whipplefilter:

Hello! <333

I mean, let’s not forget that, even as a car, Lightning had no concept whatsoever of what drifting was, much less how to pull it off. 😂😂

But I think aero, and therefore drafting, is less important in the Carsverse. Our racecars are so much more uniform than the Piston Cup field–even if we’re only looking at the Next-Gens and not the wild party that was the Piston Cup circa 2006. You can run whatever body shape you want. Forget restrictor plates or tapered spacers–you can run whatever spoiler you want, whatever air ducts you want, whatever splitter or no splitter you want!!! XDD Their Florida Superspeedway can’t run like our Daytona, or else everyone would be in the draft, and manipulating it would be the point of the entire race. Lightning himself says of drafting “I’ve never had to do that,” even though he’s the self-proclaimed instrument of speed and aerodynamics. 

But let’s look at that last lap of the Florida 500. Storm’s been way out front all race, and suddenly he’s got this girl drafting him. She’s benefitting from the draft, as is he (once they get together, you can watch them pull away from the rest of the field). So yes, Storm was going faster with Cruz behind him. But once they’d pulled away from the rest of the field this also meant his only race competition became Cruz, right on his butt, and drafting with Cruz doesn’t help him at all in getting away from Cruz.

Being the lead car in that situation also reduces his rear downforce, reducing stability; and Cruz being so close also leaves his rear-quarters vulnerable to a bump-and-run. It’s just a vulnerable situation to be in all around. When you’re the two cars in front on the last lap of a race, the rest of the field well behind you, Storm has to know that Cruz isn’t going to just sit back there in the draft for the rest of the race. All bets are off–it’s go time. If all he does his hold his line and let her stick behind him like that, he’s a sitting duck.

So he tries to put throw her off and put some distance between them so she’s not close enough to make a move. He knew he was the fastest car in the field without the draft; he knew it was the last lap. Cruz behind him wasn’t serving him at that point–only making him potentially vulnerable to her pass. And Cruz does, in fact, make her move to slingshot around him, which ultimately results in him slamming her into the wall, and we all know how that goes.

That being said, I do think there are certainly limitations to how you can train for the draft on a sim! But hey, Willy’s Butte can’t simulate the draft, or aero in traffic at all, and the sim can at least try. XD As far as the Florida 500 was concerned, though, I think Storm knew what he was doing.

Did he do it well? Uhhh. Well. XP 

Thanks for this fun ask!