The month of February 2022 marks the start of NASCAR’s 74th season. The Cup Series, NASCAR’s preeminent class of stock car racing will be a heck of a lot different in this coming season than in its most recent past. There are adjustments to the schedule, of course, but even more changes to the competition.
For starters, there’s a brand new NextGen race car that marks the seventh version of NASCAR’s premier class of racing. While every advancement in stock car racing – or in racing in general – is a technological improvement over the car that came before, the NextGen has as its focus manufacturer identification, enhanced aerodynamics and raceability in close quarters. Teams have been testing the NextGen throughout the past year and are prepping to go to competition.
The first time fans can see the new Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota NASCAR Cup Series NextGen cars in true action, fighting fender-to-fender is at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on February 5-6, racing on a quarter-mile dirt track that is being prepped as we type this. It’ll be the shortest racetrack on the 2022 docket.
This newest NASCAR Cup Series car might look different from the previous generation, and that’s only the beginning of the changes. No longer will the cars use a 750-horsepower engine, an H-pattern shifter, no longer will five lug nuts be counted by NASCAR officials and even centered numbers on the doors are changing. The new car, aerodynamically more efficient, should keep the 670-horsepower V-8 engines producing similar horsepower, while drivers work with sequential shifters, crews service four wheels with single center-lock wheel nuts and fans access car numbers on the front fenders, just behind the wheel wells.
That’s only the beginning. NASCAR has decreed rack and pinion steering to replace the ancient recirculating ball type, while the independent rear suspension is causing drivers to relearn how to twist a car into a corner, replacing the archaic full floating rear axle suspension that had its start in the 1950s! This new NextGen NASCAR Cup Series car is in line with what its three manufacturing partners sell on their lots, which makes the old adage, “Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday” even more applicable.
As teams prepare for the Busch Lite Clash at the Coliseum’s two-day run, the race sponsor’s Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 entry for Kevin Harvick has already announced its colors for the event. And that team, thinking ahead and looking at the difficulties other sports have had with regard to COVID-19 issues that have caused athletes to miss competition, decided to hire a reserve driver who will also perform simulator work to help SHR fully develop its NextGen Ford Mustang racecar. Ryan Preece will be the default driver if any of SHR’s full-time drivers are unable to compete due to COVID-19 infection or for any other unforeseen circumstance.
Preece is scheduled to race 12 times during the 2022 NASCAR season, twice in the Cup Series (Dover and Charlotte in May), three times in Xfinity (Richmond in April, Charlotte in May at Nashville June 25) and in seven Truck Series races (Las Vegas and Atlanta in March, May 6 at Darlington, May 20 in Texas, Nashville June 24 and September 9th at Kansas) with David Gilliland Racing, a technical alliance partner to SHR.
Preece has spent the last two season racing full-time in the Cup Series, but understands this situation “is a unique setup, but I feel like it provides me with the best opportunity to win races and contribute to a championship-caliber team, which expanding my racing experience,” Preece said. SHR’s vice-president of competition, Greg Zipadelli believes Preece’s “added insights and time in the simulator will make us better by allowing us to learn faster.”
it will be interesting to see if other teams decide to hire a “reserve” racer in case one of their full-season drivers becomes a victim of the current pandemic. To this writer, it appears a smart move on SHR’s part.
NASCAR SUCKS !