NASCAR Is Making A Change To Keep Cars From Flipping
NASCAR has updated its rules ahead of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday night in an effort to keep the Cup Series cars from going airborne on the high speed track.
The move comes a week after Corey LaJoie flipped onto his roof during the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway.
LaJoie’s car got loose and turned sideways and was immediately lifted off of the ground. It then skidded along the track and hit the infield grass, which rolled it over and back onto its wheels.
LaJoie was uninjured, but the surprising crash led to a quick response from NASCAR, which went to the wind tunnel to find a solution.
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After testing, it was determined that cars will run at Daytona with an extra rear window wind deflector on the right side. The cars have previously used one just on the left side.
The strip is mounted vertically along the side edge of the window and is designed to disrupt the air traveling transversely across the car when it goes sideways in an effort to reduce lift. NASCAR says adding the right side deflector increases the liftoff speed in this situation, although it didn’t detail exactly what that is.
Last year during the Coke Zero Sugar 400, Ryan Preece suffered an even more dramatic flip that saw him roll about a dozen times when his car hit the infield grass on the back stretch, which has since been paved over.
The Coke Zero Sugar 400 is the second-to-last race of the regular season, which means two drivers still have the opportunity to win their way into the playoffs.
Last year’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 winner Chris Buescher is currently 15th in the standings without a win and 16 points above the cutline with Ross Chastain in 16th just one point above it and Bubba Wallace one point below in 17th. Kyle Busch is in 18th, but 93 points down. Busch’s last and only win in the summer Daytona 400-mile race was in 2008.
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