NASCAR recently experimented with a new short track package with a few drivers following the race at New Hampshire this weekend. However, owing to the timing of the said testing, former NASCAR driver and Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. believes that NASCAR would not be able to release the package completely before next year.
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He also went on to mention how he told the handful of drivers that were going to be testing that the future of stock car racing was on their shoulders. That their opinions and inputs following the run determined how things would change for short-track racing.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. shares his concern about NASCAR’s new short-track package
Junior stated, “We are going to New Hampshire this weekend to race. But that might not be the most important day of the week for New Hampshire. Monday and Tuesday, a handful of drivers, are staying back after the Cup Series race is over and they are going to test a new short-track package.”
“I think William Byron, Ryan Preece, Christopher Bell, a couple of other guys are going to be testing this package together. It’s about six and I said, ‘Hey, the future of short track racing and big league stock cars is on ya’ll shoulders. If ya’ll don’t come out of here with an answer, we’re screwed.’ We are.”
“No matter what they find, even if they get. Even if they find what they believe to be the holy grail. The answer to short-track racing with the Next Gen car, even if they find it. The parts, and pieces that are made by the single suppliers, will not be made and developed in enough in bulk to be able to give all the team until next year.”
“Even if it is the right **** they can’t bolt it on every car at Martinsville this year. Because they can’t make enough to provide for everybody in the series,” He concluded.
What improvement is the new 2024 NASCAR short-track package aiming for?
As per Motorsport NASCAR has been looking forward to this test to improve the racing that takes place in both short tracks and road courses in the future. Apparently, the major chunk of changes will be with the aerodynamic packages mostly focused around the freshly developed splitter of the car.
The Senior Vice President of Competition at NASCAR, Elton Sawyer, spoke with Sirius XM NASCAR Radio where he mentioned, “So, our aero guys over here at the R&D Center, Dr. Eric Jacuzzi and his team, they’ve done some great work in the wind tunnel and they were in the wind tunnel again (Monday) just to make sure what they believe is going to be a really good package that we’re going to test at New Hampshire will lead us in a direction that will give us some really great short track racing.”
The focus of the test remains on the front splitter of the car and NASCAR would be testing the airflow parameters along with assistance from Goodyear. Following the test results, if they find something conclusive, we could witness another update heading our way come next season.
