Changes are on the way to the NASCAR Next Gen racers, including the Chevy Camaro ZL1, as the sanctioning body announced a new rule package for the Cup Series races on short tracks and road courses as per a recent report from NASCAR.com.
The new rule package specifically addresses aerodynamics in order to make racing more competitive at short tracks and road courses. Changes will go into effect for the Cup Series race at Phoenix Raceway on March 10th, 2024, where the Next Gen race cars underwent a test session in December.
The most significant change applies to the rear diffuser, which has been made simpler and does not have as many strakes as the 2023 models. This helps cut downforce at the front of the vehicle by keeping the engine panel free of strakes, while the package retains the splitter stuffers from 2023. However, the loss of downforce will be mitigated by a slightly taller rear spoiler, which is now three inches high rather than two.
Dr. Eric Jacuzzi, NASCAR vice president of vehicle performance, said that the December Phoenix test session was inconsequential to the new packages.
“One of the things going into the Phoenix test, we said, ‘let’s do a simplified diffuser,'” Jacuzzi said. “‘Let’s see what it does when we put it in traffic,’ and what we actually found was it appeared to be an improvement. Then another interesting effect was that it did not lose rear downforce when it yawed, which is an issue we fight with the current car. So we felt that the car, the drivers would be able to slide around more on the short tracks and really have to be less careful about putting power down.”
He added, “We felt that would be a benefit, and that was the big takeaway from the driver feedback. At the test, they felt they could really tell that it was more forgiving. They felt they could slide the car, not crazy but certainly much more than they regularly could without having a performance penalty.”
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Comments
It’s been noted, this generation of cars, are very hard to drive. That break out so easy. This causes way to many unnecessary crashes. Nascar needs to figure out how to keep that from happening. Most drivers will say, these cars a terrible mess to drive. Nascar has along way to go to bring back the fans that have left. Racing in not fun to watch anymore.
it is not just the cars. It is also the changes to the races itself. The “segmented” races ruined it. It is like 3 races in 1, instead of 1 race. Plus the drama, including Bubba Wallace noose they “found” in the garage(that was there for years) that turned out to just be a garage door pull rope. Plus the fact that the younger generation has no interest in these bigger cars. They are into their smaller “tuner” cars.
Well, at least for now. There hasn’t been much said about EV NASCAR. So, I’ll probable still watch the Cup Series.
Isn’t NASCAR racing a contradiction?
Is NASCAR still around? It’s been years since I watched a race. Nothing but a boring bunch of wrecks with little kids driving. Spoiled brats.
When NASCAR stops designing race cars and engines the racing will get better.