WIX FILTERS ADVANCE INFORMATION FOR THE JULY 7 PEPSI 400 NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES RACE AT DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY.

In the summer of 2003, WIX Filters worked together to develop a cabin air filtration technology that would clean the breathing air supplied to the driver.

The result is a system in which air enters through an intake in the passenger side window and passes via a hose through the filtration system, where it is “scrubbed” of carbon monoxide by small catalyst beads. The scrubbed air passes through a WIX cabin air filter that captures soot, debris and fumes. The clean air then is cooled before entering the driver’s helmet.

Heat has traditionally been a factor in the Pepsi 400 and Saturday night’s race will be no exception. Crew chiefs Steve Addington and Gil Martin discuss the importance of the system in the race.

STEVE ADDINGTON, CREW CHIEF, No. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES CHEVROLET: “We run that system everywhere. It’s important every week we do that and we filters so he can have fresh air run an air conditioning unit in it. We run that every week so it’s the same at every place.” HAVE YOU NOTICED ANY DIFFERENCES WITH THE UNIT BETWEEN THE TRADITIONAL CAR AND THE CAR OF TOMORROW? “There hasn’t been a whole lot of difference. We’ve insulated the car, the driver compartment the same way in both cars. Now we were going to struggle when we had the exhaust pipes running through the frame rail their first design but after a couple of tests they saw that wasn’t going to work.” WITH THE TECHNOLOGY AT THE RESTRICTOR PLATE TRACKS, A STOCK WIX AIR FILTER IS IN THE MIDDLE OF IT ALL. “The WIX Filters that we have at Joe Gibbs Racing are great filters and they work with us. We’ve come up with a good combination with our cowl work and their filter work and everything and it’s worked out pretty good for us. It’s all about how efficient your cowl is and working on it when you’re in the draft. What we’ve found most efficient with testing and sensors and everything, the fuel-air mixture is what we go off of, the data that we’ve collected over the years.”

GIL MARTIN, CREW CHIEF, No. 07 JACK DANIEL’S CHEVROLET: “I think it’s more important for the July race, obviously, than it is for the February race because it’s so much hotter. And with the air that stagnant and heavy and humidity levels like they’re going to be there, carbon monoxide is always a big issue for us. The WIX Filter always does a good job for us. Clint is a lot fresher and safer at the end of the race and it clear headed. And when you’re running side-by-side at 200 miles per hour like that all day long you don’t need to have been breathing fumes all day long. That system really keeps that carbon monoxide out of the cockpit. We wouldn’t race without it.” HOW MUCH AIR GOES INTO THE CAR AT A RESTRICTOR-PLATE TRACK LIKE DAYTONA? “Well, unfortunately for the driver, we’re trying not to get any air to him because air to him usually is a detriment to speed for us. So the minimum amount of air we send through there has to be quality air because everybody is trying to evacuate air from the inside of the car, whether it’s legally or not legally how to evacuate it. Everybody is getting air out of the car at Daytona. The driver has to have cool, clean air coming into the car because there’s not that much of it. In the daytime the track’s a lot slicker for the cars and it handles a lot better at night but still, hot is hot and stagnant air is stagnant air.”