Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s Senior Vice President of Competition, says the sanctioning body is remaining vigilant regarding its issues with the NextGen short track package, after a disappointing weekend at Bristol.
Speaking to The Morning Drive on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Sawyer made it perfectly clear that NASCAR is “not going to sleep on [the issue]” and will continue working to improve the on-track product at short tracks.
“What I would say is what we talk about every week: If you look at our product that we put on the racetrack every week, we’re constantly looking at that and what we can do to improve,” Sawyer said on Tuesday.
The racer-turned-executive also offered a positive spin on the situation, bringing to light the positives of the seventh-generation racecar, including better on-track action at several different track types, including superspeedways and intermediates.
“I don’t want our fans to lose sight that we have great racing and our superspeedways, we have great racing at our intermediate tracks, and we have seen great racing at short tracks and road courses. We will continue to look at our short track package, we’ve worked closely – the industry that is, our drivers, our teams, our NASCAR folks here at the R&D Center, working with our good friends at Goodyear and continue to work on the tire and trying to get that fall-off we’re looking for on those short tracks.”
For the last several weeks, fans, competitors, and industry members alike have been calling on NASCAR and its team of executives to make changes to the NextGen car, not just to improve the product on the short tracks, but to improve the product all-around.
There have been no changes made, but Sawyer says that NASCAR will continue to listen to its industry stakeholders, like drivers, owners, broadcast partners, engineers, etc., and choose a direction based on the opinions of said parties.
“I think when you take the input from all of them, but ultimately the people that are sitting in the stands and the people that are sitting at home and are watching our product, they have a loud voice, as well as our broadcast partners, and our teams, and every stakeholder that has interest in the sport.
“We get their point-of-view because sometimes what is best for the garage area doesn’t give us the best product on the racetrack and vice versa, so ultimately, we have to take all of that and NASCAR has to make the final decision on what direction we’re going to go, but again I think the collaboration today is so much better than it has ever been.”
But, in the end, the overarching message from Sawyer is one of unity for the industry: “We’re all in this together, and we all want the same thing. We all want the best product and the best racing on the racetrack, and if someone has an idea, we’re all ears.”
According to Sawyer, NASCAR plans to continue holding its all-driver meetings — where every couple of months the drivers will all convene to speak with NASCAR about on-track product, facilities, safety of racecars, and possible schedule developments, about other things — to gather their opinions on what the next steps could be for the sanctioning body.
NASCAR will also be having further discussions with Goodyear, in order to find out what happened this weekend that prevented the tires from wearing, how they can change that, and what the plans are for this Fall’s NASCAR Cup Series event at the half-mile venue.
