NASCAR informed teams Sept. 7 of rule changes ahead of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway to address fires from the previous weekend’s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
After fires that occurred on the cars of JJ Yeley and Kevin Harvick, NASCAR has permitted the use of intumescent coatings for the underside of the lower crush panels to help provide fire protection for the steel components.
Also in the rule changes are a mandate on steel/dam installed between the back of the front clip weight box and the top of the splitter panel to help mitigate tire debris as well as maximization of clearance between the exhaust and the floor of the rocker bar.
Instructions on trimming of the back stop panel were also included.
A spokesperson for NASCAR said these changes were follow-ups to a first-step exhaust update put in place at Richmond to address issues at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
Why don’t they just try to get some of the exhaust heat out from under the car instead of increasing the fire retarding? They keep putting pinky bandages on a shotgun blast to the stomach and won’t admit to their design flaws. It should be, “Back to the drawing board!”
I suspect you are correct but back to the drawing board will be a December January project.
It seems they are back to the drawing board every week to make “rule” changes.
It’s like, “Oh crap! What can we try now?”