Hi, NASCAR Fans! Welcome to part two of my summer series called “What’s Wrong With NASCAR” If you missed the first part, Click here to see the introduction to the 10-week series that will be released over the summer months. Today we tackle our first real topic in the series, the race cars themselves. I have three central problems with cars, so let’s get to it!
The centerpiece of any racing series is the racing vehicle itself. He controls the look of the sport, the ability of drivers to showcase their talent, and the style of racing we see on the track. Add these together and you discover why cars are at the top of the list of modern-day problems. NASCAR.
Let’s take a step back to understand where the problems started. In 2007, NASCAR introduced the “Car of Tomorrow,” or COT as fans remember it. This car was built with safety in mind and completely changed the way cars looked on the track.
The cars looked like flying bricks around the track and included a rear spoiler unlike anything NASCAR had seen before. The COT brought some decent racing, but its main problem was that it took all authenticity from the manufacturers.
The cars had no identity, which fans didn’t like. This car model also introduced the front splitter, which eliminates almost all air from getting under the cars, something I will cover later.
Moving forward, NASCAR began tweaking cars again to give them more of an identity. The generation six car was introduced with major body changes in 2013. The cars looked more like street models, but the racing seemed to be taking a downward turn.
This model is the one that is still used in 2018, and in this article, I will highlight its issues.
