NASCAR Announces Changes To Rules Package

Brad Keselowski leads Joey Logano in last Saturday's All Star Race

Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images

NASCAR announced new changes to the aerodynamic rules package for upcoming races at Kentucky Speedway and Michigan International Speedway.

The new modifications are in addition to the new package that was introduced for this season, and is likely a preview the rules package that NASCAR is working on for the 2017 season

The new changes that were announced Thursday are intended to reduce downforce and increase competition on the track, taking away as much as 500 pounds of downforce from the package that is currently in place.

Among the changes NASCAR will be implementing include reducing the rear-skew, reducing downforce and reducing side-force.

"I think we look at it as a never-ending journey – if we can improve, we're going to do that," said Steve O'Donnell, Executive VP of Competition for NASCAR. "We wanted to go the direction of low downforce, see how that worked, and kind of go all the way in and hope that we are directionally right, and we are seeing that play out."

NASCAR had already tried reducing the rear skew by setting the rear toe to zero during the All Star Race, as well as limiting electric fans used in the cars that helped cool the brakes and in turn sucked air from underneath the car.

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"] The currently rules package has already generated some positive results with an increase in passing and more exciting racing, especially at some of the intermediate-sized tracks where racing had become something closer to a single-file 200 mph parade lap.

"We've seen some great racing at the beginning of the year, but we also knew that we had some more levers that we could pull if the kind of proved out, so we've tried some of those things," said O'Donnell. "We've tested it and what we've also wanted to do is lower some of the corner speeds to allow for even more passing.

"That was one of the areas where we've seen minimal change, but there are some levels we can pull to really drive that down."

The exact changes include shortening the rear spoiler from 3.5 inches to 2.5 inches, reducing the front splitter from five inches to two inches and adding a fin to the deck lid.

So far, NASCAR plans to run the changes only at the June 19^th race at Michigan and the July 9^th race at Kentucky, and have not said whether any of the announced changes would be applied to any other races, including any of the races in the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup.

A few teams got the chance to shake down the changes during a tire test at Michigan last week – among them Kyle Larson, who said the new changes should be an improvement over the previous rules package

"It will be a lot better than the high drag racing we had," said Larson. "We started out the test in our current package and was still running pretty high speeds and a lot of wide open throttle stuff. As we took the rule changes and put them in the car I only got a couple of laps because it started raining, but I was already off throttle a lot more.

"I expect the racing to be really good. I think, with you lifting, the groove will move up some. It's just going to, hopefully, be really exciting racing. I think you can see every race track we have been to this year has been much better racing. That was just a smaller step in downforce. Another step will just make it better, we hope."

NASCAR tried a different rules package at Kentucky last season, but the results weren't nearly what they hoping for, leading to some of the changes we'll see later this year.

"There's a lot of momentum for continuing in this direction," said Gene Stefanyshyn, NASCAR senior vice president of innovation and racing development. "(The drivers) have jumped on that bandwagon and want more."

Several drivers echoed that statement, including Carl Edwards.

"It's all right there, the proof is there, all year we've had awesome racing and we have close finishes," said Edwards. "I already sent Steve O'Donnell a thank you text. I'm so excited about the things that are coming at Kentucky and Michigan. NASCAR is doing that it takes, the teams are doing what it takes to go out and figure out how to make this the best racing it can be.

"I'm all for whatever NASCAR wants to do. Right now, we're in territory where the racing is good. If they feel like it's going to be better, then why not, let's do it. I don't think anyone would complain. It's up to NASCAR, but we've made it over the hump, we can race now and whatever we do after this is just icing on the cake."

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