Once again, a general theme of the Daytona 500 and superspeedway racing with the NextGen car in general right now is the amount of time drivers spend at half throttle in green flag conditions.
The reason they do this is because it’s incredibly difficult to overtake with the current generation car on these tracks when everyone is racing at full throttle. The cars are too even and there is so much drag that any attempt to get off the line kills momentum.
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With this in mind, the best way to achieve track position is for drivers to burn as little fuel as possible relative to the competition, as this means spending less time on pit road. If drivers cannot overtake on the track, the goal is to do as many overtakes as possible on pit road.
This has been the case since the advent of this car on superspeedways and frustrations are reaching their peak. Earlier in the week, NASCAR officials concluded “what are we trying to fix” since fuel savings produce three- and four-wide visuals, but Sunday’s race did little to change hearts and minds.
To wit, race-winning team owner and current driver Denny Hamlin said the drivers and NASCAR had discussed, casually, an experiment using a return to Daytona with the Preseason Clash using an experimental ruleset.
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“There’s a way, but we’re going to have to increase the speeds significantly,” Hamlin said at the post-race press conference. “You’re going to have to get to where handling matters. It’s going to stretch (over) the peloton. It’s going to take us to where we’re not – it’s going to feel a little more like races of the past.”
“But as long as their insurance company agrees, you will have to speed up the cars because right now we are so entrenched in the track that we can just race in a very tight pack.
“One of the suggestions we talked about a few days ago is to come here next year at the Clash. Let a few of us come up with a package that we think won’t save you fuel – you’ll just see people hanging on. That would be the only solution.”
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After the press conference ended, Motorsport.com asked Hamlin what he meant by that.
“Taking the spoiler away and slowing us down in the corners,” Hamlin said after a pause. “More lift. We need more lift.”
In fact, it would bring racing management closer to Atlanta Motor Speedway, where the Cup Series will next be held. The intermediate track underwent reconfiguration in 2022 in the form of increased banking, but the new surface aged quickly and produced a product increasingly similar to classic superspeedway racing.
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Despite drivers’ initial hesitation about the concept in 2021, they have actually returned to the track in recent years as the pavement has aged.
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