NASCAR’s new short track package breaks cover ahead of 2024 Cup Series season

NASCAR's 2024 Cup Series season is set to kick off with an exciting start, as it has been confirmed that the teams are to introduce a new short-track package in the upcoming season.

In a bid to enhance competitive racing on both road courses and oval tracks, it was announced on Wednesday that the Cup teams have delivered a rulebook bulletin of the changes to be made to the Next Gen car.

Six drivers, including the reigning Cup champion Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, Chris Buescher, Erik Jones, and Corey LaJoie, participated in a two-day NASCAR Cup Series short-track test session at the Phoenix Raceway in December.

The primary focus of the modifications centers around introducing aerodynamic changes that promote more competitive racing on the specified track types.

While no changes have been made to the gearbox, a notable alteration involves implementing a simplified rear diffuser with fewer vertical strakes.

NASCAR VP explains reasoning behind updates to the Next Gen car

NASCAR's vice president of vehicle performance Eric Jacuzzi revealed during the press release (via NASCAR.com):

"One of the things going into the Phoenix test, we said, ‘let’s do a simplified diffuser. Let’s see what it does when we put it in traffic,’ and what we actually found was it appeared to be an improvement. Then another interesting effect was that it did not lose rear downforce when it yawed, which is an issue we fight with the current car. So we felt that the car, the drivers would be able to slide around more on the short tracks and really have to be less careful about putting power down."

Highlighting the positive impact, Jacuzzi continued:

"At the test, we noticed an improvement in traffic. The car did not lose rear downforce when it yawed, which is an issue we fight with the current car. The drivers would be able to slide around more on the short tracks and really have to be less careful about putting power down."

Driver feedback from the test session was overwhelmingly positive, emphasizing the increased forgiveness and maneuverability of the Next Gen car. Jacuzzi revealed:

"We felt that would be a benefit, and that was the big takeaway from the driver feedback. At the test, they felt they could really tell that it was more forgiving. They felt they could slide the car, not crazy but certainly much more than they regularly could without having a performance penalty."

The changes to the Cup Series cars are set to be implemented during the first points-paying short-track race of the season, scheduled for March 10 at Phoenix Raceway.