Everything is amplified during the Daytona 500; good and bad.
Austin Cindric may have won The Great American Race, but the Next Gen car was the star of the show. After almost three years of testing and development, the seventh generation NASCAR Cup Series stock car made its long-awaited competitive debut.
Sure, it was also showcased in the Busch Light Clash and the Bluegreen Vacations Duels, but performance isn’t really put to the test until points, and a shot at history are on the line. While superspeedway racing may not be the best indicator of what to expect with the new car moving forward, it brought attention to certain things.
Beginning with the eye test, the racing at Daytona International Speedway was riveting. Enhanced stability allowed aggressive maneuvers in the draft, making for a captivating event essentially start-to-finish.
It wouldn’t be Daytona without some carnage, and with it came a variety of shocking elements.
Following the first big wreck of the day on Lap 64 – which collected eight cars – one thing was evident: these cars are much more durable than the Gen-6 models. Harrison Burton suffered the worst damage after going airborne, and even then, it didn’t look that bad.
In one of the more shocking storylines of the race, Kyle Busch was also involved in the eight-car pileup and limped away with decent cosmetic damage. When it was all said and done, the two-time champion finished fifth with a shot at the win.
Had this been the Gen-6 car, it’s unlikely that Busch would have finished the race. For a track that’s so aero-dependent, it was a miracle he was able to salvage a top-10, let alone top-five.
This was mainly due to the new composite bodies built to withstand frequent contact. One of the main selling points of the Next Gen car was emphasizing more beating and banging. Seeing as Busch and a few other competitors were able to remain competitive with significant damage at a superspeedway, it could be an excellent forecast for less aero-dependent tracks.
But drivers shouldn’t get carried away.
“The Phoenix test and the last Charlotte test were an improvement from where everything was once we changed the engine rule and the downforce on the car,” Kevin Harvick told The Circuit Journal. “I think everybody knew from (testing) that the car was going to be pretty comfortable and stable.
“I think the suspension is a little less durable than we probably all thought it was from a certain contact.”
This season is going to be a constant evolution of trial-and-error. Many teams saw firsthand how sensitive certain areas are with the Next Gen car. As they continue to work through the learning stages of this process, competitors will have to weigh risk vs. reward through the first handful of races.
“A lot of us want to be more aggressive with this car because of the composite body,” Tyler Reddick told The Circuit Journal. “It’s not the body you’ve got to worry about running up high, it’s potentially bending that right-rear toe link. It’ll be interesting to see if some of that happens when we’re at Fontana.”
Speaking on durability, the new Goodyear tires had their definitive pros and cons throughout the Great American Race.
As showcased by Ryan Blaney after hefty contact with Kyle Larson early in the race, these tires hold up incredibly well. Both cars forged forward unphased and there wasn’t even a caution thrown, whereas in years prior there likely would have been a blown tire and huge wreck.
One glaring change that affected the likes of Reddick and Joey Logano was the absence of inner liners in the tires. Both drivers were involved in a five-car incident on Lap 152, but the pair of drivers only spun without making any significant contact with anything.
The issue here was that Reddick and Logano popped their tires and could not resume driving because the wheel was digging into the grass. Typically, in a situation like this, both drivers would be able to drive to pit road without losing a lap, but they may shred pieces of the front fender with the tire ripping apart.
The drivers could continue their race but lost multiple laps after track safety crews had to push them into their pit stalls for service.
“When you make a mistake, the penalty for spinning out is even higher now than it used to be,” Reddick said. “It’s just a new challenge that’s presented itself with this car. I don’t know if it’s necessarily a bad thing, because each driver’s got to manage the same thing.
“It’ll be interesting to see how that goes throughout the year or if something like inner liners are something they do going forward.”
To make things even more complicated, the Next Gen cars come equipped with underbodies, diffusers, and roadblocks to limit travel and prevent vehicles from being too low to the track. These factors aid in the difficulty of continuing a race after losing a tire.
Daytona 500 champion Cindric found this out after his celebration on the frontstretch left him and his No. 2 stranded due to blowing out the rear tires from a burnout.
In closing, NASCAR is ramping up the difficulty level of driving these cars as advertised. Drivers are constantly racing on edge, and many of these changes leave little room for mistakes. It’s wise not to look too much into what transpired at Daytona, but these are minor observations that could be something to keep in mind as the season goes on.
