A hot topic in the NASCAR community currently is the race series’ new Gen 7 rules package, which is expected to be introduced for the 2021 Cup Series season.
There are two things NASCAR hopes to achieve with its new rules package. First, it wants the cars to be relevant to the production vehicles they are intended to resemble. With purpose-built tube frame chassis and wildly expensive and ridiculously powerful engines, a NASCAR Cup Series car has very little to do with a road car. This is something the sanctioning body wants to change, though it’s not clear how it plans on doing so.
The second thing NASCAR hopes its Gen 7 car will do is reduce costs. Roger Penske, who runs a highly successful four-car Chevrolet IndyCar team, recently said NASCAR should look to the open-wheel series for inspiration for the Gen 7 car and cost control. IndyCar has managed to reduce its costs for a season of racing to around $3-4 million, which is just a small percentage of what it costs to run a Cup team. This has allowed IndyCar to attract more teams and also garner interest from new OEM manufacturers.
“You can run a team [in IndyCar] for $3-4million, depending what you’re paying your driver,” Penske told Motorsport.com. “The compact schedule, the fact we’re not spending the money and developing the cars like we are in NASCAR, where – with the changing rule packages – we’re building new cars every week. [With IndyCar] we can do a lot of little things to it, then it comes down to the driver and the strategy.”
Unlike NASCAR, IndyCar teams have very little areas of the car they are able to develop themselves. Teams are able to develop their own dampers or work with a supplier to engineer the ideal damper setup, but other than that, teams are mostly limited by setup work and driver skill. NASCAR frequently changing the aero package from race to race also drives costs up for teams.
“In NASCAR it’s $20-30m to compete [in Cup for a season], and [in IndyCar] to compete it’s $3-4million plus driver salary, but to compete at the top level, it’s closer to $7, 8 or 9 million. But even if it was $10 million, that’s still a third of that [in NASCAR Cup],” added Team Penske boss Tim Cindric.
If NASCAR can get costs down for teams with the Gen 7 package, it may prevent losing another team like the championship-winning Furniture Row Racing and could even attract a new OEM outside of Toyota, Ford and Chevrolet.
Source: Motorsport.com
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Comments
NASCAR runs twice the amount of races as Indy Car. NASCAR runs more different types of tracks. I enjoy both Series, but neither as much as 30 years ago. Both Series seem to have empty stands today. They should both look back where they came from.
I’m not understanding more different types of tracks. NASCAR has 3 road courses and the rest ovals and several ovals they visit more than once. INDYCAR races on the same types of ovals and the rest are road courses and street courses. The street courses are far bumpier than anything nascar races on.
I think the cost saving that are being talked about a spec car (Chevy, Ford, Toyota). All with the same Oem aero kit And engine of their choice, but all Oems run the same chassis, with same brakes, computers, Transmissions and so on. That’s where the savings are.
Just because it is heavily ovals do not assume that an oval is an oval is an oval. Martinsville and Bristol are both right at a half mile, but you cannot find two more different tracks. Bristol has higher banked turns which assist the cars to turn while maintaining speed. While Martinsville is almost flat and the amount of braking needed to make it around the turns is so high that they had to replace the inside lane with concrete because the asphalt could not hold up to the strain. Many are 1.5-mile tracks but each has its own different characteristics.
Whenever there are major rules changes it costs the teams money, and eventually some teams drop out. The most likely effective path to save teams money is to cut the number of events, but this would be at the expense of NASCAR, ISC, and Speedway Motorsports unless they can replace the lost races with something else. The cup schedule use to be 30 races without specials, maybe going that way first and reducing the rule changes will maintain the car and spectator count. Reducing the cup schedule would enable drivers to do more barnstorming at the regional level which the old school drivers like to do to build recognition and a fan base. Also helping to rebuild the regional short tracks as well.
rubbing is racing and now aero it too important in NASCAR preventing the drivers from getting to close and bending the sheet metal. get rid of all the aero downforce and depend on the tires to keep the car on the track. get the air going under the car not over the car holding it down to the track. aero downforce was done so the less talented drivers could run with the better drivers. racing is passing and that is why the fans want more short tracks where there is action all around the track as now the only action is on restart on the longer tracks
Anything to make the Camaros faster will help!!!!!
This is not racing!!! Making it easier for lesser teams and drivers to compete is pathetic!!! Having better equipment is what racing is all about.
I want to see the rule book open up not be closed more
This is the same Penske who is currently pushing for guaranteed spots for regulars in the Indy 500. Claiming the cost makes it imperative that full season cars be guaranteed a spot in the 500. He praises Indy Car cost cutting with one side of his face then turns around and complains about Indy Car cost out of the other side of his face.
Set the rule book in the off season, then let the teams build cars based on that. Then if a team or manufacture has a clear advantage then so be it!!! It just means that they worked harder over the offseason. And those teams should not be penalized for it!!!
This type of thinking is ridiculous, if your a race fan and you stop watching or going to the races because one team or manufacture wins all the time then your not much of a fan of the sport.
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