Spire Motorsports driver Corey LaJoie sent NASCAR engineers back to their work tables after the Cup Series race in Michigan the earlier weekend. His No. 7 Chevrolet Camaro had lifted off far too easily upon contact with Noah Gragson’s car and flipped over in a harrowing crash. As a result, the safety department came out with a new air deflector for the right side of the cars.
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NASCAR announced that it had tested the deflector in wind tunnels and that it should prevent such lift-offs in the future. A mere number of days later, the product proved useless. Stewart-Haas Racing driver Josh Berry was racing for the lead with two laps left in Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona when contact by Austin Cindric from behind caused his Mustang to flip.
Thankfully, the driver was safe but the incident presents a severe concern. Former racer Kenny Wallace spoke about it on his YouTube Channel and expressed his views. He said, “There’s going to be times where you’re not going to stop physics,” and continued noting how he saw a stat that said this was the first time there had been back-to-back flipovers in NASCAR history.
The Daytona track is where Berry’s teammate Ryan Preece barrel-rolled and suffered a massive crash in 2023. Thanks to the infield being repaved, such outcomes were prevented this time. Continuing to analyze the trend, Wallace noted how Michael McDowell nearly suffered a similar fate after being hit by Cindric and Team Penske superstar Joey Logano.
Michael McDowell goes airborne in a huge crash at Daytona
The McDowell incident occurred with nine laps to go till the checkered flag on Saturday. He was leading the group on the outside lane going into Turn 1 when he was contacted by Cindric and sent spinning. His car turned perpendicular to the track when Logano hit the driver-side door and initiated the lift-off. It was fortunate that the car did not flip and came back down on all four wheels.
Wallace likened the incident to a Jimmy Horton crash from the 1980s before concluding, “All I’m saying is cars are going to flip. However, seems like there’s a lot of flipping going on lately.” McDowell had led 26 laps before his wreck and was quite possibly on his way to the victory lane. He now faces a must-win situation at Darlington to qualify for the playoffs.
He addressed the track’s work on the repaved infield and praised it. His confidence about the officiating body continuing to work on improving the cars to prevent lift-offs was high and hopeful. Logano too spoke about the incidents but was far more downtrodden than his counterparts. He suggested improving the handling of cars or making them in such a way that they can’t be pushed easily.
