After opting to not run the 2016 aero package during last year’s Sprint All-Star Race, choosing to run it at Kentucky Speedway and Darlington Raceway instead.
However, 2016’s exhibition will be different. NASCAR has introduced an aero package that will help eliminate side force in an attempt to help generate more passing. Additionally, the new rules package will also show a decrease in downforce, a change drivers pleaded for entering the 2016 season.
The changes for the All-Star Race will be evaluated after the event in an attempt to gather data for the 2017 rules package.
Gene Stefanyshyn, NASCAR senior vice president of innovation and racing development, said that NASCAR has addressed multiple areas.
NASCAR has stopped teams from using electric fans for the rest of the season. The fans were used to help create downforce on the racecars as teams began to spend more money to find loopholes in the rules.
“[It’s] a good efficiency improvement as far as managing or attenuating some costs, and it also gave us a downforce reduction,” Stefanyshyn said about the fans. “So it was a win-win. Some of those fans were driving things like bigger fans, bigger alternators, bigger batteries … that kind of thing.”
The rear toe alignment will be adjusted in an attempt to take out the skew of the racecar, which helps drivers turn better in addition to an advantage with side force. The change will see teams start the Sprint All-Star Race with a zero-degree rear skew, with an increase of 0.25 degrees enabled come post-race inspection.
According to ESPN’s Bob Pockrass: “The current rule requires 0.3 degrees rear skew difference in the wheel alignment from the right side to the left side of the car at the start of the race and a maximum of 0.74 degrees after the race.”
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