Nascar's new short track package

More HP means less "pack racing". NASCAR obviously has an agenda here.

Funny thing that kevin harvick, Dale Jr and Denny said whet these cars is more horsepower these cars dont need more aero and downforce it already has enough what happened to the days where the driver ls opinion and their words matters the most not the tv ratings or fan attentions

I was curious about all of this so I decided to run a "physics simulation". Keep in mind I don't have real numbers to go off of but there is enough information for me to at least get a "basic level" idea of what would be going on with the car. Since everything is staying the same and the only real difference is to the rear. I decided to test taking away 300 lbs of rear downforce for shyts and giggles and then I tested the car with the current HP. Testing done at Martinsville. Going into turn 1 and 3, you feel a little less unsure with how hard you intend to charge the corner but after a while you get use to it. Exit had more wheel spin so there is a slight throttle control to work around it but nothing of any major eye opening change. More or less juss a bit more cautious for the driver. Adding the extra inch in width and height to the spoiler, took all that away and we were back to square one overall. I still had wheel spin on the exit if I purposely got hard on the throttle but with the tires being so wide it held fine. Only thing I could see being a battle would who could keep the rubber on the rear with the less wheel spin over a LOOONG run but its not egg shell throttle control. Juss don't be an idiot and jab the throttle and ur tires will be fine. I decided to try 873Hp just for fun with the new package at Martinsville and things did start to get interesting but with this car being built like a GT3 car meets early 2000's SCCA Trans Am TA1 type car with the long ass 110 wheelbase, its not enough to really have this amazing effect visually to people watching at this small track. In the car is where things were interesting though, there is more egg shell throttle control, not for control of the car though. Throttle control for tire spin. The car is about as planted as an oak tree. Interesting results. Keep in mind this ain't no "true to real life" simulation and results. I did this shyt for fun juss to get an idea of what "could" be possible. Can't wait to see what happens and come back and rad what I typed to see how wrong or maybe even right I was lol. Keep up the great work Disco Stu and keeping us informed🕺🤘💪 🕺

This change will not be enough for Martinsville and Bristol. Aerodynamics mean virtually nothing at these tracks.

I think the point that is getting lost is that to add horsepower to these engines it’s as simple as removing the tapered spacer that nascar mandates. These engines haven’t changed in like 10 years, nascar just keeps messing with the tapered spacer. These engines are still designed to make 850 hp like we saw 10 years ago, they just run the mandated tapered spacer on the intake per the rulebook. That’s why cost hasn’t gone down, the engines are the same as they were 10 years ago. They don’t redesign the engine every time they add or remove horsepower. The last time these engines saw an actual physical change was when they switched to fuel injection in 2012. Since then it’s just messing with intake restrictions (tapered spacer) to create the horsepower nascar wants. All this adds to your point, nascar could add horsepower back by changing a simple plate in the intake to test it out, but they won’t do it for some reason

Great explanation

I wouldn't be shocked if nascar dreams of making bristol a short track super speedway just typing this scares me. I dont know how hard is it to get 750 hp hell i will take 720 hp if thats the happy medium

No arguments with anything you said. It bothers me that casual fans dictate the look of a car. I thought the Gen 5 car was damn near perfect by 2012, we had excellent racing everywhere but fans hated the boxy bodies so along came Gen 6 and the sleeker aero designs hurt the competition.

The horsepower issue I believe really has to do with insurance cost to nascar. There’s probably a relation between higher horsepower and higher insurance costs due to higher speeds especially with this car not really being as safe as the previous car

HP is part of the solution, not THE solution. Tires, aero, and HP are the triangle. If NASCAR increases HP then Goodyear has to make the tires that will last (we all know they fucking suck and are embarrassingly gunshy about their tires.) Increasing HP will mean Goodyear will have to test tires for the HP level. But as we all know, Goodyear sucks ass. Chevy and Ford have both said, "We can handle 100hp easily." Toyota hasn't said a word. I wonder why they are silent? I will say though, that if you add power to some tracks you might as well add power to all tracks minus Daytona, Talladega, and Atlanta. I say take all the aero off the cars and tell the children driving to have at it.

I loathe pack racing and it’s damn near pushing me out of the sport all together.