CONCORD, N.C. — In the most arduous test session since NASCAR began the development of its Next Gen car, teams took to the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval for two full days of testing on Monday and Tuesday. Across the 20 hours of total track time, a few truths emerged and some uncertainty arose. Let’s take a look at what we learned and what still needs to be sorted out.
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Who participated in the test?
Twenty-one different teams were represented across the two-day test. Because NASCAR limited how many cars from each organization could participate, some teammates shared a car — such as Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and Denny Hamlin and Bubba Wallace in the No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota. Among teams holding charters, only Front Row Motorsports and Live Fast Motorsports did not participate. Fox Sports reported Front Row opted not to participate, and Live Fast did not have a car ready.
For some drivers, like Kevin Harvick, it was their first laps in the car. Others, like Joey Logano and William Byron, have already taken part in tests. And for drivers who have yet to take a turn in the Next Gen car, either at the Roval or in previous tests, it’s expected most will do so in the next scheduled test at Charlotte’s 1.5-mile oval next month.
How is NASCAR working to reduce the heat inside the car?
After a test last month at Daytona International Speedway where drivers encountered issues with excessive heat — partially due to the ambient temperature in Daytona Beach in early September, though primarily due to the car’s construction — it became apparent that something had to be done to resolve this issue. In fact, the heat was such that rollbars inside the car couldn’t be touched with a bare hand.
On Monday and Tuesday, NASCAR utilized several measures in an attempt to rectify the problem, including cutting slits in the rear windshields, shortening the length of the exhaust pipes, installing cooling ducts in the front windshield (in the area where the rearview mirror is in a street car) and also ducts underneath the car to help move the air. Four cars, the Nos. 8, 18, 19, and 48, carried these modifications during the test.
Here is a close-up look at the slotted rear glass that is being tested to help address heat issues inside the car. pic.twitter.com/ksqn9nMP8X
— Josh Hamilton (@joshahamilton) October 12, 2021
It must be noted that it was noticeably cooler at Charlotte than it was in Daytona, skewing whether the changes had the desired effect. Still, optimism existed that NASCAR was on the right path. A better gauge will come in subsequent tests at Daytona, Phoenix and other warm-weather locales.
“I’d like to see a little bit better cooling inside the race car,” Ryan Blaney said. “It’s not been bad the last two days, it’s been kind of cool outside, so I haven’t really noticed that. You’re not baking in there; I know at Daytona drivers said they were. (Conditions) were a little bit different, it was hotter down there, but you still got to get to things to where you’re not cooking turkeys inside of the race car.”
Were there any on-track incidents?
Nothing deemed major where a team had to either stop testing completely or roll out a backup car. All the incidents that occurred were considered minor in nature, with the only accident of note happening when Chris Buescher made contact with the wall while going through the circuit’s infield portion. One of the benefits of testing on a road course, even one as unforgiving as the Roval, is there is more margin for error when a driver does push too hard and loses control.
We had a little oopsie pic.twitter.com/UipJS5VdYW
— Roush Fenway (@roushfenway) October 12, 2021
What was the main issue that cropped up during the test?
Several drivers encountered problems related to the steering rack, including that it was causing a vibration when they were on track. Alex Bowman referred to it as a “bit of nightmare.”
The issue seems to stem from set screws backing out of the assembly, necessitating multiple changes by some teams throughout the sessions. Had this been a race, teams certainly would’ve had to head to the garage for lengthy repairs.
“(Monday) morning I made a half lap in it, I had an issue,” Blaney said. “So we came and changed the steering box and everything and it was good for a couple runs. And then it kind of started going south again. A lot of vibration with it, mainly on the oval when you get up to max speed under load, and then it would slowly start losing power steering assist.”
Said Logano: “Name it. I don’t know where to start. We’ve had issues.”
These kinds of setbacks are expected out of a new car being put through its paces. This is, after all, why you schedule tests like these. The encouraging news is that teams and NASCAR are already working diligently to solve the problem. Late Monday, Team Penske brought an assembly back to its shop to dissect the root cause, and the result on Tuesday was fewer issues, Blaney said.
“You get these new parts and pieces and you try them out on these really wild racetracks and you’re going to have some issues,” Blaney said. “That’s why we have these tests to kind of sort out those issues.”
.@Daniel_SuarezG is out here absolutely wheelin' it in the #NextGen 💪 pic.twitter.com/MTHXS3jmeu
— Trackhouse Racing (@TeamTrackhouse) October 12, 2021
Do safety concerns still exist with the Next Gen car?
Safety has been a hot-button topic since NASCAR first introduced the Next Gen car, with some drivers expressing concern that the car didn’t absorb enough energy in an accident. There were even unfounded rumors that some crash dummies were decapitated during a controlled crash test at Talladega Superspeedway in June. Again, this didn’t happen, and NASCAR has soundly dismissed that this transpired. Yet the fact that these rumors were even out there and heightened drivers’ concerns about the safety of the new car says a lot.
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“You can look at one of these cars without a body on it and say this thing’s pretty stiff,” Logano said. “I mean, there’s a lot of metal and that’s probably where a lot of the (rumors) comes from, right, because just from the naked eye you’d say this thing is a lot stiffer than what we’ve got, which is good in some ways bad and others. I think after they crashed it in Talladega there’s probably some data back that that said we need to soften it up. But I don’t know all the details to speak on it.”
John Probst, NASCAR’s senior vice president of innovation and racing. said the car was performing as designed.
“I tell can you when we take a current car’s average crash pulse that we see today, what we ran at Talladega with the new car — even before we made the updates — the results from that are very much what you’d expect from the current car,” he said.
But while the crash test data NASCAR has gleaned thus far indicates the Next Gen car is structurally sound, that doesn’t mean more can’t be done to make it even safer. And on this front, NASCAR has made some modifications. Clips that better absorb energy have since been implemented for the nose and rear, while existing clips can be retrofitted. Tweaks to suspension parts have also been made so they’re more pliable, so they don’t snap upon contact.
The true test of the Next Gen car’s safety will come in a live, uncontrolled situation, such as Ryan Newman’s crash at Daytona in 2020 or Aric Almirola’s at Kansas Speedway in 2017: incidents where both drivers were involved in harrowing accidents but returned to competition after a relatively short recovery period.
“We will continue to make safety updates to the car whenever we feel we need to,” Probst said. “That won’t change with the new car, and we’ll test whenever we feel we have a significant upgrade that we need to correlate or quantify that all our modeling matches with what we expect the update to bring.”
Who was fastest?
The No. 19 car co-driven by Hamlin and Truex posted the fastest overall speed at 106.296 mph. How much should you read it? As Team Penske competition director Travis Geisler said, anytime a bunch of teams hit the track at the same time, even in a dampened competitive environment, the inclination is always to be the fastest. No one wanted to leave the Roval test toward the bottom of the speed chart, creating doubt over the direction they were headed.
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But it’s also important to reemphasize that this was merely a test. And the first test open to every organization. And every team had different objectives. And each team had various hurdles to overcome.
So speeds should be taken with a heavy grain of salt, especially considering there was no technical inspection and more changes to the car are forthcoming. Let’s give it some time before we start making any declarative statements on who’s fast and who’s slow.
What was one under-the-radar development to emerge from the test?
Teams can use chrome numbers if they so choose, and NASCAR approves. Yes, they may seem trivial considering the significance that is the undertaking related to the Next Gen Car, but this news garnered considerable positive reaction on social media.
The question of whether this would be allowed arose after Trackhouse Racing and Wood Brothers Racing had chrome numbers on their test cars. When NASCAR was asked by The Athletic whether this would be permissible in 2022, the sanctioning body said yes, provided the numbers are easily identifiable to the scoring tower and spotters and had a contrasting color behind them.
One glance at how Daniel Suarez’s No. 99 car looked sporting chrome numbers indicates that any concerns NASCAR has are easily remedied.
That chrome is looking 🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/wHwIDuUE5O
— Trackhouse Racing (@TeamTrackhouse) October 11, 2021
Where do things stand with the progress of the Next Gen car?
Multiple drives said the Next Gen car is close to being ready to compete on a road course in an actual race, if it’s not already at that point. No doubt an encouraging sign.
Throughout the development process, however, the concerns about the Next Gen car have not centered on how it would perform on road courses, as drivers who’ve tested it have largely praised the performance. What has folks within the industry apprehensive is how the car will do on oval tracks, a legitimate concern considering oval tracks make up the bulk of the Cup Series schedule.
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NASCAR, drivers and teams admit more work needs to be done to prepare the car for its February debut in the Clash exhibition race on the purposefully built short track inside the L.A. Memorial Coliseum. NASCAR has scheduled a robust testing schedule between now and then. As things stand, NASCAR is confident the Next Gen car will be ready for the much-hyped race.
“I’d say very comfortable,” Probst said when asked about the timeline.
What’s next?
Speaking of the testing schedule, NASCAR has several organizational test sessions on its calendar:
— Nov. 17 and 18 at the Charlotte oval
— Dec. 14 and 15 at Phoenix
— Jan. 11 and 12 at Daytona
Additionally, organizational tests are planned for next spring at Martinsville Speedway, and either Las Vegas Motor Speedway or Kansas Speedway. Also on the docket at an unspecified date are tire tests at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C. (to prepare for the Clash on a similarly configured track as the Coliseum), Wythe Raceway, a half-mile clay track in Rural Retreat, Virginia (to prepare for the dirt race at Bristol Motor Speedway) and at Atlanta Motor Speedway, which is undergoing a repave and reconfiguration.
Has NASCAR given any indication about the 2022 rules package?
Yes, NASCAR did just that on Monday. On short tracks and road courses, the package will consist of 670 horsepower and a 4-inch spoiler. On intermediate tracks, the package will consist of 550 horsepower and an 8-inch spoiler. The package for superspeedway races at Daytona and Talladega will be determined during the January test at Daytona.
Related reading:
NASCAR’s Next Gen cars: Ford, Chevy and Toyota show off new model designs
Gluck: NASCAR’s new Next Gen car marks a key moment for stock car racing
Toyota: NASCAR’s new Next Gen car will bring ‘sustainable’ team ownership, closer production model look
(Photo: Bob Leverone / Getty Images)
