NASCAR has made rule changes ahead of this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway to address fire issues that were seen at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.
Teams are now permitted to add intumescent coatings on the underside of the Next Gen car’s lower crush panels, inside the exhaust cover panels and the upper surface of the rocker box.
They will also be permitted to apply the coating to the right side stop panel.
The intumescent coatings are designed to help provide fire protection to steel components.
The change comes after exhaust issues during Sunday night’s Southern 500 at Darlington ended Kevin Harvick and J.J. Yeley’s races.
NASCAR has also mandated a lateral seal/dam to be installed between the back of the front clip weight box and the top of the splitter panel to help reduce the migration of tire debris from the splitter area.
A NASCAR spokesperson said the changes are a follow-up to the first step exhaust shroud update that was mandated for Richmond (Va.) Raceway to address specific issues encountered at Indianapolis.
There will be more development in this area, and more updates are possible as test results are evaluated.