One of the major selling points of NASCAR’s Next Gen car is that, unlike previous generations of cars that featured asymmetrical body flares for an aerodynamic advantage, it is supposed to be perfectly straight and symmetrical. But opening Daytona 500 practice defeated the purpose of that, so NASCAR is figuratively and literally straightening out its race teams.
Following Tuesday’s pair of Daytona 500 practices, NASCAR issued a rule change to teams concerning the suspension of the car. Toe link slugs in the rear suspension must now be set to the center or below/above center (depending on left/right side), while the tolerances for rear-wheel alignment have now changed. The pre-race tolerance is now 0.00 to 0.30 degrees, while post-race tolerance is now -0.25 to 0.55 degrees — A difference of about .30 degrees each.
The rule change was likely issued as a response to teams running skewed-out setups in Tuesday practice. Certain teams had been running setups where the rear of the body was shifted to the left while the chassis was still pointing straight. Among the cars that this was most obvious on was the No. 48 of Alex Bowman.
In layman’s terms, such a setup is a way of reducing the car’s drag and increasing its speed. As explained by Bozi Tatarevic of NASCAR.com, a “reverse skew” configuration hides the rear spoiler from the right rear of the car, which takes the right side of the spoiler out of the air. In this configuration, drag is reduced since air is not hitting the spoiler the same way it would if it was jutting out from the right side.
As the rule changes are being implemented before qualifying on Wednesday night, NASCAR has offered the teams extra opportunity to work on their cars: According to Jeff Gluck of The Athletic, NASCAR opened the Cup Series garage three hours earlier than originally planned on Wednesday morning.
