Big horsepower and low drag return with the Next Gen car
The majority of tracks on the NASCAR schedule have been fit into a rules package. For short tracks, road courses and most intermediate tracks, NASCAR will use a 670hp base engine was a drastically reduced 4″ spoiler.
Last week, Charlotte Motor Speedway hosted a two-day test. Multiple rules packages were used such as a 550hp engine and various spoilers up to 6″.
Following the test, NASCAR officials and drivers sat in a meeting to discuss the various packages. They’ve elected to high horsepower and low drag.
Related: Kevin Harvick vocal on NASCAR Next Gen needing more horsepower
Steve O’Donnell talks the 2022 NASCAR rules package
“It’s really a new beginning for everyone, right?” O’Donnell said.
“So no one has a ton of data they can go back and look at for this car where we previously raced, and that’s a neat thing for the race fan. So they’re going to see the best drivers and the best engineers in the world go out there and attack this car and attack each race track, and it will be hard to drive.”
“I think the drivers are enthusiastic about that. The tire that Goodyear has come with has really put strategy back into a race, so some of that old-school racing that a lot of fans have talked about, I think you’ll see.”
“We’ll learn along the way as well, and there are different things we can take away from this season coming up in ’22 as we look to continually improve upon what we believe is going to be a great launch of the Next Gen car.”
Related: Charlotte Testing Results – December 17, 2021 (NASCAR Next Gen)
Setting superspeedway rules
Only a handful of tests remain before the start of the 2022 season. However, officials still not to set the rules package for superspeedway racing.
Those tracks include Daytona International Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway and the newly reconfigured Atlanta Motor Speedway.
“Yeah, we’re close,” O’Donnell said.
“We’ve done a number of tests already but our next step in the process for superspeedways will be in Atlanta, early January to confirm what package we want to put on that race track. We expect that to be the superspeedway package.”
“Then from there, we’ll go to Daytona on the 11th and 12th of January, and really what we’re looking at there is the speed of the car. So there’s potential we could shorten the spoiler a little bit. We’ve made some cooling adjustments to the car that affected a little bit of the drag of this car, so we want to make sure that the speeds are commensurate with where we’ve run in the past.”
He added, “So getting some extra laps on the car, both days getting the teams more familiar with the car at the Daytona and then we’ll finalize it coming out of that test.”
Related: Atlanta Motor Speedway repave features new technology
NASCAR Next Gen
Testing Schedule
Jan. 5-6, 2022
Atlanta Motor Speedway
Jan. 11-12
Daytona International Speedway
Jan. 25-26, 2022
Phoenix Raceway
Phoenix, AZ
The NASCAR Next Gen car will make it’s official debut in The Clash at the LA Coliseum on February 6th, 2022.
Related: Tyler Reddick crashes Next Gen car spectacularly (Video)
