NASCAR tells drivers it will make Next Gen cars safer
NASCAR says it had a productive test of its new car and promised drivers that solutions to some of their safety concerns should be implemented by next season.
NASCAR’s top leadership held a 75-minute meeting ahead of Saturday’s practice at Charlotte Motor Speedway. It said it expects a new rear clip, rear bumper structure and center section on next year’s Next Gen car.
Those parts are too stiff right now and drivers have complained all season they are feeling the force from routine crashes more than before.
Alex Bowman and Kurt Busch are both sidelined with concussions suffered in crashes in the Next Gen, and Cody Shane Ware won’t race Sunday because he has a broken foot that would be under too much strain on Charlotte’s hybrid road course/oval circuit. It’s the first time in at least two decades that three full-time Cup drivers will miss a race.
NASCAR had a slide presentation prepared, but two different drivers likened the session to an episode of “Seinfeld.” Erik Jones described it as an “airing of grievances” while Brad Keselowski, driver and part-owner of RFK Racing, said “everybody had a little bit to say, this may be a little bit of a Festivus.”
“It was definitely tense from the driver side. NASCAR did a good job of trying to answer the questions asked, but you can tell that there’s frustration,” driver Christopher Bell said. “We got through two slides. I believe that they had a much larger presentation available to us, but we got stuck in open conversation that took up the majority of the
time.”
Drivers said NASCAR presented them with data from Wednesday’s crash test and outlined the improvements found in the exercise. One of the main goals of the Next Gen was to cut costs and in doing so, the new car was made to be durable and withstand crashes without being destroyed so that teams need only a sevencar fleet for the 38-race season.
The car has proven to be safer in many areas and drivers believe they will be protected in catastrophic crashes. But the impacts to the rear of the cars have been jarring, and after claiming they’ve complained to NASCAR during the entire design process that the Next Gen is too stiff, the drivers finally snapped after Bowman’s concussion two weeks ago and went public with their concerns.
Busch, who will miss his 12th consecutive race, attended the meeting. Ryan Blaney said drivers met last week at Talladega to present a unified front in the meeting.
FORMULA ONE
Max Verstappen of Red Bull will be on pole position for Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka as he attempts to clinch his second straight Formula One drivers’ title. It was Verstappen’s fifth pole of the season. However that has not been crucial for Verstappen, who has won 11 times this season often starting from a non-pole position.
Verstappen took qualifying with a winning lap time of 1 minute, 29.304 seconds at Suzuka. He was followed by Charles Leclerc of Ferrari.
Verstappen is guaranteed the season title if he wins the race and also gets a bonus point for turning the fastest lap.
XFINITY SERIES
It took two overtimes for AJ Allmendinger to remain undefeated on The Roval at Charlotte Motor Speedway and seize the momentum for the next round of the Xfinity Series playoffs. Allmendinger has won four consecutive races on the hybrid road course/oval, as well as back-to-back races following last week’s win at Talladega Superspeedway. The playoff field was trimmed from 12 to eight. Advancing into the next round are Allmendinger, the entire four-car fleet from JR Motorsports of Noah Gragson, Justin Allgaier, Sam Mayer and Josh Berry, as well as Brandon Jones of Joe Gibbs Racing and Austin Hill of Richard Childress Racing.