points leader Jimmie Johnson is among the drivers who have mixed feelings about the trend toward starting races in the late afternoon.
"The reason I like it is because of the changing track surface," Johnson said. "I think that the more difficult you make it for the drivers and the teams, the better. You have to have those challenges." . . .
Greg Biffle survived an early spinout and grabbed another dominating victory last night, this time overpowering the field in the NASCAR Busch Series race at Phoenix International Raceway.
The former Busch Series champion and current Nextel Cup star won the Cup race last Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway and followed it with the win in the Bashas's Supermarket 200 on the mile oval at Phoenix, leading 112 of the 200 laps.
-- From News Services
