For the past few years, NASCAR has moved the second race at Daytona International Speedway from the Fourth of July weekend to August to end the regular season. Formerly known as the Firecracker 400, the race is now the Coke Zero 400.
As that race approaches on August 29, NASCAR has made some rule changes…
The rear spoiler is being shortened from seven inches to four inches.
The intention is to reduce the drag on the car.
The horsepower is begin reduced from 510 to 465 to adjust for a reduction in downforce.
NASCAR officials say that single-car runs will be approximately three miles faster but cars running in packs will be running about the same speeds. NASCAR is looking to increase passing and cut down on what Dale Earnhardt used to call a 200 mile an hour freight train.
At the moment, the changes are limited to the 2026 Coke Zero 400; but may be altered to additional tracks at a later date.
Denny Hamlin – driver of the Joe Gibbs Racing number eleven car and co-owner of 23XL Racing – was a part of the panel who worked on the changes spoke of the rule change saying, “what we’re essentially trying to recreate is Atlanta at Daytona and Talladega. It happens organically at Atlanta, the space between the cars, because the cars themselves are grip-limited, and the fuel-mileage (racing) really doesn’t happen because you have to be on offense constantly. If you watch the pack, there is no saving. Guys are dicing it up the entire race. So this is what we’re aspiring to get to at some point. And it’s going to take chunks here and there. This is our first bite of the apple at this, so what I believe is that from the numbers that I’ve seen, it’s going to be roughly a 33% gain in the right direction.”
Former crew chief and current broadcaster Steve Letarte added, “when I watch superspeedway racing currently, it seems like the leader is basically at terminal velocity. It’s very easy to get a run on the leader and very hard to do anything with it. You pull out of line, you hit this wall of air, and for that reason, they’re just kind of stuck two-wide around the bottom. When superspeedway racing is most entertaining for me, it takes more work to generate an advantage or a run. But when you do generate that run, you are paid off in a dividend of overtaking. And really, I think it’s as simple as that.”
He continued, “I think what I see currently is our biggest track-position races of the year are the superspeedways. That’s never been their signature. And we can talk about fuel and strategy, but the garage is going to try to win the race. So if the strategy demands track position, they’re going to do everything to get it. If the aero changes can allow teams to overtake to have faster cars and slower cars, I think it could open up the field a little bit and have just varying-speed cars because right now they all look like they run the same speed.”
Denny Hamlin added, “as you’ve seen with NASCAR over the last few years, since the Next Gen, they’re not afraid to just keep fine-tuning it and getting it good at all these race tracks. We’ve seen them make some horsepower adjustments on the short tracks in order to make those and road courses race better. Intermediates obviously speak for themselves; they don’t need a whole lot with how well the Next Gen races there. But then the next step is OK, let’s work on our superspeedway package from here on out. So I think that this was a great collaborative effort to get the racing product as good as it can be for the fans.”
Steve Letarte noted, “the unfortunate or fortunate part is our season kicks off with the biggest race of the year, the Daytona 500. And I believe that our car cycles, our rules cycles, are not the same. Everything doesn’t happen in the winter for another upcoming season. So I actually think this is the appropriate cycle for speedway racing. You have to remember, there’s no more win and you’re in. The Chase is about accumulating points. You’ve had 25 other races to score enough points to go down there with the unknown of what this race is going to be. We have a speedway race in The Chase that I think will be tough to then try something brand new. So I actually believe that this is the correct cycle. I think Daytona in August becomes a great test bed for then the ‘Great American Race’ in February.”
NASCAR Event Management president John Probst spoke on the changes saying, “we want to react quickly. You know, Steve O’Donnell, our new CEO, is on us all the time to get the feedback and react on the feedback as quick as we can. And I think that working with Denny and the working group there, we made changes that we felt had the highest potential to make a big change, but with the lowest risk as well. Like, we didn’t pull every lever that we could because some of those would frankly require us to get 15 cars down to Daytona and try some more radical stuff. We’re not against doing that, but that certainly would affect the timing in which you unroll that level of a change for. So we got that group together. I feel like everybody in there brought their opinion and provided really good feedback. And I think that where we landed is the biggest change we feel like we can make without doing a full-blown test.”
Denny Hamlin spoke on the drivers in the cars saying, “I can tell you from the driver’s seat what happens for us is that we spend the entire race fuel-mileage saving all for that last pit stop. We basically know you have to be in the top four inside that last fuel window, unless there’s a big wreck, to have a shot at winning. I mean, if you come out 10th, you are log-jammed; you’re not going anywhere. And with the cars having as much drag as they have on them, then you can’t pull out of line to be offensive to get your track position back.”
He continued, “so we’re trying to make it to where it allows the drivers to pull out of line when they get a run, and then hopefully create a little bit of space between them to allow them to get back in line, so it’s not going to make them so apprehensive to go make that bold move with 30 to go.”