Nascar begins its revolution

After eight years of good and loyal service, the Gen 6 of the Nascar will bow out at the end of the year. The management of the American championship plans to implement the “Next Gen” from next year. Tests of this new frame, the information of which is delivered in dribs and drabs, have already begun.

Communication is both feverish and careful, as the stakes are so high. The organizers are indeed making a big bet with the Gen 7 since this car has a clear ambition: to redefine the bases of the ancestral discipline of American motor sports to ensure its future. It was last October that Nascar vice-president of innovation John Probst confirmed the project, which had been underway for two years.

“This is an important step for the future of Nascar racing, he announced. We will have many new systems and a very precise testing program. » Losing momentum with audiences showing a more than worrying decline, the discipline must reinvent itself and can no longer be satisfied with supposed technical developments. “optimize fights on the track” et “give back pride to piloting”.

The first objective is to increase revenue by attracting new manufacturers. Since the departure of Dodge at the end of the 2012 campaign, the championship has only been based on three brands with Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota, and the organizers lost their serenity.

Hybrid in Nascar?

Except that the “reactionary” image of Nascar and its public undermines its ambitions. United States President Donald Trump may be a climate skeptic, but manufacturers must offer less energy-consuming solutions, with the days of the good big V8 now being numbered on the market.

The Next Gen would therefore swap the 8-cylinder in favor of a V6 more popular on assembly lines. Honda would be at the top of the list among the brands considering making their entry, however other manufacturers established across the Atlantic such as Hyundai, Mercedes or the Volkswagen Group could also come and try their luck.

The main question concerns the hybrid, which will certainly make its arrival in the Nascar series in the years to come, perhaps as early as next year, but more probably by 2023. Hybrid in Nascar? The fear of a majority of fans, who do not want to see their championship fall into political correctness. However, this SREC (kinetic energy recovery) type system would certainly be used as the "push-to-pass" of theIndyCar, and would therefore be intended to encourage overtaking.

You still need to be able to recharge it, as the ovals do not offer any real braking phases. This is where the gearbox comes in. The old 4-speed H-shaped gearbox would be shelved in favor of a 6-speed sequential lever gearbox which would force drivers to downshift more, including on banking. The brakes should therefore be reinforced – hybrid system required! – which would involve the adoption of 18-inch wheels, which will replace the 15-inch ones.

This change is one of the only ones, among all those listed so far, which has been confirmed by Nascar. If Goodyear must always be the sole tire manufacturer in the series, its products will be completely new, since they have narrow sidewalls. Pit stops will also be disrupted due to the fact that there will only be one nut – central – to unscrew compared to 5 in the past. Will this sound the death knell for the superb ballets of mechanics that make the discipline so charming?

“Having made this choice of tire size, we evaluated the different options for the nuts, with the obligation of ensuring that the wheel was properly secured, defends John Probst. And the single nut appeared to be the best solution. The choreography of the stops, on the other hand, will not change. They will definitely be a little shorter next year, but there won't be a significant difference. We will still have the same number of mechanics on the wall and the rules will be similar. »

These upheavals will, moreover, force the leading teams that have been in place for decades to start from scratch, and will therefore offer their more modest rivals the opportunity to catch up.

Convinced pilots

Like all other organizers, Nascar must avoid falling into the trap of the arms race and soaring costs. Officials plan to use many standard elements. The chassis would become identical with an exclusive supplier which could be Dallara. The Italian manufacturer is already well established in the territory as it has supplied IndyCar chassis for many years and designs the Cadillac DPi-V monocoques. R in IMSA.

The first three prototypes made by Richard Childress Racing have already completed tests with Joey Logano and Erik Jones in Phoenix (Arizona) as well as at Homestead-Miami (Florida). “The car does not turn itself into the correct direction of travel, explained the 2018 champion. Things are more in the hands of the driver and I like that. The car will be more difficult to tame, but I think we could see more mistakes and I expect more indecisive races with more overtaking possibilities. »

William Byron added grist to the mill during a test session carried out at the beginning of March at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana (California) by hitting the wall after a spin, an incident which disrupted the program, although the test car was able to cover 150 laps of the 2-mile oval. If the drivers seem convinced of the benefits of this total overhaul of their bike, what will the fans think?

In any case, Nascar is doing everything possible to get out of the impasse into which it is finding itself, by turning towards a more consensual platform which could involve a new calendar with "doubleheaders" (two races per race). weekend), shorter events and more road circuits.

 The shift will undoubtedly be difficult to negotiate, but the governing bodies no longer have a choice. Audiences fell by half in the space of 15 years, when the discipline had reached its peak. The Nascar of tomorrow will certainly have nothing to do with the races of alcohol dealers during the prohibition from which it originated, but the Americans have this particular talent of keeping the myth alive through the ages, so let's trust them.