Drafting is an art. The most important thing for two cars to work together is smoothness. Some drivers can't be pushed because they either can't hold a line or a just too jerky, also known as being a "keyboard driver"! If you come up behind someone in practice on a superspeedway who is smooth, stay behind them and show you can hold a line and aren't crazy. That way you both gain confidence in each other and then you can slowly start to work the bump draft. If there is only a car that finds it hard to hold a line, practice pushing them and just try to reach another car or tandem and then ditch them, as you just can't be fast or productive with some drivers.

The key to speed with drafting at iRacing at the minute appears to be to behind full lined up behind whoever you are pushing, you can hit around 201mph at Daytona on the back stretch as a 2 car tango if you are lined up well. If you are out to the right getting air whilst pushing you will probably be running at around 194-196mph, if driving the A class Impala.

There are times when a 2 car tango will pull up beside me and my drafting partner and immediately you can hear the pitch of the motor change and as a 2 car tango it feels like we start to slow down. I believe we probably speed up, just not as much as the tandem coming up from behind with the momentum.

Side drafting works both ways. Side drafting helps both cars compared to riding around by yourself. However, in a nose to tail tandem if the pusher pulls out both cars slow down, with the lead car losing more. What the trailing car should do is run as close to the lead's door until the speed differential is high enough where he can pull off laterally, keeping his momentum and speed advantage, while taking away the side draft of the former lead car.

Whether part of the mechanism is "packing air" somewhere or not, the effect is the same. The lead car loses more speed than the trailing side drafter.