NASCAR: What’s wrong with NASCAR? Part 2 – The cars

Sensitivity

In addition to cars being too aero-dependent, my second issue is that the cars are too sensitive.

Remember back in the day when a driver could beat and bang his way to a solid finish, perhaps even a win? Nowadays, that’s highly unlikely. Cars are too sensitive with wheel wells being too close to the tires and splitters being too fragile.

Some of these things have emerged due to teams having no ride height rules and crews grabbing any advantages they can. Cars are simply too low, which, again, I’ll get back to later.

The central image that sticks into my mind is Denny Hamlin wrecking at Phoenix last November after making contact with Chase Elliott. If you don’t remember, Elliott, who had been dumped by Hamlin two weeks earlier at Martinsville, drove Hamilton up the track off of turn four and put the #11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota into the wall.

A handful of laps later, Hamlin’s tire went, sending the FedEx Camry into the wall and ending his race.

This in itself is a major issue at the national level. Stock cars were made to beat, bang and get a little rowdy. In the current era, a driver’s race can be ended by a solid scrape of the wall. With wheel wells being too tight, slight contact can cut a tire, which can send a driver to the garage over a simple bump.

Aside from wheel wells, front splitters are also a hassle. NASCAR used to run a valance that was higher off the ground, so if a driver went off of the road, the car would manage the brunt of the blow.

Try doing that now, when any car that slides through the grass is lucky to not destroy the front end.

Overall, the cars just aren’t as durable as they were in the old days, and they are that way by design. Instead of being able to beat and bang, drivers have to be concerned about a single move ruining their race. This isn’t my top grievance with modern-day cars, but it’s something that could be fixed.