Next Gen testing gives NASCAR drivers key time in new car
By Bob Pockrass
FOX Sports NASCAR Writer
CONCORD, North Carolina — The known is typically better than the unknown, and in that sense, drivers and teams likely feel better after two days of testing their new Next Gen cars on the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course.
Regardless of whether they were fast and whether they think some of the vendors need to improve pieces, at least they know what they’ve got and can set a plan in motion to be ready for the start of the 2022 season in February.
The test Monday and Tuesday featured more than 20 cars, all assembled by the teams. For many drivers and teams, this was the first time they really could get a feel for this car and the areas that need improvement or revision.
Prior to the test, NASCAR told the teams of three changes coming to the car, based on their crash test in which they had dummies in the car and remotely drove it down the pit road at Talladega and then up into the wall.
NASCAR will revise the front and rear clip after what it saw in the test. On the front clip, NASCAR has taken an existing cross member and basically drilled holes in the cross member. It has also modified one of the lower legs in the clips to have a little kick-in in it, all with the idea of allowing more deformation in a crash.
"The idea there is we’re trying to spread the deformation out over a longer period of time," NASCAR Senior Vice President John Probst said. "When we’re trying to work on the rear, it actually helps when you work on the front as well. So if we’re able to spread out the load earlier in the crash, it actually helps later in the crash."
The revision to the suspension parts is to alleviate concerns of them breaking easily in a crash. The new car has a composite body instead of a steel body, so it is created to withstand a little slap against the wall or another car better than the current Cup car. But the Next Gen suspension pieces appeared to have the potential to damage easily in a situation, taking away the benefit of the new body.
"There is a tremendous amount of energy that goes through them," Probst said. "We want to make sure they more bend than break. The update to them is to ensure when there is a wall impact, the failure is more of a bending mode than the snapping of the control arm."
As for the test, drivers struggled with a vibration in the steering racks. NASCAR said some of the issues revolved around set screws that were backing out.
Some teams just dealt with the issue because they felt it would take hours to fix, and at least one team felt it found an assembly process that worked better with the existing pieces. Corey LaJoie said he broke the same piece twice in the steering rack, which he said had some fundamental structural problems. He said the vibration was enough that you wouldn’t be able to steer the car and also shift and noted that the parts that broke would have taken him out of a race.
"When we come back to the oval [to test] in November and we’re going 40-50 mph faster, it might be a little bit concerning," LaJoie said. "So hopefully they have something figured out. ... You need a motor to make it go, you need brakes to make it stop and a steering rack to make it turn.
"And one of those three is not holding up their end of the bargain."
Lajoie said "if it was an easy fix, it would already be fixed by now" but also said, "everything else has been great."
The good part about having the big test is multiple teams can come up with potential fixes. And because the pieces eventually come from vendors, it’s not like one team would keep an idea from another in most cases.
"Some guys have it all the time. Some guys only have it some of the time," Hendrick driver Alex Bowman said of the steering rack issue. "We’re on steering rack four or five [at the test]. ... There’s a ton of smart people working on fixing it because obviously, we have to get it dialed in.
"It’s definitely been a headache. That is why we’re here to test."
Tyler Reddick said there were times when it was difficult to turn the wheel, as if it had no power steering or as if you were parallel-parking against a curb and hitting the curb.
For dealing with the issues of heat in the cars and the frame rails that developed in a previous test at Daytona, NASCAR had teams try a variety of measures, including a shorter exhaust pipe, ducts in the windshield, slits in the rear windshield and vents out the rear bumper.
Reddick, whose car was outfitted with many of the changes, said it was so cool outside that it actually was a little cold in the test with the changes.
Drivers said that when they do the oval test next month, there might be more indication of what type of changes need to be made because of the heat.
"You still have to get the things to where you’re not cooking turkeys inside the race car," Ryan Blaney said. "I think it’s close. I think they’ve done a good job of developing it, and that’s what all these tests the last two days ... is to try and work some of the bugs out."
As far as how the car drove, lap times were comparable to what teams had in the race with the current car Sunday. The horsepower for road courses and short tracks has been reduced from 750 to 670 for the Next Gen car, with the rear spoiler increased from 2.75 inches to 4 inches. Horsepower for tracks bigger than 1.4 miles will remain at 550 with an 8-inch spoiler, while the package for Daytona and Talladega is still to be determined.
"We’ll always want more [horsepower], but with the wider tire, you’re just able to carry more speed for the most part," former Cup champion Joey Logano said. "You drive in harder. You have bigger brakes. You drive in the corner harder, you have more mechanical grip with the bigger tire, you also have a softer compound than what we just raced here as well, so I think that’s some of the biggest things you notice."
Logano said one thing that was different were the aluminum blocks NASCAR has required to force some ground clearance and keep the undercarriage from hitting the ground and being damaged.
"When you hit those things, they’re hard," Logano said. "You see the race track, there’s a lot of scrape marks on the racetrack from everyone getting down on them and rubbing them, so how much can you wear off?
"There are so many different questions that we still have to answer from even just a rules perspective of what that’s going to be because I know when you land on them, it’s hard. You come off a curb and you hit those, it’s tied directly to your seat with no suspension in between it, and it hurts. It knocked the wind right out of you. Those things are no joke."
Knowing there will be changes, the question is whether teams gathered some data that won’t be relevant come February.
"The learnings that we’re going through right now, we’re really on the big knob," Team Penske competition director Travis Geisler said. "We’re not down to the little knob yet."
Geisler said it is OK to continue changing and scoffed at any thoughts that the timeline is too tight to be ready for February.
"We’d rather work through it now, get it over with and come out with a product at the beginning of the year that we can run with for the rest of the season," Geisler said. "It’s racing. That’s what we do.
"Timelines are for big business. We’re racing. They can tell us within a week, within a month, whatever it is. The key to it, in my opinion, is we all know it, we all have the same timeline, and we all react to it."
Drivers can either embrace the challenge or be miserable. Expect most to embrace it.
"It’s definitely going to be a steep learning curve and a big learning process," said former Cup champion Martin Truex Jr., who admitted he wasn’t sure if all the issues could be fully corrected by February. "Everything is so different on the car. ... We definitely learned a lot, and there’s going to be a lot more to learn.
"It should be fun."
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Playoff meter
What to watch for
Let’s get one thing out of the way: Don’t watch the All-Star race from June and think it is relatable to the event this weekend.
The all-star event had a different horsepower (510 rather than 550) and had only short runs. This race will be much, much different, and temperatures will be 20-30 degrees cooler.
Kyle Busch won a year ago at Texas and has four consecutive top-10s. The 1.5-mile races this year have been won (with the most recent first) by Denny Hamlin, Kurt Busch, Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney, Larson and William Byron. Kevin Harvick has three wins in his past six Texas starts.
That pretty much should be your list of favorites. Those drivers have seemed to have the best mix of horsepower and ability to use what draft is available on the intermediate tracks. But you can’t rule out Texas as a place where an upset can happen, as Austin Dillon won there in summer 2020.
Thinking out loud
NASCAR will use a different type of resin at Texas Motor Speedway this weekend than what it has used in past races there, as it moves to the type it had at Nashville and Michigan earlier this year.
This is a good move, as it seems the Cup cars react better to the more traditional resin, which is designed primarily to increase and accelerate the amount of tire rubber worn into the track.
The other formulated resin was more heat-activated and designed to try to help tires grip the surface, even without a lot of tire rubber on the track. When cars would go from areas not treated with the product to areas treated with the product, the cars seemed to get out of shape more frequently.
While trying something in the playoffs can create an unknown, the use of a traditional resin seems to be more predictable, and that’s a good thing.
Next Up: Next Gen
NASCAR has three organizational tests scheduled that should attract at least 20 cars. Those will be Nov. 17-18 at the Charlotte oval, Dec. 14-15 at Phoenix and Jan. 11-12 at Daytona.
The testing plan also includes tire tests at Atlanta hopefully next month, a single-car test at Bowman Gray to test for the Clash at the Los Angeles Coliseum (driver TBA) and a single-car test with Stewart Friesen at Wythe Raceway, a dirt track to get ready for Bristol.
NASCAR will have three additional organizational tests in 2022. They expect to do one at Las Vegas or Kansas before the spring races at those tracks, at Martinsville sometime following its race in April and at one more track still to be determined.
Social spotlight
They said it
"We’re scratching at top-5s to get there. That’s not fast enough. We’ll see what happens this weekend at Texas and see where we are speed-wise." – Joey Logano
Bob Pockrass has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s. He joined FOX Sports in 2019 following stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @bobpockrass. Looking for more NASCAR content? Sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass!
