NOW WHAT?
The observations by Busch and Byron, specifically about performance on ovals, are based on different points in the car’s development. On May 5, it hadn’t even been determined what the final horsepower levels would be for the engine.
That will come in the next few months as testing picks up, with organizational tests with multiple cars occurring in the fall.
This month, teams are receiving chassis.
After years of manufacturer cooperation to make the Next Gen Car a reality, now the games begin.
“To get a half percent performance out of a car, there’s gonna be a lot of low-hanging fruit with the Next Gen Car as far as learning all the components,” Warren explained. “And where are those areas of performance when you put it all together? That takes a lot of effort trying to learn about each thing, the dampers, the steering, the transaxle, the new air rolls, all those things.
“You’re just trying to figure out what you know and where do you think the games are?” Warren continued. “Where do you want to start putting your development resources toward and you just hope you made the right choices. If not, you react just like any other year.”
Then comes Christmas, AKA the Daytona 500.
Ford’s DiMarco called the May 5 reveal the car’s “first ultrasound.”
Unlike the much maligned “Car of Tomorrow,” which made a midseason debut in 2007 before going full time in 2008, DiMarco says the sport is avoiding “financial burden and resource drain” on teams by not having a “soft rollout” of Next Gen.
“Definitely pulling the band aid off was the best approach,” said DiMarco. “I think Christmas Eve will be the night before the Daytona 500 … (it) will be very nerve wracking. Because just like the Gen 6 car (in 2013), everybody wanted to win that first race with that car and everybody’s gonna want to win the first Next Gen race. That’ll be in the history books.”
But the work doesn’t end with Speedweeks in February 2022.
While there will be plenty of judgements made by many parties, the story of the Next Gen Car’s debut will stretch out, week-by-week, throughout the year and into the next.
“We’re going to be working on the train as it’s going down the tracks,” said Wilson. “That’s just kind of the reality that we’re faced with. Left to our own devices, we’d want another year to polish on this rock to try and make sure we’ve anticipated everything else. … Sometimes, we need sanctioning bodies to protect ourselves from ourselves.”
The significance of the Next Gen Car is thankfully not lost on the face of the sanctioning body.
“This has been a long time coming, but I think we needed to get this right,” NASCAR President Steve Phelps said. “I was certainly disappointed when we had to put pause on this for a year because I know what this is going to mean for the fans. I know what it’s going to mean for the industry. …
“Healthy, profitable teams put on better racing and that’s exactly what our fans want.
“The more competitive or healthy our race teams are, the more likely it is they’re going to bring fast race cars to the race track, and the more of them that can do that just creates better racing.”