Long rain delays like the one that marred last year’s Daytona 500 may soon be a thing of the past thanks to a new track drying system that NASCAR is about to implement.
At a press conference Tuesday during the Sprint Media Tour featuring NASCAR CEO Brian France and Chairman Mike Helton, the sanctioning body outlined the new process with the stated goal of reducing drying time up to “80 percent”.
The new technology, which will eliminate jet dryers, will reduce Daytona’s drying time from two hours to about 30 minutes, while a short track like Martinsville might take just 15 minutes.
“It’s obviously designed to speed up the removal of water using compressed air and heat,” Helton said, “whereas jet dryers were simply designed around blowing and relied more on hot air.The new system relies more on compressed air.
“In terms of appearance, it’s considerably different. It’s a gain of pipes behind a van that air is pushed through, as opposed to a jet dryer.”
On the subject of the new Gen 6 car, France and Helton expressed optimism about a car that will restore a brand identity to the sport, with each manufacturer now having a distinct look. The hope of everyone involved is that the redesigned car will reinvigorate the fan base and provide more opportunities for drivers to race side by side.
France specifically said it would measure the success of the Gen 6 car by the number of “lead changes”, how it races and “what the drivers think about it”.
As for an increase in lobbying by teams and manufacturers for rules concessions brought about by the change, NASCAR is prepared for such a thing.
“There will be a little more, which we anticipate, to give the manufacturers a look that resembles their cars,” France said. “Obviously we had to move away from the complete common model that would have really defined the old car. So it kind of fits the territory.”
“But that said, we’re also working closer with them than ever, and they’re really excited about it, and that’s good for us and good for them.”
Other topics of interest during the Q&A session between France and Helton include:
- NASCAR is open to the idea of ​​a fourth manufacturer entering the sport. However, France questioned whether there were enough teams for this option to be viable.
“My hope is, and I know there are some big manufacturers, and there always are — this is not breaking news — there’s always someone who has interest in at least “I understand the NASCAR opportunity, and therefore my feeling about it. It’s over time that we will have a fourth manufacturer,” France said.
“It would be very difficult for an automaker to have enough quality teams to run its program properly, but four is certainly manageable, and we would – we’re encouraged that at some point, We were doing it again.”
- While acknowledging that there were some “errors” with the Car of Tomorrow, France acknowledged that the much-maligned car had improved driver safety and controlled costs.
“Obviously we’ve moved away from some things that historically have worked well for us: the manufacturer rivalry, which we’re passionate about; the relevance issue with the automakers,” he said.
“And then I think we put a lot more emphasis on the new car in the rules package surrounding the car that we didn’t put almost — I can tell you we didn’t put as much science in the old car that we. I tried to achieve better races.”
- There are no plans to introduce qualifying races into Cup events, although shortening a race is something NASCAR will continue to monitor.
- France expressed enthusiasm for the Chase. And in particular, he’s very happy with the wild card system — which he says was suggested by a driver — and “likes the emphasis on winning” it creates.
- There has been no change to NASCAR’s concussion policy. However, the sanctioning body will continue to work with drivers and encourage them to be upfront about any possible symptoms, just as Dale Earnhardt Jr. did a season ago.
