The first involved 19 cars. The second left Earnhardt dead. The loss of rubber wedges, known as ''bump rubbers'' was a surprise. Teams often start a race with bump rubbers in the front springs to reduce the amount of bounce in the front wheels. If the suspension is too rigid, it's relatively easy to remove a rubber and change the handling characteristics of the car.
Teams traditionally bring an engine for qualifying, an engine for practice and a race engine.
The teams with the richest budgets can afford to put a lot more work and a lot more money into their engine development for all three engines. They know a qualifying engine needs to last only a couple of laps, and a practice engine's only job is to keep miles off the race engine. Busch Series teams have been playing by the single-engine rule for two years. It's been regarded as a necessary change to keep the staggering costs under control. By limiting teams to one engine, they will have to find a better balance between speed for qualifying and durability for practice and the main event.