Since the Next Gen car was put on track in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2022, the on-track product at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway, regarded as some of the best racing in prior models of car, had become lackluster.
On Wednesday, NASCAR announced changes to the racing package for the Next Gen car heading into the August 29 Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway.
Among the biggest changes is a reduction in rear spoiler size from 7″ tall to 4″ tall, which now matches the spoiler size for the Next Gen car’s intermediate track package.
NASCAR says the Next Gen car will also feature wide splitter stuffers, which also matches the intermediate racing package. There will be no change to the car’s safety equipment from the pre-existing superspeedway package; however, there will be a decrease in horsepower to counteract some of the effects of the reduced spoiler size.
For the August Daytona race, the tapered spacer under the hood of the Next Gen cars will be reduced to 27/32″, which will reduce overall horsepower output to 465 horsepower, down from 510.
The car will feature new spoiler braces and a spoiler deflection device, which NASCAR says has been redesigned to accommodate the 4″ spoiler.
The hope for NASCAR is that this new package will produce single-car speeds 2-3 mph faster than previously in qualifying, and while pack speed isn’t expected to deviate with the new package, NASCAR expects dynamic passing maneuvers and runs to come with an additional 5 mph with the new package.
This is all great news, as something had to be done with the superspeedway package in the NASCAR Cup Series. The only troubling thing in Wednesday’s announcement is that NASCAR continues to be steadfast in limiting practice time at superspeedway events.
According to John Probst, president of NASCAR Event Management, there will be no practice session on the weekend schedule for the NASCAR Cup Series at Daytona International Speedway.
This means drivers and teams will not get a chance to put the new superspeedway package to the test ahead of the August 29 Coke Zero Sugar 400 to understand the differences. Instead, they’ll just be given a single-car qualifying session and be thrown to the wolves to figure it out in the 400-mile race.
In my opinion, that is a huge swing and a miss for the sanctioning body, but overall, there is hope that the new superspeedway package, which is currently only for the August 29 event at Daytona International Speedway, can provide an improved superspeedway race for NASCAR’s premier division.
