NASCAR rolls out rules package updates with goal of further increasing racing quality
June 9, 2016
Staff Report
NASCAR Wire Service
The numbers show the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series has featured some of its best racing in years this season.
Three
of the first 14 races set track records for green flag passes for the
lead – Atlanta (44), Auto Club (51) and Bristol (40) – a stat founded in
2005 that compiles lead
changes all around the race track while under green flag conditions.
In
addition, two races – the Daytona 500 and Phoenix – tied for the
seventh closest MOV since the inception of electronic timing and scoring
in 1993.
Furthermore,
there were 213 green flag passes for the lead at Talladega, six passes
for the lead shy of tying the record for most green flag passes for the
lead in a single
race (Talladega, 2013).
Many
of NASCAR's key figures attribute the aforementioned superlatives to
the new lower downforce rules package implemented in the NASCAR Sprint
Cup Series for 2016.
“It’s
(lower downforce package) great," 13-time Most Popular Driver Dale
Earnhardt Jr. said earlier this season. "Every week has been fun, fun,
fun. The cars are fun to drive,
slipping and sliding. It’s a good challenge and I’m enjoying it.”
In
Sunday's FireKeepers 400 at Michigan International Speedway (1 p.m. ET
on FS1), NASCAR will debut rules updates to further lower the downforce.
Decreasing downforce makes
the car harder to control and lowers speeds in the turns, thereby
creating a higher potential for passing.
Last
month, NASCAR added welded truck trailing arms and new brake cooling
guidelines to its rules package. On Sunday, and in the July 9 contest at
Kentucky Speedway, the sanctioning
body will update the rules package by reducing skew-generated sideforce
by setting the rear toe zero. It will also make three aerodynamics
package tweaks to lower aero-generated downforce and sideforce:
shortening the spoiler from 3.5 inches to 2.5 inches;
reducing the splitter to two inches; and resizing the deck fin to match
the spoiler.
“The
newer, more improved, less downforce side force package, that should be
really interesting," said Brad Keselowski, the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup
Series champion. "I heard
the top speeds were really, really fast but the corner speeds were down
which I think should provide a really good platform for side-by-side
racing and opening opportunities to pass. I think we are all really
encouraged by that. It is a huge variable for our
teams that they will all work through. I think it has a tremendous
potential to be the future direction for our sport. That is really
interesting and exciting to me personally."
"NASCAR
is doing what it takes, the teams are doing what it takes to go out and
figure out how to make this the best racing it can be," said Carl
Edwards, a 27-time race winner.
"This is going to be a blast. These cars, when you drive them sideways
at 200 mph, you're close to people and you're able to pressure them and
race like that, that's as good as it gets.
"I'm very excited about Michigan and Kentucky. It's like Christmas for me."
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