After the full regular season what has changed with the next gen car? Lets start with what we see right away, the car numbers being moved. Remember when that was the talk of the town? This has no effect on the way it races so we will move past it. Lets get into one of the big differences we see every week, pit road. The new one lug, as a fan I still do not like this change. We’ve seen teams struggle with this for about 15 races with at least one or two teams losing wheels every week. They appear to have fixed that issue, as it has been weeks since the last wheel loss. One problem everyone has forgotten about was the 43 team not being able to get a wheel off at Kansas. Jones was having a top 10 run until they lost 7 laps because the wheel would not come off, What happened? The pit stops are now faster as well, so fast that they have to wait 2 or 3 seconds on fuel. I think the teams have almost got it down to be about the same pit time, which will lead to less spots changed on pit road.
The next gen car is high horsepower and low downforce, if you consider 670 Hp high. I think the racing would improve if they get to 750 Hp, but that opinion is for another day. The Car also has a 4 inch spoiler, which is about right IMO. Daytona, Talladega, and Atlanta will have a different package. the 6 pack races use a 7 inch spoiler and 510 Hp. The pack races have not changed much with the new cars. Until, and if Goodyear brings a softer tire to those 3 tracks pack races wont change much if any.
Lets get into the mile and a half’s. At the start of the year it looked like the new car was the answer to passing, but is that the case? I don’t think so, it seems the teams were just learning at the start of the year and once they figured it out it has been worse. They added a rear diffuser and there is some talk now of removing it from drivers, but NASCAR has said no such thing. They also raised the front of the cars off the ground but for every 1 thing that works 2 seem not to.
Lets talk about short tracks, they cant mess those up right? Well it looks like they did, passing at Martinsville was almost impossible. Richmond would have been the same if not for Goodyear bringing a great tire with lots of fall off. The Martinsville tire did not lay rubber of fall off, which needs to be addressed before the fall race. All the tracks shorter than a mile and a half have been worse because of the new car, why is that? One reason is the tires are wider, which is more grip. The 2nd and bigger reason is the New transmission in NASCAR. They moved to sequential manuals. Instead of the H pattern, They have one lever and you push forward downshift and pull it back to downshift. Why has this hurt short tracks more than other tracks? Short tracks are all about not hurting the rear tires, the new car has wider tires which helps that. The shifting also helps a bad handling car turn and power off the corner, making it harder for the faster car to pass.
The road courses have also been hurt by the new car. A Stock car used to be very hard to drive around road courses because that was not what they were designed to do. Now with this new car every change made them better to drive at road courses. The new Transmission, wider tires and a new independent rear suspension. The car does everything better, the brakes are better, it turns better and accelerates better. You may ask if it does all that better how did it hurt the racing? It took away the skill of doing it, its no secret that some guys had figured it out. Kyle B. MTJ and Chase were the 3 the seemed to be the best, this new car made it easier for everyone to drive the RC. Now the road courses are all about Track position and the skill comes in if the tires give up.
In closing the new next gen car can work, but it needs a lot of work. NASCAR has a ways to go, and to get to a on track product the fans and drivers like will take lots of changes. If NASCAR is willing to listen to the Drivers and fans, I see no reason why this car will not work out.
Image source: nascar.com
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