nascar” target=”_blank”>NASCAR< this season after 17 teams hit the track at Daytona on Tuesday with their Next Gen Cup Series cars.
NASCAR tested the Next Gen car in pack racing scenarios at Daytona.
(NASCAR)
The teams engaged in a variety of scenarios, including single car laps, tandem drafts and pack racing with their engines tuned to 510 hp and 7-inch rear spoilers installed to restrict speeds.
Seventeen cars participated in the Next Gen test at Daytona.
(David Rosenblum/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
NASCAR initially planned to also test a 6-inch spoiler but was pleased with the results of the 7-inch test, which delivered lap speeds about a second off last year’s pole time, and will use the setup at Daytona, Talladega and the redesigned Atlanta ovals this year.
NASCAR has settled on a superspeedway package that combines a 510 hp engine and 7-inch spoiler.
(David Rosenblum/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
“We don’t have them quite handling the way we want yet,” Team Penske driver Joey Logano said after the session. “They’re pretty new still to us. Bumping and shoving gets the cars moving around a whole lot and Kurt [Busch], myself, Denny [Hamlin] and Ricky [Stenhouse] we were out there shoving each other pretty hard and racing like we were trying to win the Daytona 500.”
The cars were lapping in the 48- to 48.5-second range at speeds from around 185 mph to 190 mph, but NASCAR’s head of racing innovation, Steve Probst said he expects them to get faster as the teams become more familiar with the cars.
The NASCAR Next Gen car features an independent rear suspension and larger wheels and tires than the previous design.
(James Gilbert/Getty Images)
NASCAR had previously announced that all other tracks will feature cars with 670 hp and 4-inch spoilers, replacing the 550 hp and 750 hp setups used across the short tracks, intermediates and road courses last year.
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The Next Gen Cup Series cars are a radical departure from the ones that they replace and feature rear independent suspensions, larger wheels and tires, a five-speed sequential gearbox and composite bodywork, among other changes.
While the NASCAR season kicks off at the Daytona 500, the Next Gen cars will make their competitive debut at the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum exhibition event on a quarter-mile track that’s been built inside the L.A. Coliseum scheduled for the weekend of Feb. 6.
