Goodbye to old surface, hello to new downforce
HAMPTON, Ga. - With Daytona’s hype, history and hoopla in the rearview mirror, it’s time to move on to what drivers call the “real” Monster Energy NASCAR Cup season, and that begins with Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
It won’t be a typical race weekend, however, for AMS, a track that has been on the Cup schedule since 1960. Two key factors will make Sunday’s race unusual and unpredictable. The race will be the final one on the current track surface and the first one using NASCAR’s new lower-downforce package.
Those topics and others will generate considerable attention as drivers hit the grid for the second race of the Cup season – and the first without horsepower-robbing restrictor plates.
Out with the old: You might not like old asphalt and quirky pavement on the roads that you travel, but NASCAR drivers are quite the opposite. The vast majority of racers like worn track surfaces because aged asphalt typically makes for better racing and more adventurous driving. The AMS surface reached near-perfection in that realm a few years back, but now it has declined to the point of needing new pavement. Sunday’s race will be the last for the old surface, and some drivers may weep.
Time to get down: NASCAR’s ongoing efforts to juice the quality of racing via technical changes continues with new numbers for this weekend. Cars’ spoiler heights have been reduced from 3.5 inches to 2.375, and the outer edges of the front splitter have been reduced by three inches. The result should be cars that are more difficult to drive, a situation drivers favor.
Does Elliott rebound? Most residents of NASCAR garages put Chase Elliott in the “can’t-miss” category; that is, he will win many races over his career. To do that, however, the 21-yearold Dawnsonville, Ga., native must win his first, and he missed again last week when a great run in the Daytona 500 ended with three laps left as his fuel tank ran dry. His next shot comes Sunday at his “home” track.
A Hendrick Sunday? Hendrick Motorsports driver Jimmie Johnson, in pursuit of a record eighth national championship, is the active victory leader at AMS with five. He’s won the last two Cup events here, but the track is also one of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s favorites, and he’s typically a threat. After a disappointing Daytona and a 2016 cut in half by concussion issues, Earnhardt is anxious to return to winning.
Tires or tired: Although drivers prefer to run on worn track surfaces, the downside of aged tracks is that they eat tires. Given the choice, Sunday’s drivers would pop into the pits for fresh tires every couple of laps. That’s not possible, of course. Crew chiefs will be busy calculating how many quality laps their drivers can run before worn tires trim lap speeds considerably. And that brings us to ...
Stages: Sunday’s races will put NASCAR’s new segmented format to its first test in a non-restrictor-plate atmosphere. Automatic cautions will fall at the end of the first (at 85 laps) and second segments (lap 170), with the stage winners awarded one playoff points and the top 10 finishers of each of the first two segments awarded regular-season points in descending order from 10 to 1. Crew chiefs will play the pit-stop game under an entirely new system, all mixed in with tire wear and fuel strategy.