NASCAR does this a few times per season. The wind tunnel tests are conducted to see where the race cars stand from a downforce and drag perspective. They also conduct engine audits.
It’s specifically important in terms of the new body for Chevrolet but it’s important for the other manufactures as well. Each time a new body is welcomed for competition in the sport it has to be approved by the other manufactures first. The manufactures are given benchmark numbers that they have to meet for approval. That prevents a scenario where one manufacture gets too far ahead.
NASCAR selects several different cars each time the test is conducted. In this case, they took 6 cars, two from each manufacture.
Ford – Harvick’s No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford and the No. 2 Team Penske Ford of Brad Keselowski (second place)
Chevy – the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet of Austin Dillon (fourth place) and No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet of Chase Elliott (ninth place)
Toyota – the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Kyle Busch (third place) and No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Denny Hamlin (eighth place).
“We try to find a track obviously where aero’s going to play a bigger role, so we took six cars – two from each OEM – and they’ll be in the wind tunnel Tuesday,” NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell said on SiriusXM Monday morning.
“And our process is to share (data) that with the OEMs and the race teams. It’s a good barometer for us for two things — to make sure we’re still in that box set for the current year and probably most importantly, we look to lock in 2019, that the baseline that we’re using matches up with all the data that we have in the system.”
“So, it’s a good check on both for not only ’18, but future race packages as well.”
April 2018 Data Collection
This is the second time that NASCAR has conducted this test during the 2018 season. The last time was following the race at Texas Motor Speedway back in April.
Cars selected for the April test: Elliott, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Jamie McMurray, Joey Logano and Erik Jones.
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