Jeff Burton explains how internet outage at Gateway affected Cup Series teams

Jeff Burton provided some fascinating insight into one of the biggest storylines from last weekend’s NASCAR race at Gateway.

During the race there was an issue with the internet at the track, rendering teams and media members handicapped throughout the event. Burton equated the issue to a driver losing power steering, and explained the impact it had on the race.

“I kind of equate it to power steering,” started Burton. “So we used to race without power steering, and now that you have it, you can’t do without it. Because you build everything around it. So you hear a guy say, ‘Hey, I’ve lost power steering,’ a lot of our old school fans are like, ‘Well, just man up and drive it. You know, Cale Yarborough used to do it.’ Well that car was built to drive without power steering. Once you start relying on power steering, it allows you to do things that you couldn’t do before. So now the driver almost literally can’t turn the car. It’s not because he’s not as strong as the guys were in the 70s, it’s because the car won’t let you. So it’s a lot like that.

“When you have these tools, like SMT data. So the crew chief can literally look and see what his driver’s doing in the car with his feet, with his hands. Where are you slower, where are you faster. You use the tools to help make the next change. Now the only thing you have is the driver’s word. Well sometimes the driver’s wrong. Not at what he’s feeling, but where he’s really getting beaten on the track. Where he really needs speed.”

Alas, it makes sense why it was so difficult for some drivers last Sunday now. Continuing, the NASCAR veteran turned analyst provided some more context on the system.

“When you have all that data, you can simply — you’re able to look and say, ‘Okay, this is our slow spot. This is our good spot,’ and then tell the driver why, how, what. Simple timing and scoring. Like the simple ability to know what your speed is compared to other people. Where you’re getting beat. The connectivity back to the shop, where all the teams have the ability to help build the strategies, and on a day where strategy mattered,” added Burton. “We saw people take two, it didn’t work for most. We saw people stay out. We saw people pit. Now you’re doing all that on the fly. Which we used to do. But our systems were built to do it that way. That’s systems are built to have all this help. Have these resources. Now you’re flying in a completely different way than you were before. So it had a major bearing on the teams.

“It had a major impact on what changes you were making, and how you were making them, and that’s okay. It’s not like we didn’t have a race. But it did change, in a great way, the way teams were communicating with their drivers and building strategies throughout the day.”

Hopefully the rest of the season features less spotty Wi-Fi than we saw at Gateway. Slow internet really sucks when you’re trying to binge watch a television show, but it must suck even more when you’re rip-roaring around Gateway at 150+ miles per hour.