NASCAR announced on Tuesday rule changes that include a lower downforce package in the Cup Series races on short ovals and road courses.
The changes, announced in a press release by NASCAR, includes a smaller spoiler (from eight inches to two and three-quarters), a smaller splitter (from two and a quarter inches to a quarter-inch), and a radiator pan without the vertical fencing, all combined in order to emphasize handling and driver input combined with less downforce.
These changes are slated to go into effect at nine tracks, with six of them being ovals one mile or less in length. The other three tracks are the three road courses.
The oval tracks that will be affected by these changes are Bristol Motor Speedway, Dover International Speedway, Martinsville Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Phoenix Raceway and Richmond Raceway.
The road courses are Sonoma Raceway, Watkins Glen International and the Charlotte Motor Speedway roval.
The first race in which this package is scheduled to take place on Sunday, March 8 at Phoenix Raceway.
What could we expect from this new package as the start of the 2020 Cup Series season quickly nears?
Here are three things to look out for.
More passing and more lead changes
For those who started watching the Cup Series last season, get ready for an amazing short track package. The package is similar to the 2017 package, which featured low downforce.
John Probst, NASCAR’s Senior Vice President of Innovation and Racing Department, stated that NASCAR went back to their “playbook from seasons past” and looked at the competitiveness that “the 2017 levels of downforce on those types of tracks” featured, noting that they “had pretty good side-by-side racing that [their] fans enjoyed.”
Let’s compare the spring Martinsville races in 2019 and 2017. This year’s race featured only three lead changes with winner Brad Keselowski leading 446 of the 500 laps, Chase Elliott, the runner-up, leading 49, and Joey Logano leading five. In fact, NASCAR’s loop data recorded 978 green flag passes, about 2.2 per green flag lap.
In 2017, the race featured 18 lead changes, a 500% increase over 2019! While Keselowski and Kyle Busch lead the majority of the race, Elliott led 20 laps, Martin Truex Jr. led 42, Kyle Larson led 23, and Denny Hamlin led 24. Green flag passes? 1,614, averaging 4.0 per lap. That is about an 82.8% increase over 2019.
How about on a road course? Let’s look at Sonoma. In 2019, there were only seven lead changes in the race. Truex led 59 of the 110 laps, with William Byron adding 21 laps after starting on the front row. The loop data recorded green flag passes at 2,035, or roughly 24.2 per green flag lap.
In 2017, the lead changes were nearly doubled at 13, with the green flag pass total sitting at 3,409, about 34.8 per green flag lap. Truex led the most laps, but he only led 25. Not far behind was race winner Kevin Harvick at 24, Keselowski at 17, Jimmie Johnson at 12, and Hamlin at 11.
What else?
More drivers giving positive reviews of the package
I’m looking at you here, Kyle Busch.
Last year’s high downforce and 550 horsepower package at nearly all the short ovals and the speedway tracks resulted in some criticism, and that criticism was well-documented and quite frequent throughout the course of the season.
Even the eventual champion disapproved of it.
When asked about heading to Richmond Raceway in his controversial post-race media scrum at Las Vegas Motor Speedway back in September, he was not looking forward to racing at the track, stating that you “[couldn’t] pass there”.
He even refused to discussed questions about the package after his win — not a second place finish or 10th place finish or anything like that — at Pocono Raceway back in June when he was asked to rate the package at a speedway track such as the “Tricky Triangle”.
Maybe last year’s package was even a factor in why Busch didn’t show that much emotion after winning the 2019 Cup Series championship, unlike after he won his maiden title in 2015.
From tweets that I’ve seen, drivers, crew chiefs and analysts are pumped for what could and should be a tougher car to handle.
YESSSSSS YESSSS THANK YOU!! This is the best news...can’t wait!! https://t.co/yCOnLnBJuo
— Matt DiBenedetto (@mattdracing) January 14, 2020
Appreciate all the folks that came together to make these necessary changes. Lots of compromise for the good of the sport. Im certain the drivers and fans are thrilled to hear this news. https://t.co/XFp2PfpgJC
— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) January 14, 2020
https://twitter.com/RodneyChilders4/status/1217119114034143234?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1217119114034143234&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fftw.usatoday.com%2F2020%2F01%2Fnascar-new-rules-package-2020-short-track-road-spoiler
If stakeholders are happy about the package, the fans will be happy about the package, and it will be a win-win situation.
Phoenix Raceway championship the most competitive in years?
The changes to this package likely came due to the 2020 schedule realignment, which saw Phoenix Raceway named the track that will hold this year’s championship race for the first time in its history.
Following the short track racing that provided mixed to negative reactions from fans in 2019, NASCAR began looking into changing up the short track package, first reported through Adam Stern of Sports Business Journal back in December.
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The comparison here definitely deserves its own section. However, instead of looking at the November race at the track in 2017, I will be looking at the November race there in 2018, as the 2017 season used a former track configuration and the results were near the same.
Last year’s penultimate race featured eight lead changes and 1,335 green flag passes, about 4.8 per green flag lap. In that race, Denny Hamlin led 143 of the 312 laps, Joey Logano led 93 and Kyle Busch led 69.
In 2018, there were 15 lead changes. Make note of the fact that lead changes are going to be huge with this new package, and that will be magnified specifically at Phoenix Raceway considering the fact that it is now the host of the championship race. Every year since the advent of the Championship 4 in 2014, the champion has been the winner of the season finale.
Are you excited for the low downforce package to return at the short ovals and road courses? What are you expecting that I didn’t mention?
The 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season is scheduled to kick off on Sunday, February 16 with the 62nd running of the Daytona 500. Fox is set to broadcast this race live from Daytona International Speedway beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET.