NASCAR changes in 2018
Petty-Childress partnership; Camaro arrives
The sound of race car engines broke the winter silence at Daytona International Speedway in Florida last weekend as teams practiced for the Rolex 24 sports car race scheduled for Jan. 27-28.
Big noise in Daytona Beach is the first major sign that the very short offseason for major-league auto racing is nearing its end. After IMSA’s 24-hour sports car marathon on the Daytona road course, attention will shift to NASCAR and the run-up to the Feb. 18 Daytona 500, the first, and most important, race of the stock car season.
When the NASCAR circus reconvenes along the Atlantic shore next month, the calendar won’t be the only significant change. In many ways, it will be a new NASCAR. Five updates as the series gets set to embark on a new season of Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series racing. Richard times two: In a key offseason team change, Richard Petty Motorsports switched from Ford to Chevrolet and joined forces with longtime Chevy team owner Richard Childress. Petty’s team, with new driver Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr., will race out of space leased from Childress at the Richard Childress Racing shop in Welcome, N.C.
This makes for an unusual pairing. Childress and Petty have been competitors — once upon a time as drivers — for decades, and their long friendship will now evolve into a partnership of sorts as Petty returns to Chevrolet.
Both Richards are in the NASCAR Hall of Fame, Petty — who earned seven championships, tied for the series high — riding in with the first class in 2010 and Childress, who won six Cup series championships with driver Dale Earnhardt Sr. (who has seven overall), joining in 2017. Crews minus one: The new season will bring dramatic change on pit road, where NASCAR has trimmed over-thewall pit crews from six to five.
The move has had teams working on new pit-stop dynamics, as tire carriers and changers adjust to a different landscape. At least in the early weeks of the season, pit stops are expected to be slightly longer because of the change,
but experience with the new setup probably will shrink the stopwatch eventually.
Camaro rolls in: The new year brings significant change for General Motors, which will field the Camaro ZL1 in the series as a replacement for the Chevrolet SS.
The SS has been Chevy’s Cup model since 2013, and the slicker Camaro is expected to give GM teams a boost, though adjustment time can be expected.
Ford is expected to follow Chevrolet in the “pony car” movement next year and elevate the Mustang, which has been running the Xfinity Series, to Cup.
Wallace making history: Wallace was named late last year as the driver of the Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 car for 2018, making him the first fulltime African-American driver in the sport since Wendell Scott in 1971.
Wallace drove four races for Petty’s team last season as a substitute for injured Aric Almirola, including at Daytona, where he finished 15th in the Coke Zero 400 in July. Wallace also ran 13 Xfinity races in 2017 (primarily for owner Jack Roush), scoring eight top-10 fin-
ishes.
Almirola will drive for Stewart-Haas Racing this year, replacing Danica Patrick.
Ganassi, Hendrick moves: Recent hires have changed executive teams at Chip Ganassi Racing and Hendrick Motorsports.
Ganassi, who competes in NASCAR, IndyCar and IMSA, has improved his front office with the addition of former Hendrick Motorsports vice president Doug Duchardt.
Ganassi’s new chief operating officer, Duchardt, a former GM executive, was part of seven Cup championships in a
12-year span at Hendrick.
Rising star Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray drive for Ganassi in Cup. Larson won four races last season and finished eighth in points. McMurray was
12th in points last year but hasn’t won since 2013.
The Hendrick team announced this week that it has hired longtime racing program manager Alba Colon as its director of competition systems. Colon is leaving GM, where she was a pioneering female motor sports engineer.